Correction Officer Charged With Disabling Surveillance System at Rikers During Fight

After a fellow guard was slashed across the face by an inmate at Rikers Island, a city correction officer temporarily disabled the jail’s surveillance system as a fight broke out between guards and inmates.That was the charge filed yesterday against a nine-year veteran correction officer, Nicholas Zito, by the city’s Department of Investigation. Mr. Zito, 33, was cited for official misconduct, a misdemeanor. If convicted, he could face up to one year in jail.The accusation stems from an October 5, 2005, incident at the Anna M. Kross detention center, in which an inmate allegedly attacked a guard, setting off a melee in which inmates not involved in the attack said they were assaulted by guards.According to the DOI, a video camera caught the guard’s assault of the inmate, but also caught Mr. Zito running into the control room, after which the taping suddenly stopped and did not resume until the incident was over.Mr. Zito is the third person to be arrested and charged in connection with the October fracas. The officer accused of punching the inmate, Joseph Collins, was charged in January with assault. The videotape also allegedly caught a correction captain, Anastasia Henderson, witnessing the incident. She was charged in January with filing a false business record for failing to include the assault in her report.“Correction officers are charged with the important task of maintaining order throughout the correctional facility,” the commissioner of the Department of Investigation, Rose Gill Hearn, said. “This defendant allegedly disabled a surveillance system, which puts both inmates and DOC personnel in danger. The conduct charged here does not represent the vast majority of hard-working DOC personnel.”There are about 9,000 correction officers and about 800 captains in the city’s prison system, a correction spokesman, Thomas Antenen, said.Mr. Zito, who was arrested yesterday and is expected to be arraigned today, has been suspended pending adjudication of the criminal case, Mr. Antenen said. The law firm representing Mr. Zito, Koehler and Isaacs, refused to comment.“If true, this is a serious matter,” the commissioner of the Department of Correction, Martin Horn, said. “Cameras are in our jails to protect the officers as well as the inmates. The disabling of the cameras in this instance deprived fellow officers of their best defense against allegations of abuse and therefore cannot be tolerated.”

Correction Officer Charged With Disabling Surveillance System at Rikers During Fight

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