Brooklyn prosecutors are eyeing stiff charges that carry potential prison time for the two EMTs accused of failing to help a dying, pregnant woman on their coffee break, The Post has learned.
The EMTs — Jason Green and Melisa Jackson — will likely be slapped with reckless-endangerment raps if the District Attorney’s Office determines they acted criminally in connection with the Dec. 9 deaths of Au Bon Pain worker Eutisha Rennix, 25, and her prematurely born baby, sources said.
First-degree reckless endangerment carries a maximum seven-year prison term upon conviction, while the second-degree charge calls for a one-year max.
In building their case, prosecutors are focusing on regulations that obligate EMTs to provide help to people whenever there is an emergency, sources said.
Au Bon Pain staffers have said Green, 32, and his 23-year-old girlfriend, Jackson — both of whom work as dispatchers in the same Downtown Brooklyn building as the coffee shop — refused to look at the stricken Rennix after being told she was in distress.
Sources shot down a union official’s claim that the two hadn’t treated a patient in years, saying they had recently been recertified and were more than capable of helping Rennix.
Their lawyer, Douglas Rosenthal, said, “While I cannot discuss any charges, as none have been served yet, I am confident the true facts and evidence will establish my clients acted appropriate to the best of their abilities.”
Yesterday, Rennix’s mom, Cynthia Rennix, called Green and Jackson “very inhuman and heartless.”
“They have a duty to act, and they should have acted on that duty,” the grieving mom told The Post. “I mean, if this was your own [daughter], how would you feel?”
The city Medical Examiner’s Office said it told the family it would foot the bill to have Rennix’s body exhumed and an autopsy conducted. Her mother said she hasn’t decided yet.
Before the allegations against the EMTs came to light, “she would have rested in peace, and the family would have moved on,” the mom said. “But because of new information, I don’t know where to begin.”
Jeff Samerson, an executive with EMS Union Local 2507, yesterday resigned after members blasted him for coming to the defense of Green and Jackson Monday, when he told reporters the pair “have not had patient contact in years.”
Later, he changed his tune, saying, “I think they should be fired. They had a duty to act, and they didn’t.”
Additional reporting by Ginger Adams Otis, Christina Carrega and Amber Sutherland