Two Officers Sentenced in Rikers Island Assault Case
Two former correction officers, who were among 15 people implicated in a series of crimes at a facility on Rikers Island for inmates ages 16 to 19, were sentenced on Tuesday after they admitted to assaulting or attempting to assault prisoners in their custody.
The officers, Michael McKie, 33, and Khalid Nelson, 37, had been charged in 2009 with enterprise corruption, and prosecutors had described them as leading a gang of juvenile prisoners whom they directed to extort, assault and intimidate other inmates. The two had faced up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
But the sentences they received as part of a plea agreement on Tuesday in State Supreme Court in the Bronx were far shorter. Mr. Nelson, who had pleaded guilty in October to attempted assault, was sentenced to a year in prison. Mr. McKie, who had pleaded guilty to assault, was sentenced to a prison term of two years.
“Those who uphold the laws need to obey the law,” said Judge Joseph Dawson, adding that the behavior exhibited by the officers had been “dispiriting” and “disgraceful.”
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/nyregion/rikers-island-officers-sentenced-in-assault-case.html
