text: Shawn Inglima for New York Daily News Rasheen Rose died at a Queens state development care facility while being restrained by workers, his family's attorney said. 
   
   A Harlem woman has been hit with a whopping $11.67 million medical bill from a state institution she says killed her mentally disabled brother. 
   
   Shaniece Luke, 39, said her jaw dropped when she received the bill from the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. 
   
   “I thought it was ridiculous. I couldn’t believe it!” Luke told the Daily News Wednesday. 
   
   She and her lawyers contend the astronomical bill is in retaliation for filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the agency and the Queens developmental center where her brother, Rasheen Rose, died in 2012. 
   
   “It has to be,” Luke said. “But they were the ones who killed my brother.” 
   
   The notarized bill, sent to Rose’s estate in March, was for paid Medicaid assistance from August 2002 up to Rose’s death. The state agency is demanding to be paid the staggering amount if Luke prevails in her suit and is awarded punitive damages. 
   
   New York Daily News Shaneice Luke received this bill for $11,672,701.66. 
   
   “The number is mind-boggling. And it becomes more egregious because Rasheen died at the hand of one of their workers,” Luke’s attorney, Aaron DePass, told The News. 
   
   Rose, 33, who was born with severe autism and was never able to communicate verbally, died on Aug. 6, 2012 at the Bernard Fineson Developmental Center in Queens Village. 
   
   The city medical examiner ruled the death a homicide in December 2012, citing evidence that Rose died from injuries caused by being physically restrained. 
   
   Luke’s attorneys said their investigation showed that the 5-foot-7, 175-pound Rose was restrained in a dangerous prone position for up to 30 minutes by three staffers, including a 275-pound worker who sat on him. 
   
   “He was basically crushed to death,” DePass said. 
   
   Mike Groll/AP Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg called it 'retaliation' and 'an outrage' to send the bill to someone who lost a loved one from abusive care. 
   
   Robert Santoriella, Depass’ law partner, said at least nine other staff members, including two doctors and two nurses, were in the room when Rose became unresponsive. 
   
   Citing the pending litigation, the office for People with Developmental Disabilities declined comment. 
   
   Attorney Ilann Maazel said others who have filed lawsuits on behalf of loved ones who have died in state care have received similar bills. 
   
   Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Island) said the bills are clearly meant as retaliation. 
   
   “It’s an outrage,” he said. 
   
   With News Wire Services ||||| ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Two years after a 33-year-old mentally disabled man died at a state institution in Queens, and one year after his sister filed a lawsuit accusing the staff of killing him, New York officials have sent her an $11.67 million bill. 
   
   The claim against Rasheen Rose's estate cited his total Medicaid assistance from Aug. 6, 2002, through Aug. 6, 2012, the day he died. 
   
   A spokeswoman for the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, which runs the center, said Wednesday officials were following federal Medicaid obligations in seeking reimbursement. 
   
   "Not doing so would be a violation and could put federal Medicaid funding at risk," spokeswoman Jennifer O'Sullivan said. 
   
   Medicaid, a state and federal program for the poor, doesn't typically demand reimbursement. 
   
   But Ilann Maazel, an attorney who has filed lawsuits against the state after others died in state care, said other claim notices recently have been sent to families suing. 
   
   "This is something new we're seeing ... and it's problematic," he said Wednesday. 
   
   Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, an advocate for the disabled whose adult son gets state-funded residential care, called it "retaliation" and "an outrage" to send the bill to someone who lost a loved one from abusive care. "They're going to punish these people because they brought it to view of justice," he said. 
   
   The New York medical examiner concluded Rose's death was a homicide and that he "became unresponsive" while being restrained at Fineson Developmental Center. The Queens district attorney's office said it wasn't notified about the death until that homicide ruling was made four months later. Investigators found no criminal conduct but have left the case open, spokesman Kevin Ryan said. 
   
   Shaneice Luke, Rose's sister, is seeking unspecified punitive and other damages in a federal lawsuit. She alleges that at least three staff threw Rose to the ground and one sat on him, while other staff stood by. She also alleges a history of abuse at Fineson and failure by supervisors and the state to address that or to train staff properly. 
   
   "Rasheen Rose did not receive care remotely associated with the amount of money collected by OPWDD for Rasheen Rose over the 10-year period," attorney Aaron DePass replied to the state agency on Luke's behalf. Because he was actually killed by his supposed caregivers, "it is clear that the quality of care he received does not warrant any payment for services whatsoever," he wrote. 
   
   In federal court papers, all seven staff named in the lawsuit denied any wrongdoing, saying they acted within their professional judgment. The state attorney general and private lawyers are defending them. 
   
   Two years ago, a congressional oversight committee reported that New York's residential centers for the developmentally disabled like Fineson, which have largely emptied in an ongoing shift to community-based programs and group homes, cost Medicaid about $1.9 million a year for each patient. 
   
   The Cuomo administration last year announced plans to close four developmental centers over four years, including Fineson in 2017.
target: – Rasheen Rose died while being restrained at Fineson Developmental Center, a state institution in Queens, on August 6, 2012—a death that was ruled a homicide by the New York medical examiner, and into which the district attorney's investigation is still open. Shaneice Luke, Rose's sister, filed a lawsuit accusing the staff of killing her brother, who "became unresponsive" after at least three staff members allegedly threw him to the ground and put him in a "prone position" for as long as 30 minutes; one 275-pound worker sat on him, while others, including doctors and nurses, stood by, the New York Daily News reports. Rose, who had severe autism and could not communicate verbally, "was basically crushed to death," says Luke's lawyer. But now, New York officials are billing Luke for $11.67 million, the AP reports. The claim against Rose's estate cites his total Medicaid assistance over a period of 10 years, up until the day he died at age 33. Medicaid doesn't typically demand reimbursement, but an attorney who has worked with others who've received similar bills after suing the state says officials have recently begun this "problematic" practice. A spokesperson for the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, which runs Fineson, says officials are simply following federal Medicaid obligations so that they don't lose their Medicaid funding, but an assemblyman who advocates for people with disabilities calls it "retaliation." Last year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans to close Fineson in 2017.