De Blasio Appears In Court In Connection With Hospital Protest Arrest
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Leading mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio had to take time out from courting voters to go to court Tuesday, appearing before a judge over his arrest at a hospital protest.
De Blasio, City Councilman Stephen Levin (D-33rd) and about a dozen nurses and others had their disorderly conduct cases put on track to be dismissed if they avoid rearrest for six months.
The method is a common way for Manhattan courts to resolve such cases.
De Blasio, who now serves as the city's public advocate, and the others were arrested July 10 after they ignored a police officer's order to stop blocking the entrance to a midtown Manhattan office of the State University of New York, according to a court complaint. The group was protesting the university system's plan to close Long Island College Hospital and sell its Brooklyn property, valued at up to $1 billion.
De Blasio's campaign tweeted a picture of his arrest at the time.
Video from the scene showed him being put into plastic handcuffs and then led to a nearby police van.
"We have to stop hospital closures in this city," he told reporters as he was being escorted away by police. "People are going to be much sicker in this city if we keep losing hospitals. People are going to lose their jobs. We have to fight it."
De Blasio continued to defend his actions on Tuedsay.
``Civil disobedience is something you use when the normal governmental process isn't functioning,'' de Blasio said after his appearance at a Manhattan court, where he had gotten in line outside with others facing minor charges before court officers spotted him and took him in. ``I came to the conclusion that something more dramatic had to be done to bring attention to the issue, and I'm proud to say that I think it helped bring attention to the issue.''
Disorderly conduct is a violation akin to a traffic ticket, not a crime.
A couple of weeks after the protest, de Blasio secured a court order to keep the hospital operating.
De Blasio, who is positioning himself as the most liberal candidate in a crowded Democratic field, has been arrested at protests before, including at a 2003 demonstration over the closing of a Brooklyn firehouse. He was then a city councilman.
After polling in the middle of the Democratic mayoral pack for months, de Blasio had a slight lead in one poll last week. Another poll had him tied with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
He has made hospital closings a major issue in his campaign.
Since 2000, 19 city hospitals have closed due to financial pressures, and several others are in trouble. After his own court date, de Blasio filed papers Tuesday asking a federal bankruptcy judge to halt the proposed shutdown of Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, there was further court action surrounding Long Island College Hospital -- a Brooklyn judge vacated her 2011 order approving SUNY's purchase of the hospital, saying the university system breached its commitment to operate it.
The protesters say the closures aren't healthy for communities and overtax other hospitals. Some of the demonstrators were members of health care workers' unions.
Several Democratic, Republican and independent candidates are vying to succeed term-limited independent Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The primaries are Sept. 10. The general election is Nov. 5.
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