AG says surveillance footage disproves claims by woman who sued over response to her heart attack at Hofstra bar exam

A New Jersey woman’s "bombastic" allegations in a July lawsuit contending officials failed to provide her with immediate life-saving assistance after going into a cardiac arrest during a 2025 bar exam at Hofstra University, are "entirely, demonstrably false," the State Attorney General’s Office said Monday.

In papers filed Monday with the New York Court of Claims, the attorney general's office said Mary Jane Jung's lawsuit against the state and the New York State Board of Law Examiners should be dismissed as her allegations are disproven by surveillance footage showing officials responding quickly to the medical incident.

"Contrary to the hyperbolic and outrageous assertions in the claim, state employees were at Jung’s side providing assistance within approximately one minute after becoming aware of the emergency, and additional assistance reached Jung approximately one and-a-half minutes later, promptly providing critical aid, including CPR and two administrations of an AED," Assistant Attorney General Robert Morelli wrote.

Jung, 36, a Fordham Law School graduate from Palisades Park, filed two lawsuits on July 29 connected to the incident — one against Hofstra in State Supreme Court in Nassau County and another against the state entities in the Court of Claims, each making claims of negligence and negligent training and supervision and seeking unspecified damages.

Jung's attorney did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Jung went into cardiac arrest shortly before the lunch break on July 30, 2025 — the second day of the state bar examination at Hofstra’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex — gasping for air, collapsing and turning blue in front of proctors, staff and hundreds of test takers, according to the lawsuit.

"Yet, emergency medical services were not promptly summoned, cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR] was not promptly administered, and an automated defibrillator [AED] was not timely retrieved and deployed during the critical early minutes of plaintiff’s cardiac arrest," Jung's lawsuit states. "Instead, the examination continued. Candidates were instructed to keep working; those who attempted to stand or assist were discouraged or admonished and plaintiff remained unconscious without the urgent intervention her condition demanded."

The alleged delay, the lawsuit contends, led to a brain injury and required doctors to implant a defibrillator in Jung's chest.

But Morelli disputes Jung's claims, arguing that assistance can be seen entering the room approximately one minute after they were notified of the emergency.

"While the state is not unsympathetic to Jung’s situation — and wishes her the best in both her recovery from this medical emergency and in her future as an attorney — her attempt to somehow fault the state for what happened on July 30, 2025, is entirely without legal and factual merit," Morelli wrote. 

Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, former senior associate judge of the state Court of Appeals and current chair of the Board of Law Examiners, which rented space from Hofstra for the exam, declined to comment Monday.

Included in the state's response to the lawsuit are written statements from two proctors in the room at the time of the incident; Hofstra's incident report and a flash drive containing the surveillance footage, the latter of which was not accessible by Newsday. 

Hofstra, which previously said its emergency response team "acted swiftly and decisively to save [Jung's] life," declined to comment. The university has yet to respond to the Nassau lawsuit.

A minute-by-minute timeline of the incident found that Hofstra security responded within 2½ minutes of Jung slumping over at her desk and 3½ minutes before the collection of test booklets before the 12:30 p.m. lunch break, Ciparick wrote in a letter last year to Assemb. Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove).

The lawmaker has criticized the response to the incident and called on the board to detail changes made to their emergency protocols and procedures.

John McClary, the board's former executive director, told Newsday last year that "the test [had] never been halted for a medical incident" during his 20-year tenure with the organization.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.