SENTENCE, CRIME: JANUARY 26, 2026…860 DAYS AFTER MY ASSAULT
860 days after I was stabbed by a person with whom I had never talked, and with whom I never will.
The assault was perpetrated on September 19, 2023 at about 6:00 PM in Mt Vernon, north of the Bronx, in New York State. It was sunny. My left radial nerve was completely severed. Had I not been quick to tie a tourniquet, I might have bled to death.
After being hospitalized, I had urgent surgery to reconnect the two segments – only possible because Dr Sokol was in the hospital that day. I was left with severe palsy, rehabilitation and occupational therapy, losing opportunities for jobs and projects, losing my left hand. If Dr Sokol had not been at that very hospital on that very day, I might have lost the use of my left hand permanently.
It took 848 days to hear a sentence dictated by Hon. Melissa Loehr, Judge of Westchester NY. Equal to 28 months, 1 week and 1 day, or equal to 20,352 hours, or to three consecutive pregnancies. This was the length of time that I waited around observing how my life deteriorated, while the creator of that scene on Sept 19, 2023, was free from the day of our encounter to the sentence.
I became handicapped, jobless, and poor. I was considered a witness to my own crime – the victim has only that role in the justice in NY State. Most attorneys I contacted preferred to represent defendants.“””Sentence: The People of New York State against Ibrahim Stevens: 2 years State Prison, 1,5 years Post Release Supervision, $6,000 Restitution Judgement Order.”””” The sentenced person will be paying at a rate of 7 dollars and 8 cents per day of work done while he was granted freedom.
I published an interesting article on how justice was applied in my case.
RESILIENCE, ENDURANCE, STRENGTH
The estimated number of professional musicians in the world ranges from 500,000 to 3,000,000 people. The approximate population of the planet is 8,320,000.000.
Thus we are about 0.006 to 0.036 of the world population, quite a small minority. How many musicians are there who work as conductors *and* pianists? The number is, logically, lower than those percentages. We musicians use our hands with a very high degree of dexterity, skill, and sophistication. One of the few professions where the loss of a hand is career-ending, as I was told by some doctors.
We should assume that not many people will understand or perceive our monumental fall, when a hand is not responding properly. The cannot be inside us, inside our frustration when hand, arm, palm,, fingers are not responding as they always did.
In the first gig I was offered (guest conducting), I felt so much pain (arm, shoulder) that at times I felt I would have to stop conducting. At times I had difficulties to turn pages, as my thumb and index fingers were not responding. More tingling, weakness, numbness while working marked my rehearsals, and performances (ballet, opera, and concerts) during the first 18 months. It was excruciating.Now I can say that I am winning the battle. Those symptoms are almost gone; I felt much freer during my last concert with the Baltimore Symphony. And I keep working at therapy, now in Gioia del Colle, Puglia, Italy, with a wonderful team led by Dr. Bellacicco.
During this whole period, through the frustration and mistreatment, the feeling of being stranded, I tried to maintain the fiercest energy to get back to what I was before, to improve myself, and to strive for new goals. Those objectives kept me alive and filled with energy. My brain has always been unaffected; I was able to work on my own terms to recreate myself as the person I wanted to be when I was a child.
Dr Lara also gave me a little statue of Elton John (I love his music, and his piano playing), his glasses and his red piano. The little statue observed my therapy for months…. and accompanied me trying to play my keyboard in Ecuador. Dr Lara was the first professional who could make my wrist come back to life. I would like to give my biggest thanks to him and his team.