Inmate Jahmal Lightfoot, 28, suffered broken bones around both eye sockets sealing them shut, a broken nose and other injuries when he has assaulted by a crew of jailers “the size of NFL linemen” who held him down and stomped on his head and testicles, according to Bronx prosecutor Lawrence Piergrossi.
Ten officers actually stood trial on 53 charges for the brutal beating. Five members of an elite unit of correction officers were carrying out an order from Eliseo Perez Jr., an assistant chief for security at Rikers Island. They included Perez, retired assistant chief; officer Jose Parra; officer Alfred Rivera; officer Tobias Parker; and captain Michael Pollard; officer David Rodriguez; officer Jeffrey Richard; officer Harmon Frierson; officer Dwayne Maynard; and captain Gerald Vaughn.
The attack was ordered because Lightfoot looked at Perez in a way that made him uncomfortable. In the summer of 2012, he stare at Perez as correction officers were checking inmates for weapons, conducting contraband search, patting down inmates, tossing over mattresses and rifling around cells for prohibited items. “This guy thinks he’s tough,” Perez reportedly said, before ordering officers to kick his teeth in.
Lightfoot is serving four years for stealing a handbag. He slapped the city of New York with a $5 million notice of claim.
Lightfoot’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, said the beating was part of a “systemic problem,” adding: “It is imperative that the Justice Department come in and move to have a federal monitor appointed to oversee the prison at Rikers Island.
Perez retired in 2013. Officers Alfred Rivera, Tobias Parker, Jose Parra and David Rodriguez are on modified duty. A sixth officer, Jeffrey Richard was found not guilty.
They have been convicted of gang assault.
NYC correction officers’ union head Norman Seabrook, thinks the verdict is unfair and unjust. He says, “Today’s verdict is an absolute travesty and yet another example of how Correction Officers are treated differently and disrespected for doing the job they are sworn to do — protect New Yorkers.” In other news, Seabrook, 56, was was arrested today, Wednesday, June 8 on federal corruption charges, officials said. He was taken into custody by federal agents at his Morris Park home in the Bronx about 6 a.m.
He’s under investigation for honest services wire fraud (allegedly receiving kickbacks in the sum of $100,000 to $150,000) from an investment firm that does business with the 9,000-member union — the largest municipal jail union in the country.
