A Queens man said his Legal Aid lawyers and city jail officials left him to languish in Rikers for nearly six months — because they never informed him that his $50,000 bail had been reduced to just $1.
Aitabdellah Salem, who was arrested in 2014 for stealing a coat from Zara on Fifth Avenue, is now suing in Manhattan federal court.
The suit, filed Monday, says a couple of New York state judges lowered his $50,000 bail within days of his November 2014 arrest. But Salem’s Legal Aid lawyers never told him — nor did any Rikers officials, according to the Manhattan federal lawsuit.
Salem, who is currently serving time in state prison tied to the theft, only discovered he could have been freed in less than a week’s time after he was finally released from Rikers in April 2015, more than a hundred days too late, the lawsuit said.
He was only released because a kind prison chaplain fronted the $1 in bail money, the lawsuit claims.
Salem is suing his Legal Aid Society lawyers, former DOC commissioner Joe Ponte and Rikers Island for “unlawful incarceration and restraint of liberty” as well as “psychological injuries sustained” from his imprisonment.
“We will review the claims once we receive the suit,” a spokesman for the Law Department told The Post.
The Legal Aid Society didn’t return a request for comment.
Salem’s lawyer, Welton Wisham, said he fears his client is not alone and plans to find out if other people have also been kept in Rikers long after judges lowered their bail or ordered their release.
“There may just well be others, but I have to get discovery to prove that,” Wisham said.