Nassau County Correctional Center is seen here in an undated...

Nassau County Correctional Center is seen here in an undated photo. Credit: Howard Schnapp

A Westbury man has filed a federal lawsuit seeking $15 million that alleges correction officers pummeled him at Nassau’s jail, leaving him with a broken jaw and nose before handcuffing him to a door with his arms spread “like Jesus.”

Eric Slutsky’s civil suit, filed Wednesday against the county, Sheriff’s Department and unnamed correction officers, also claims he didn’t get medical care until the day after the alleged beating on the night of Aug. 11, 2016. The suit says he went to Nassau University Medical Center the next day.

The 32-year-old auto mechanic was serving a short stint in the East Meadow jail on drug-related charges while struggling with an addiction problem, according to his attorney, Andrew Laufer.

The Manhattan lawyer said Thursday his client “was beaten pretty severely,” a claim he said “is substantiated by the medical records.”

“They’re trying to blame it on other prisoners, but I don’t see how that’s possible because the jail was in a lockdown,” Laufer said.

Nassau County Attorney Carnell Foskey said in a prepared statement Thursday that the county had yet to receive official notice of the lawsuit and still was in the “investigation phase” regarding the matter after previously getting a notice of Slutsky’s intent to sue.

“The county believes that in the course of this litigation the county will establish there was no wrongdoing and that Nassau’s correctional officers are hardworking professionals who provide a safe environment for all in their care,” Foskey added.

The lawsuit claims correction officers were searching Slutsky’s cell, and had handcuffed his hands behind him and told him to stand in front of his cell and face away from it.

When Slutsky momentarily turned around to watch, one of the officers hit him in the jaw, knocking him to the floor, the lawsuit says. After that, four to five correction officers kicked him in the head and body for one to two minutes, leaving him bloodied before his clothing was torn off, according to the complaint.

Two officers then took Slutsky to a hallway in his underwear and handcuffed him to a cell-like door “with his arms spread wide ‘like Jesus,’” the lawsuit claims.

Laufer said Thursday he believes his client may have been left there for about 15 minutes, not the hour or two originally alleged in the lawsuit.

The attorney said the jail’s Internal Affairs interviewed his client, but he and his client don’t know the result of the probe or if any officers were disciplined. The lawsuit claims several other inmates corroborated Slutsky’s version of events.

A winemaker. A jockey. An astronaut. We’re celebrating Women’s History month with a look at these and more female changemakers and trailblazers with ties to long Island. 

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