THE BRONX — A Rikers Island correction officer was indicted for failing to check a mentally ill homeless man who “baked to death” in a cell topping 100 degrees and then lying about it, according to the Bronx District Attorney.
Correction Officer Carol Lackner, 35, failed to inspect Jerome Murdough's cell at the Anna M. Kross Center’s mental observation unit during an overnight shift from Feb. 14 to 15, the night he died from hyperthermia, the Bronx DA’s Office said in a Monday statement.
Lackner, who had been on the job more than eight years, then prepared logbook entries claiming she made the rounds during her three-hour shift, the Bronx DA added.
Murdough, 56, was taking anti-psychotic and anti-seizure medication, which made him more vulnerable to heat.
Lackner was charged with six counts of falsifying business records in the first and second degree, two counts for submitting the doctored records and 12 counts of official misconduct.
Murdough's mother filed a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city in May.
Murdough was in jail that night after being arrested for trespassing in Harlem on Feb. 7. He was transferred to Rikers after he was unable to make bail.
Lackner faces up to four years in prison.
“She intends to go to trial and she will prove her innocence,” Lackner's attorney, Damond Carter, told the New York Daily News.
She was arraigned on the indictment Monday and pleaded not guilty before being released without bail. Lackner is due back in court on Feb. 17 before Judge Steven Barrett.
