Three customs officers have been charged with sexually abusing their fellow agents in sick, back-room hazing rituals at Newark Liberty International Airport that included the use of a so-called “rape table.”
The abuse would occur in a second floor conference room in Terminal C, victims had alleged back in May, and included multiple, armed US Customs and Border Protection officers throwing co-workers on a conference table and groping and grabbing them against their will.
For years, veteran agents would inflict the abuse on new officers in a sordid initiation ceremony, federal prosecutors say.
On Wednesday, the following three agents were charged with two counts for forcibly assaulting a federal officer for alleged attacks on two male victims: Tito Catota, 38, of Newark, Parmenio I. Perez, 40, of Paterson, and Michael A. Papagni, 32, of West Orange.
The three are assigned to CBP’s Passenger Enforcement rover Team, which is responsible for intercepting potential smugglers and terrorists.
According to the complaint, one victim alleged that he had only been working for the team for two weeks when Papagni told him the conference table was the “rape table,” and that he’d soon teach the rookie “what this team is about.”
Within days, in March, 2016, the victim was grabbed in the conference room by all three of the suspects and thrown on his back on top of the table.
As the other two held him down, “Perez got on top of Victim One’s mid-section and began to grind his body up and down against Victim One’s genitals through Victim One’s clothing in a motion that simulated a sex act,” the complaint says.
The attack “eventually” stopped, the complaint says. The second victim in the complaint described a similar attack, in Nov. 2016.
“This behavior would be abhorrent in any environment, especially one serving a critical law enforcement function,” said Acting US Attorney William Fitzpatrick. “The hard working men and women who protect our borders deserve better.”
The three suspects are due to be arraigned in Newark Federal Court on Wednesday; they face a maximum of eight years prison and a $250,000 fine.
