Julian Coleman Lawsuit: AMR, Damages, and Abandonment Rule

The Julian Coleman lawsuit is a federal civil rights and wrongful death case filed by the estate of a 48-year-old Rochester, New York, man who died on December 15, 2023, roughly two weeks after EMTs removed him from an ambulance during a breathing emergency and police officers directed him to a bench, where he collapsed and lost consciousness. His son, as administrator of the estate, sued American Medical Response, the City of Rochester, two EMTs, an AMR supervisor, and four Rochester police officers in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, alleging deliberate indifference to Coleman’s medical needs under the Fourteenth Amendment and wrongful death under state law.¹

What Happened the Night of the Call

In the early morning of November 30, 2023, Coleman called 9-1-1 because he was having difficulty breathing. AMR EMTs Nicole Kuntz and Melanie Torres responded to Seneca Avenue and Norton Street and loaded him into the ambulance. According to the complaint, Coleman panicked from his inability to breathe and grabbed Kuntz’s arm. Kuntz stopped the assessment and called the Rochester Police Department.¹

Four officers arrived: Christopher Morales, Jonathan Nettnin, Adam White, and Nicholas Gifford. Body camera and street surveillance video captured the exchange. Kuntz told them, “I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but he will not get out of our truck, and he’s gotta go.” Morales ordered Coleman out of the ambulance. Coleman pleaded that he could not breathe and needed to go to the hospital. The officer, on body camera, replied: “I hear ya…probably would try to control myself a little bit better. I’m not gonna grab on anybody, you know what I mean?”² The complaint describes Coleman at that point as “docile and hardly able to climb out of the ambulance on his own.”

Officers directed him to sit on a nearby bench and wait for a different ambulance. AMR supervisor Gregory Smith arrived around the same time. Less than a minute after leaving the ambulance, Coleman collapsed. He lay motionless on the sidewalk for roughly three minutes while the EMTs, the supervisor, and the four officers stood by without providing medical care. Officer Nettnin eventually shone a flashlight on him and noticed blood coming from his mouth. Smith then determined Coleman was in cardiopulmonary arrest and began resuscitation.¹

How He Died

Coleman reached Rochester General Hospital shortly before 3:00 AM in critical condition. Blood work showed severe hypoxia, elevated carbon dioxide, sharply reduced blood pH, and signs of metabolic and respiratory acidosis. A CT scan showed early anoxic brain injury; an MRI on December 4 confirmed permanent, irreversible brain damage from oxygen deprivation.¹ He never regained consciousness and remained on mechanical ventilation until life support was withdrawn. He died on December 15, 2023.³

The family’s attorney, Stephen G. Schwarz of Faraci Lange, put the medical theory of the case plainly: “We feel extremely confident that the medicine is very straightforward here that he died because he was deprived of oxygen. If he had been given oxygen in the ambulance, he never would have even lost consciousness.”⁴

The Claims, Defendants, and Damages

Julian D. Green, one of Coleman’s four surviving children, was appointed limited administrator of the estate by the Monroe County Surrogate’s Court in February 2024 and filed the suit as Case No. 6:24-cv-6404. The defendants are AMR (formally National Ambulance and Oxygen Service, Inc.), the City of Rochester, EMTs Kuntz and Torres, supervisor Smith, and officers Morales, Nettnin, White, and Gifford.¹⁵

The complaint raises five counts:

Count One: a Section 1983 claim against the four officers for violating the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause through deliberate indifference to Coleman’s medical needs.
Count Two: a Section 1983 claim against AMR, Kuntz, Torres, and Smith for refusing to provide medical care or transport, also under a Fourteenth Amendment deliberate-indifference theory.
Count Three: New York state claims for negligence, gross negligence, and wrongful death against the AMR defendants.
Count Four: negligent hiring and retention against AMR.
Count Five: negligence, gross negligence, and wrongful death against the City of Rochester and the officers.¹

The estate seeks compensatory damages for Coleman’s pain and suffering before death and for the financial loss to his children, loss-of-life damages, punitive damages against all individual defendants and AMR, and attorneys’ fees.¹

Where the Case Stands

The case is in discovery, with a deadline for completing discovery set for May 15, 2026.⁶ The City of Rochester and AMR have declined to comment on the pending litigation. No criminal charges against any of the EMTs or officers involved have been publicly reported.³

Discipline and Investigations

The city and AMR conducted separate internal reviews. AMR fired one of the EMTs involved within three months of Coleman’s death. Two other AMR employees received remedial training and other corrective action. The officers involved underwent additional training after the city’s investigation.³⁵

AMR also asked the New York State Department of Health Bureau of EMS and Trauma Systems for an outside review. That investigation was still open as of mid-2026.⁵

New York’s Patient Abandonment Rule

The EMT claims lean on state regulation. Under 10 NYCRR Part 800, “patient abandonment” is the willful termination of patient contact before delivering the patient for medical evaluation or treatment.⁷ State training materials say an EMT “should never make an independent decision to not transport” a patient.⁸

Providers can retreat from a scene they judge unsafe, and statewide protocols require a scene safety assessment. The complaint’s response is that the scene was not unsafe: Coleman was in acute medical distress, not a genuine threat, and calling police instead of giving him oxygen was abandonment of a dying patient.¹

The City’s Contract With AMR

Coleman’s death drew attention to Rochester’s ambulance contract with AMR. In mid-2024, the city administration proposed a two-year extension that would have waived roughly $1.8 million in fines AMR had accumulated for missed performance standards. The proposal would also have shifted enforcement from per-call penalties to a zone-wide performance evaluation. Deputy Corporation Counsel Stephanie Prince argued that per-call penalties “haven’t had any sort of positive impact on response time.” The proposed contract included an “equitable treatment” clause but no financial penalty for violating it, meaning the city would have had to bring a full breach-of-contract suit to enforce it.⁹

City Council President Miguel Meléndez said, “I don’t want the city to give away too much,” and pledged close review. Mayor Malik Evans had earlier called for an investigation of AMR, saying, “We must get to the bottom of this. We must understand how and why this occurred. And we must identify processes and safeguards to ensure that this does not ever happen again.”⁹

1
NPR Brightspot CDN. Coleman v. AMR Complaint
2
Miami Herald. Family of Rochester Man Who Died After Being Ordered Off Ambulance Files Lawsuit
3
Spectrum News. Family of Man Kicked Out of Ambulance Speaks Out on Anniversary of His Death
4
EMS1. Family Sues AMR After N.Y. Man Dies After Being Removed From Ambulance
5
WXXI News. Family of Man Who Died After Being Ordered Off an Ambulance Sues AMR, City
6
13WHAM. Family of Julian Coleman Marks His 50th Birthday With Vigil, Continues Fight for Justice
7
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 10 NYCRR Part 800
8
New York State Department of Health. Refusal of Care Module
9
WXXI News. Rochester Eyes New Ambulance Contract After AMR Patient Death