Please help

What is the name of your state? New York
My friend got arrested for smoking a joint in Washington Square Park, he was taken into the precint and then released after a few hours. He has to go back to court in a month. When he was arrested in the Park he was not read his rights. Is this illegal or was it because he was not actually taken to jail only into the precint. If this is illegal, what should he do? There are witnesses that he was not read his rights

For the 1,637th time, just because an individual is arrested, there is NO requirement that they have their rights read to them. The only time the law requires that a person is read their rights is prior to questioning. Tell your friend to hire an attorney, it could save him some potential embarrassment.

I thought the miranda rights were required to be read prior to arrest.

Nope, just prior to questioning. They only do that on TV shows because it looks dramatic.

interesting. I could've sworn I saw a whole thing about that in some class. I also could've sworn that someone I know had their case dismissed because of that reason. but who knows, my memory must not be serving me very well.