Prison Captain Found Guilty Of Staging Inmate's Suicide

A prison guard captain has been convicted of covering up the beating of an inmate by staging a suicide, but a Brooklyn jury found him not guilty on the charge he violated the inmate's civil rights.

The Metropolitan Detention Center captain, Salvatore LoPresti, faces up to 45 years in prison at his sentencing in January on charges of obstructing justice, conspiring to use excessive force, and lying to prosecutors.

LoPresti was tried for a 2002 incident in which he beat an inmate and then tied a noose using the prisoner's bedsheet. He then filed an incident report saying the wounds were the result of his attempt to stop the inmate from hanging himself.

Four guards involved in the case pleaded guilty earlier this month. LoPresti's attorney, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, said he was disappointed with the outcome of the trial and would be evaluating the option to appeal.

LoPresti is also named in another lawsuit alleging prisoner abuse filed by a group of Muslim men who were detained in the prison and charged with terrorist threats following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

An attorney in that case, Rachel Meeropol, said the LoPresti trial is the "tip of the iceberg" for complaints of prisoner abuse.