STATEN ISLAND — The family of a Brooklyn woman who died inside a police holding cell after being revived from a drug overdose will sue the city to get information about her death.
Nicole Garbellotto, 34, was found passed out behind the wheel of a car near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and later died inside a holding cell at the NYPD's 120th Precinct on Dec. 8, police said.
Her family claims the city hasn't given any details about her death and they plan to file a lawsuit Thursday to demand that evidence in the case be turned over, the New York Daily News first reported.
"Right now, they haven’t been told anything," the family's lawyer, David Rankin, said.
"We need to understand what it is that happened and the family deserves to know that."
Triborough Bridge and Tunnel officers found Garbellotto, of Gravesend, Brooklyn, passed out in the driver's seat near the toll plaza of the bridge about 6 p.m. on Dec. 7, the MTA previously said.
EMS gave Garbellotto the anti-overdose drug Naloxone and took her to Staten Island University Hospital where she was treated, officials said.
She was charged with driving while intoxicated and operation of a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs and taken to a holding cell in the 120th Precinct, police said.
Officers found her unconscious in the cell on Dec. 8 about 4:35 a.m. and she was taken back to Richmond University Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.
"On information and belief, Ms. Garbellotto was killed by the respondents' failure to address her obvious medical needs, despite their obligation to do so," Rankin wrote in the suit.
An autopsy carried out the next day was inconclusive, the News reported.
The suit, being filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, asks a judge to order the city, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and both hospitals to preserve any documents associated with the investigation of Garbellotto's death.
It's the first step towards the family pursuing a wrongful-death suit against the city in the future, Rankin said.
The city's Law Department did not respond to a request for comment.
