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     Current Issue Highlights Highlights Archive             Get to know your Business Agent today!  Find out how the union makes a difference on the job. |
Newsline: June 2000 JACOBI HPO SNARES FUGITIVE DRUG DEALER Felix Suya, a 26-year-old drug dealer and thief, won't be breathing the air of freedom for at least 19 years, and he owes his time behind bars to a veteran Hospital Police Officer who ignored the danger to himself and arrested him when he assaulted a doctor. HPO Ricardo James said he was on duty at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx when Suya, who had entered the hospital two days earlier ostensibly for alcohol detoxification, attacked a doctor and then tried to barricade himself in the hospital. James managed to subdue the doctor's assailant and then learned while he was processing him that Suya was being sought by the law on several charges. The officer said Suya had been arrested on two separate occasions for drug sales and had skipped out on bail while awaiting trial on the narcotics charges. "He was apparently hiding out from the police by checking into hospitals that offered alcohol abuse programs," said James, a 15 year veteran of the Hospital Police. Suya was also wanted in the assault of a Bronx woman who was robbed of her jewelry after being brutally struck from behind. In a letter of praise for James, Bronx Assistant District Attorney Michael Martinez said: "Officer James's hard work and perseverance was invaluable in securing the conviction and removal of society of a multiple felon." The prosecutor said Suya was convicted in the first case he went to trial. On the eve of the second, in which Officer James was to testify against him, the felon threw himself on the mercy of the court, Martinez said. Suya is serving a sentence that will keep him behind bars at least until 2016 and possibly until 2035. |
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