Pregnant NYC nurse accused of stealing a Citi Bike from a black man who ‘paid for it,’ her lawyer says

A white Manhattan hospital worker is accused of “paying” a young black man’s Citi Bike for the two-wheeler, her lawyer said.

Justin Marino represents the pregnant Bellevue Hospital employee who was filmed in a now-viral video showing the incident.

The female hospital worker — who donned blue scrubs that read “NYC Health + Hospitals” — was seen screaming for help and accusing a black man of assault, even breaking down in tears as a crowd gathered around them.

In the video, a friend of the man can be heard defending him, saying that the woman – branded as ‘Karen’ after the video – was in fact trying to steal from him.

Marino has vehemently denied these allegations on behalf of the hospital worker, telling the New York Post they have the receipts to prove it.

The first receipt obtained by the point of sale would show the bike being taken out before being locked again a minute later, which Marino says is the bike seen in the video.

The second receipt would show another bike being removed from the same docking station a minute later — the one Marino said his client used to get home after being “berated and pressured to make a move” by the group. find a new bike.

Marino said his client is six months pregnant and was sent on furlough by NYC Health + Hospitals this week after the meeting was taped — but added that the interaction was “incomplete and facts were missing.”

He claims his client completed a 12-hour shift and got on an available bike that “no one sat or touched” who paid for it through the Citi Bike app.

“One or more individuals in that group physically pushed her bike (with her on it) back into the docking station, causing it to lock again,” Marino said in the written statement.

It is alleged that a person then covered up the bike’s QR code, preventing her from paying for it so she could leave, Marino insisted at the outlet.

“By blocking the QR code, this person’s arm touched my client’s pregnant belly, a condition she made them aware of,” he added.

During this time and throughout the rest of the video, about five individuals told her to get off the bike and harassed her.

“The fact that someone treats another like this is tragic, especially a visibly pregnant woman.”

A roughly 90-second video of the incident was posted to TikTok and Twitter showing an unidentified woman arguing with a black man outside New York City’s Bellevue Hospital near a Citi bike rack over the weekend.

One of the men’s friends tells the woman that he is recording the situation while the black man has his hand on the bicycle.

The woman then screams for help, saying, “Help! Help me! Please help me!’

But the man’s friend, off screen, tells her, “This isn’t your bike.”

The hospital worker then yells for help again, asking the black man to “please get out.”

She then takes off her hospital badge in an apparent attempt to hide her identity, as one of the men could be heard asking her, “You know you’re not getting this bike?”

The woman only screams for help again and tries to get on the rental bike, before swiping the black man’s phone.

“Why are you taking his phone?” one of the man’s friends asks the woman. ‘What is wrong with you?

“Don’t touch his phone, don’t touch his phone,” he tells the hospital worker.

She then tells the man that he is “hurting my unborn baby,” to which the black man replies, “You put your belly on my hand.”

The woman then turns and starts screaming for help again, whereupon one of her colleagues approaches.

The black man tries to explain, “This is my bike, it’s on my account,” and says to the woman, “Please go away.”

At that point, the woman can be seen seemingly crying, though the black man’s friends say they are fake tears.

She then continues to climb on the bike, hysterical with tears, as her colleague suggests they just “reset the bike.”

But the man’s friends keep defending him, saying, “It’s his, it’s his.”

One of the friends then again accuses the woman of “faking crying” and tells her to stop, while the black man asks her to “stop touching me.”

The woman then gets off the bike and apparently stops crying when she pulls out her phone.

“Not a tear has fallen, ma’am,” the friend says at the end of the video.

Per Citi Bike’s policy, anyone who leaves a bike outside for more than 45 minutes will be charged $0.17 for each additional minute and may have their account suspended.

If a customer does not return a bike within 24 hours, the account holder will be charged a lost or stolen bike fee of $1,200 plus tax.

A spokesman for the New York Police Department said it has not received any 911 calls or reports of the incident, but is aware of the video.

Meanwhile, Bellevue Hospital said in a statement that it is investigating the incident.

“We recently became aware of an incident that occurred off-campus over the weekend that appears to involve one of our employees,” it said.

“We are sorry this happened and we are looking into the incident.”

The hospital added that it is “committed to providing all New Yorkers with the highest quality of care with dignity, cultural sensitivity and compassion.”

The incident has been compared to Amy Cooper, dubbed the “Central Park Karen,” who called the police in 2020 for a black bird watcher and lost her job.

Cooper – who accused a black birdwatcher of threatening her in 2020 – lost a lawsuit against her former employer for firing her after the incident in September 2022.

At the time, she claimed she was illegally fired and falsely portrayed as a racist by New York investment house Franklin Templeton after the May 25, 2020 incident.

The following day, May 26, 2020, Franklin Templeton said in a tweet — which was liked 277,000 times — that it had conducted a legitimate investigation and “determined indisputably” that Cooper was racist and fired her.