A man who spent three nights awaiting arraignment inside Brooklyn Criminal Court apparently died in his holding cell, cops said.
Soso Ramishvili was found dead at 8:25 a.m. Friday, police said, just an hour before he was supposed to appear in front of a judge.
“One minute he was sitting on the floor of the cell and the next minute they noticed he was slumped over with his head on the ground. The nurses checked on him and called EMS. They performed CPR on him,” a police source told The Post.
Ramishvili, 32, was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death was not immediately known, and police are still investigating.
Court records show Ramishvili’s arraignment had been postponed six times since he was brought to the courthouse after being arrested Tuesday for shoplifting in Brooklyn.
Cops busted Ramishvili with $213 worth of stolen power tools from a Home Depot in Mill Basin, according to the source. When they searched him, they allegedly found a glassine envelope full of what they believed to be cocaine, pending testing, the source said.
He was charged with petit larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and criminal possession of a controlled substance.
While at the courthouse, Ramishvili required medical attention at least three times for drug-related health issues, according to a police source.
“He’s been back and forth to the hospital in recent days for drug withdrawals,” the source said.
Staffing issues at the city’s courthouses may have added to the scheduling issues in Ramishvili’s case, another police source said.
“They shorted all the courts by putting everyone out on the subway,” the insider said. “They don’t have enough manpower.”
In order to guard prisoners, cops working in courthouses across the city need to be able to have inmate contact — but may not be able to because of physical issues such as injury or pregnancy.
“Why do you send people who can’t have prisoner contact to the court section?” the source asked.
The Legal Aid Society and Brooklyn Defenders are demanding an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ramishvili’s death.
“This person, who should have been granted a desk appearance [ticket] and released based on the offense, languished in pain in custody for three days and was deprived of medical care despite repeated pleas from defense lawyers and other personnel to secure them needed care. This level of indifference is unconscionable,” the groups said in a joint statement about Ramishvili’s death.
New York City law requires people to be arraigned within 24 hours of their arrest unless there is a valid reason for the delay.
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