A recently released Rikers inmate who twice used a jailhouse phone to chat with Mayor Bill de Blasio about prison conditions filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Department of Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann — and then unsuccessfully tried to serve her the papers in person.
Winston Nguyen showed up to a DOC board meeting in lower Manhattan to attempt to serve the Article 78 suit, which alleges that Brann failed in her duties as commissioner by doing things like not giving socks to inmates and censoring newspapers that prisoners read.
“The commissioner is acting beyond her legal authority,” Nguyen, clad in a white linen suit, told the board as a female pal tried to physically serve Brann with the papers Nguyen filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“I was going to serve the papers in a moment, but I realized I couldn’t do it personally so I brought a friend,” Nguyen said.
The friend’s attempt was quickly thwarted by city lawyer Heidi Grossman, who told Nguyen that he wasn’t following the proper protocol by trying to serve the suit to Brann.
Nguyen — a home health aide who was behind bars from Jan. 10 to May 8 for stealing over $300,000 from an elderly couple and using the cash to buy ballet tickets and a trip to Florida — alleged in the suit that the DOC “does not provide undergarments or socks to all prisoners.”
He also alleged that “many” new jailbirds “are not given a blanket upon admission” and alleged a lack of clean bedding, a lack of on-site word processors, and “failure [by the DOC] to deliver mail within an acceptable window of time.”
Nguyen, a former “Jeopardy!” contestant, also claimed in the suit that the DOC censored news articles, removing clips about changes to laws regarding cash bail and those that mention politicians, including Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“I’m asking the board to use whatever power they can to find out why the staff at Rikers is censoring newspapers, especially [since] they have reporting that could directly affect people that are currently in jail,” Nguyen told the board during a public comment period.
Nguyen noted that while locked up, he “received the New York Times every day and read it, and nothing was ever removed and nothing is ever removed from the Spanish newspapers.”
A spokesman for the city Law Department said the agency will “review the lawsuit and respond in the litigation.”
Nguyen later told The Post that if he were the DOC commissioner, he “would be embarrassed” if “my inmates weren’t getting socks and underwear.”