THE BRONX — Three former Rikers Island Department of Correction officers pleaded guilty Thursday to brutally beating an inmate unconscious who shouted at one of them for being confined to his cell longer than usual after Superstorm Sandy, officials said.
Officers April Jackson, 36, Tyrone Wint, 31, and 19-year-veteran Captain Moises Simancas, 40, pleaded guilty to felony falsifying business records after they submitted a false Use of Force report after the Oct. 30, 2012 beating.
They were also facing assault charges and pleaded to the falsifying charge in exchange for five years probation, a Bronx District Attorney's Office spokesman said.
“With tensions running high in the aftermath of a catastrophic storm, these Correction Officers covered up an assault on an inmate and were ultimately caught,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement. “Our office will continue to pursue all crimes on Rikers Island.”
The officers pulled inmate Gabino Genao, whose hands were cuffed behind his back, out of a housing area at the George R. Vierno Center and into a stairwell out of view from the other guards. The three guards then struck him with their batons multiple times in his head, neck and torso until he lost consciousness.
The guards then submitted the false report, but investigators found the Genao’s injuries were consistent with being hit by a DOC-issued baton, according to the Department of Investigation.
Simancas, who made $78,683 annually, and Jackson and Wint, who both made $76,488 annually, officially resigned from their jobs Wednesday.
They were scheduled to be sentenced in Bronx Supreme Court before Justice Martin Marcus on Jan. 5, 2017.
DOI Commissioner Mark Peters said the city would hold guards and inmates accountable for breaking the law.
“This case demonstrates a continued necessity for the oversight and reform only DOI can provide as the City’s Inspector General and highlights our agency’s dogged commitment to pursuing crimes involving unjustified force in the City’s jails,” Peters said in a statement.
Lawyers for both Jackson and Wint declined to comment. Information on Simancas' lawyer was not immediately available.
