The widow of a man shot to death on the Brooklyn subway plans to sue the MTA for allegedly leaking photos of her husband’s crime scene. It’s a similar move to Vanessa Bryant’s lawsuit over photos of her late husband Kobe Bryant and her daughter in her helicopter crash. .
Jakeba Dockery, 42, accused MTA officials on Friday of taking a photo of her husband, Richard Henderson, 45, lying in a pool of his own blood on the Manhattan-bound No. 3 train in front of her beloved school. filed a notice of claim with the city for $28.5 million. The railroad crossing guard and her grandfather were pronounced dead at a hospital later that day, Jan. 14.
Dockery told the Post he was “heartbroken” after seeing the photo of his fatally injured spouse. “I can’t believe her husband is gone. It breaks my heart to see him bleeding his own blood.”
Henderson, a Crown Heights man who had three children and two grandchildren with Dockery, was shot in the back and shoulder while trying to break up a fight between the killer and another man over loud music. Tragically died before being shot.
Dockery learned from a friend that the photos had been “publicly disseminated on social media and other sources,” according to the notice of claim. This is a legal precursor to filing a lawsuit against the local government.
In fact, an employee who worked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for 10 years allegedly shared a photo with a friend that was sent to him by another colleague at the MTA.
Dockery plans to sue the Department of Transportation for $28.5 million. This comes after photos were released of a January 2020 helicopter crash that killed NBA legend husband Kobe Bryant, 41, and their daughter Gianna, 13. ) received compensation in 2023. Los Angeles Sheriff and Fire Department personnel were leaked.
Dockery’s notice alleges that MTA officials “took the photo while Richard Henderson was alive and lying in a pool of his own blood,” and that the photo had no “legitimate governmental purpose.” He points out that
Dockery told the Post that one of the graphic photos of Henderson was sent to her. One of the graphic photos of Mr. Henderson was taken just one day after his death. She had known Mr. Henderson for 30 years and was married to him for 20 years. She also saw the image on someone’s Instagram story, and she said she heard from others that it was also on someone else’s Facebook story.
“I was devastated,” said Dockery, a case manager for the veteran. “He was a hero and seeing him lying on the floor with his blood pumping was not a good thing for me or my children to see.
“That image is always in my head,” the widow said of her husband. For 10 years she worked as a level crossing guard at a private school in Chelsea, where the street will soon be named after her husband.
Ms Dockery said her three children, aged 15, 20 and 25, were all on social media and had seen the harrowing images.
“It was difficult for me to explain my father, who was on the train, to my own blood,” his mother said.
In fact, Dockery said her 20-year-old daughter has to take the No. 3 train to school every day.
“She was crying on the train. I don’t know what to say to her anymore,” said her mother. “It’s a trigger.”
Dockery sends her 15-year-old daughter to school by Uber, but her mother is unable to raise the funds to send her older daughter that way.
“We can’t afford to take her on an Uber every day, so she has to take that train,” Dockery explained.
“Dockery has suffered and continues to suffer severe emotional distress as a result of needlessly taking and sharing images of deceased persons who were dying or dying,” the complaint alleges.
The notice alleges that the actions of MTA officials deprived Ms. Dockery of her “substantive due process rights to control over her late husband’s body, memories, and images of his death.”
The widow said Mr. Henderson may have still been alive while bleeding on the ground because he was not declared dead until he arrived at the hospital.
“When I received the death certificate, [it said] He died at the hospital,” Dockery said. “So my husband was alive when he was there.
“He was listening to what was going on around him,” she said. “They didn’t give any help. [Instead,] They took pictures of him. ”
The legal notice alleges negligence on the part of the MTA for failing to “establish policies and procedures regarding the disposal of human remains” and for failing to properly investigate and discipline the employees who took and shared these photos. There is.
Throughout the planned lawsuit, attorneys for Dockery and her husband’s estate, Sanford Rubenstein and Mark Silian, will obtain affidavits from the MTA employees involved, including everyone who took the photos and how many photos. , he said he would be able to identify everyone. Who distributed it?
“The family of the late Kobe Bryant is seeking to resolve a lawsuit over lawmakers and firefighters sharing gruesome photos of the late Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter who died in a 2020 helicopter crash. Just as they had the right to seek damages from Los Angeles County, the family of real-life hero Richard Henderson here in New York City was denied permission by an employee to take unauthorized photos of him moments before his death. “We have the right to seek damages from the appropriate government agency for our disclosure and publication,” Rubenstein and Sirian said in a statement. post.
In February 2023, Vanessa Bryant won a huge settlement with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors after first responders took gruesome photos of the dismembered bodies of her five-time NBA champion husband and their daughter. I ended up receiving compensation.
The respondents then shared the images with Los Angeles County Sheriff and Fire Department personnel, and some of their spouses also saw the images.
Father and daughter were traveling to Gianna’s youth basketball camp, which was to be coached by the retired Los Angeles Lakers superstar. Seven other people on board the helicopter also died in the crash near Calabasas, California.
Vanessa Bryant won a $15 million jury verdict in August 2022, but her surviving daughters Natalia, 21, Bianka, 7, and Capri, 4, have no potential future. Settled for a higher amount to resolve claims.
Dockery said she believed a similar award was warranted in her case, but added: “No amount of money can bring my husband back.”
But Dockery is hopeful that he will be given some measure of justice and hopes that the legal action will bring about change at the MTA and prevent others from having to go through what he endured. He said there was.
MTA officials declined to comment Friday.
