Seven guards and two other Big Apple jail employees smuggled in drugs, alcohol, cell phones and weapons in exchange for thousands of dollars, federal authorities said Wednesday.
The busted workers included Tameka Lewis, a 41-year-old Department of Correction counselor who pocketed the largest amount of cash, the feds said.
Between June 2019 and September 2020, she allegedly accepted more than $40,000 in bribes, including $11,400 paid through the mobile payment service, Cash App, the court docs say.
Lewis allegedly texted with family members of inmates to set up the smuggling of synthetic marijuana, K2, into the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island, according to one of the indictments unsealed in the Southern District.
Three corrections officers — Miguel Compres, 35, Temaine Pelzer, 45, and Brian Harrell, 60 — snuck various contraband, including cigarettes, razors, marijuana and cell phones, into the Manhattan Detention Complex in exchange for over $20,000 in 2019 into early 2020, according to authorities.
The feds also caught Rikers’ guards, Dariel Diaz, 33, Rashawn Assanah, 25, Robert Balducci, 33, and Johnathan Garrett, 32, accepting more than $25,000 for similar smuggling schemes, authorities said.
In addition, DOC exterminator Jasmine Reed, 34, was indicted for allegedly sneaking in contraband, authorities said.
The Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island became a site of drug smuggling, according to federal authorities.
Each faces federal conspiracy and bribery charges, according to authorities.
The three current DOC employees, Harrell, Balducci and Lews, were suspended without pay, a spokesperson for the DOC said.
The feds did not say the alleged schemes were connected.
“These defendants were responsible for maintaining a safe and orderly environment in New York City’s jails,” U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said. “Instead, as alleged, they abused their positions to enrich themselves by smuggling weapons, drugs, and other dangerous contraband in return for thousands of dollars of cash bribes.
DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett said unsealed indictments “reflect the pernicious and damaging impact of corruption.”
DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett AP“Correction officers and staff should protect the integrity of the jails, not promote lawlessness and violence by accepting bribes in return for trafficking drugs, scalpels, razor blades, cell phones, and other contraband – all highly valued, illegal items that undermine order in the jails and compromise the safety of other correction officers and inmates,” she added.
Outgoing DOC Commissioner Cynthia Brann called the indictments “deeply disturbing.”
“This is the type of misconduct that warrants termination,” she added.
