EAST ELMHURST — Two Rikers Island corrections officers and four inmates were indicted Thursday with assaulting a fellow inmate in a Jan. 2014 incident on a jail barge known as "the Boat," the Bronx District Attorney announced.
According to court documents, Nakia Gales, a 39-year-old corrections officer, planned the assault after a verbal altercation between her and the victim, Gilbert Bacallao.
On Jan. 29 of last year, Gales had told Bacallao he had a package waiting for him in the vestibule. After luring him into a vestibule, four inmates recruited by Gales ambushed and assaulted him, according to the D.A.
At her arraignment, Gales was also accused of being affiliated with the Bloods due to the tattoos on her neck which "are broadly recognized to signify gang membership," the D.A. said.
Gales pleaded not guilty to five felony counts including assault in the second and third degrees as well as two misdemeanors. She is being held on $25,000 bail.
A second corrections officer, Herman Jiminian, 41, is scheduled to surrender to the authorities Friday when he will be arraigned, according to the D.A. He is charged with a slew of felonies and two misdemeanors for his role in the assault and the subsequent cover-up.
If convicted of the charges, Gales and Jiminian each face up to seven years behind bars.
The four inmates involved in the attack, Troy Roberts, Percy Ayers, Luis Garcia and Edwin Martinez, were also each charged with assault in the second and third degree.
