Armor medical officials apologize for ignoring judge’s order

Officials from the Nassau County jail’s private medical provider apologized to a judge Thursday for ignoring a previous order to appear in court to address claims that a potentially violent mentally ill inmate wasn’t getting proper medications.

On Monday, acting State Supreme Court Justice Jerald Carter in Mineola signed an order telling Armor Correctional Health Services to appear in court Tuesday to respond to questions about the care of inmate Adetayo Dademade, 37, of Elmont.

Dademade faces strangulation and assault charges from a 2014 incident in Nassau University Medical Center’s psychiatric ward and had been in the custody of Connecticut correction officials before he was brought to Nassau’s jail May 6, court records show.

Dademade told Carter during his Monday arraignment he’d only been getting Tylenol — not the drugs he’d been getting in Connecticut custody as a mental health patient, records show.

Carter then signed an order at the request of Dademade’s attorney, Christopher Lynch, telling Armor to explain in court why he shouldn’t compel Armor to stick to the former drug regimen. No Armor representative showed up.

After the judge threatened to hold Armor in contempt if company officials didn’t show up again, Armor attorney David Lafarga told the judge Thursday that skipping court was “an oversight on our part.” He also apologized “for any inconvenience it may have caused.”

Armor official Jacqueline Grant, a company administrator and nurse, told Carter she “did not know what it was” when she got the court order, and assumed it was part of other paperwork for the inmate. “Excuse my ignorance,” Grant told the judge.

Ronald Longo, Armor’s mental health director at the jail, told Carter that Dademade now was back to his old drug regimen.

Lafarga told the judge Armor wrote an order for those drugs about noon Monday, and that the inmate had only told jail medical officials he was on blood pressure medication.

Carter said he sent a list of Dademade’s medications to the jail after the man’s arraignment, and Lafarga agreed Armor officials then contacted Connecticut officials and made treatment changes.

Lafarga declined to comment after court and Grant walked out holding a handbag in front of her face.

Newsday photographer Howard Schnapp said Grant then swung her handbag as he took her picture, hitting him the head.

An Armor spokeswoman said later that Grant “appears to be fine” and accused Schnapp of “aggressive and assaultive behavior ... as witnessed by multiple individuals.”

She said Dademade was getting appropriate care and Carter was satisfied it had been “coordinated with his previous provider.”