A woman who was violently shoved into a metal pole in the New York City subway last year is suing the state transit agency for lack of security as subway incidents and overall crime in the Big Apple continue to rise.
Ruth Leon-Villegas, 56, broke her neck and required stitches on her head after Matthew Montanez, who has a history of mental illness, pushed her into a metal pole in December of last year.
She fell on the platform floor as onlookers snapped photos and did nothing to help her, she recalls.
She's suing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for negligence and asking for unspecified damages, according to the New York Post.
MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said the agency 'intends to vigorously defend against this lawsuit, which appears to be without merit.'
Ruth Leon-Villegas, 56, broke her neck after a stranger shoved her into a metal subway pole last December. She is suing the MTA for negligence and asking for unspecified damages
Villegas said that Matthew Montanez stood above her 'watching me, expressionless' until he was arrested, above. He is known to hear voices and go off his medication, police say
The lawsuit also names Montanez and says he 'maliciously attacked her causing serious and permanent injuries,' according to court documents.
Villegas had moved to New York from Venezuela three years before last year's attack, according to the New York Daily News.
She was on her way home from work when she saw Montanez singing loudly on the F train platform at the West 4th Street-Washington Square station in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan.
'I saw him, I didn’t like the look of him so I moved away. A lot of people also moved away,' told the Daily News.
'[When] the train came, and when I went to get onto the train, he jumped on top of me and hit me into the metal pole,' Leon-Villegas said.
'I was unconscious for a few seconds. And I was really nervous, because I was like, "I can’t stay unconscious, I’m alone, I have to be able to call someone.'"
'So I came back to
