The Division of Correction quietly canned a Rikers Island guard after an administrative regulation decide discovered he repeatedly had intercourse with a detainee, offered her with medicine and pressured her to delaying filng a report that she’d been raped by one other officer.
DOC Commissioner Louis Molina filed papers in June saying he’s accepted a suggestion made by metropolis Administrative Regulation Choose Kevin Casey that Leonard McNeill needs to be fired for “basically violat[ing] his duties as a correction officer.”
“By participating in an improper sexual relationship, respondent exploited the inmate, posed a safety threat, created the looks of corruption, and undermined authority,” Casey additionally wrote in a 13-page opinion issued in February, following a four-day trial. “Far much less egregious acts of undue familiarity have routinely result in termination of employment.”
The fees in opposition to McNeill stem from a collection of incidents that occurred on the infamous Rikers Island jail advanced in 2015 and have been the topic of a scathing Manhattan federal court docket lawsuit, which town agreed to settle in 2019 by paying the lady $500,000.
The lady claimed in her swimsuit that she was raped in 2015 by Correction Officer Jose Cosme and McNeil. Cosme copped a plea with prosecutors, and as a part of his deal was fired, compelled to register as a intercourse offender and sentenced to 10 years of probation. McNeil has up to now averted prosecution.
The lady testified on the administrative listening to that she thought “she was establishing a detailed, private relationship with” McNeill, who joined the DOC in 2005, Casey wrote.
“They watched films and soccer video games collectively within the sanitation workplace, he introduced her meals from Kentucky Fried Rooster, and he let her use his cellphone to make calls.”
She additionally testified McNeil instructed her his spouse was a corrections officer — however was fired for having intercourse with an inmate. Describing her relationship with McNeil — which included having intercourse at Rikers within the sanitation workplace, a storage space and a loading dock trailer — the lady vividly recalled performing oral intercourse on him in October 2015 whereas he was on the telephone wishing his spouse a contented birthday.
The lady additionally mentioned that in November 2015 Cosme ripped off her Rikers-issued orange bounce swimsuit and raped her. She testified that she instantly instructed McNeill in regards to the rape, however he pressured her to attend 10 days to report the incident so he’d already be away on trip.
McNeill couldn't be reached for remark. Throughout the administrative trial, he denied having intercourse with the lady, who has been out and in of jail system for committing robberies and larcenies. Casey in his choice famous he discovered the lady’s testimony rather more credible than McNeill’s.
Molina in an announcement insisted the choice to fireside McNeill “is on no account a mirrored image of the hard-working women and men who report back to work day by day to offer security and safety to these entrusted in our care.
“Any worker discovered to go in opposition to the values that this division holds to a excessive esteem might be disciplined instantly as much as and together with termination.”
Post a Comment