The family of pianist-composer Hilton Ruiz is not convinced that an accidental fall caused his death, their new New Orleans attorney said Wednesday.
“Although it is the family’s understanding that the New Orleans Police Department has closed its file in this matter, the family confirms that they continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding his injury and death,” lawyer Scott M. Galante said.
Galante said he has not seen the evidence that police showed to Ruiz’s ex-wife and daughter, both named Aida, while Ruiz was still on life support. Attorney Mary Howell, representing them at the time, said then that they had accepted the conclusion reached by police.
Ruiz, 54, of Teaneck, N.J., had come to New Orleans on May 18 to shoot video to go with a planned compact disc to benefit New Orleans, recorded only days before he left the New York area. He was injured on Bourbon Street about 4:30 or 5 a.m. on May 19. Ruiz died on Tuesday.
Neither Galante nor Ruiz’s ex-wife would comment on a New York Post report about a video shown to the Ruizes by police. The newspaper quoted the elder Aida Ruiz as saying it showed her ex-husband leaving a bar and hitting his head on a curb, but that he was staggering badly, as if he had already been injured.
Galante said he is representing the younger Aida Ruiz, and could not comment about what anyone else said.
Capt. John Bryson, a police spokesman, asked any witnesses who haven’t talked to police to come forth. “We want to interview any and everybody,” he said.
Police originally investigated the case as an assault, but everything they learned indicated that Ruiz fell accidentally, Bryson said.
A jam session benefit for Ruiz and his family Tuesday night raised about $3,800, organizer Eddie Rodriguez said.
“Once they’d heard that he’d passed away, a lot of people didn’t come to the event because they thought it was canceled,” he said.