{"id":209356,"date":"2026-04-25T10:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T10:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/209356\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T10:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T10:04:27","slug":"geraldo-rivera-reflects-on-willowbrook-investigation-54-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/209356\/","title":{"rendered":"Geraldo Rivera reflects on Willowbrook investigation 54 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">It is one of the most important stories we&#8217;ve ever done at Eyewitness News, our investigation into the institution on Staten Island for people with disabilities known as Willowbrook 54 years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Geraldo Rivera, one of the most iconic reporters in TV history, broke the story after doctors who were disgusted by what they were seeing let him in to tell the world what was really going on inside Willowbrook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Rivera will be honored by the College of Staten Island (CSI) Foundation at their Annual Benefit on Thursday, April 23, 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The school now sits on the land that once held Willowbrook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Bill Ritter spoke with him this week about what he did and what it means.<\/p>\n<p>Bill Ritter sat down with Geraldo Rivera<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">*<a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/newsletters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Get Eyewitness News Delivered<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">*  <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/new-york\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">More New York City news<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">* <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/7ny.tv\/submitnewstip\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Send us a news tip<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">* <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/apps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">*<a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCrlIS7z20CnVaCrMvdkig_g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Follow us on YouTube<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><br class=\" \"\/>Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below.    If attaching a video or photo, <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/image-video-solicitation-and-rights-terms-of-use\/5101040\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">terms of use apply.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is one of the most important stories we&#8217;ve ever done at Eyewitness News, our investigation into the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[82938,9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-209356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-82938","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}