Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of NY
“As alleged, MCC corrections officers Perry Joyner and Mario Feliciano, and MCC unit secretary Sharon Griffith-McKnight, undermined the institution they swore to serve by conspiring with the very inmates they are charged to protect by smuggling contraband into the MCC,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Williams.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Three current or former Bureau of Prisons employees, as well as eight former inmates of the Metropolitan Correctional Center have been indicted for asllegedly conspiring to smuggle contraband such as drugs, alcohol, and cell phones to inmates at the MCC; two of the BOP employees were also charged with obstructing justice, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, the defendants participated in an extensive scheme involving bribery and smuggling of contraband, and the distribution of contraband within the MCC. The defendants include two current employees of the BOP, Perry Joyner and Sharon Griffith-McKnight, and one former employee of the BOP, Mario Feliciano, as well as eight former MCC inmates: Donnell Murray, Markeen Jordan, Anthony Ellison, Tyrell Sumpter, Kevin Crosby, David Valerio, Virgilio Acevedo De Los Santos, and Starlin Nunez.
The contraband that Joyner, Feliciano, and Griffith-McKnight smuggled into the MCC included controlled substances, cell phones, alcohol, and cigarettes. For their efforts, Joyner and Feliciano agreed to receive, and did receive, bribes from the inmate-defendants.
During the course of the scheme, in an effort to obtain a lesser sentence for Ellison, Griffith-McKnight submitted a letter to the District Judge responsible for sentencing inmate and co-defendant Ellison that falsely described Ellison as a “model inmate” even though at the time Griffith-McKnight was smuggling contraband to Ellison and therefore knew he was anything but a “model inmate.” Relying on this letter from Griffith-McKnight, the District Judge who presided over Ellison’s sentencing remarked that Ellison’s purported good behavior in prison was “impressive” and that “[u]nless this is some sort of Grisham novel, and people are all corrupt and making all of this up about [Ellison], it seems to me that it’s unavoidable that [Ellison’s] trajectory at the MCC contains a lot of good.”
Joyner obstructed justice by intimidating and threatening an inmate—an inmate that Joyner was charged with protecting—whom Joyner believed was providing the government with information about Joyner’s participation in the charged scheme.
Four of the defendants were arrested Thursday. The additional defendants are already in federal custody and will be presented in this Southern District at a later date.
“As alleged, MCC corrections officers Perry Joyner and Mario Feliciano, and MCC unit secretary Sharon Griffith-McKnight, undermined the institution they swore to serve by conspiring with the very inmates they are charged to protect by smuggling contraband into the MCC and, in the case of Joyner and Griffith-McKnight, by obstructing the pursuit of justice. This office is committed to rooting out corruption in our jails and prisons,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
“Federal law enforcement officers take an oath to defend the laws of the United States and protect its citizens. We allege the guards we’ve arrested today acted like nothing more than the criminals in their charge and assisted incarcerated offenders in committing more crimes. Our FBI/NYPD Joint Violent Crimes Task Force is working with our partners to root out the corruption we’ve uncovered; they will find everyone who should be held accountable for their blatant disregard for the law,” added FBI NY Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll.
