FORMER RIKERS ISLAND INMATES PLEAD GUILTY IN RETALIATORY ASSAULT ON NYC DOC CAPTAIN ON THANKSGIVING DAY 2017
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that two more former Rikers Island inmates have pleaded guilty to taking part in a gang assault in the jail against a NYC Department of Correction Captain on Thanksgiving Day, 2017.
District Attorney Clark said, “The defendants got together and planned the violent attack on a Captain in a show of gang power after the Captain had disciplined one of them. The assault left the Captain with multiple injuries including a laceration on his neck and multiple abrasions.”
District Attorney Clark said Lyemel Summerville, 20, pleaded guilty today before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary to Attempted Gang Assault in the first degree. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 5, 2018. The second defendant, Maurice Hennegan, 24, pleaded guilty to Attempted Gang Assault in the first degree on October 23, 2018 before Justice Neary and is scheduled to be sentenced on November 16, 2018.
FORMER RIKERS ISLAND INMATES PLEAD GUILTY IN RETALIATORY ASSAULT ON NYC DOC CAPTAIN ON THANKSGIVING DAY 2017
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that two more former Rikers Island inmates have pleaded guilty to taking part in a gang assault in the jail against a NYC Department of Correction Captain on Thanksgiving Day, 2017.
District Attorney Clark said, “The defendants got together and planned the violent attack on a Captain in a show of gang power after the Captain had disciplined one of them. The assault left the Captain with multiple injuries including a laceration on his neck and multiple abrasions.”
District Attorney Clark said Lyemel Summerville, 20, pleaded guilty today before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary to Attempted Gang Assault in the first degree. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 5, 2018. The second defendant, Maurice Hennegan, 24, pleaded guilty to Attempted Gang Assault in the first degree on October 23, 2018 before Justice Neary and is scheduled to be sentenced on November 16, 2018.
Another defendant, Menelick McQuickin, pleaded guilty to second-degree Assault on October 15, 2018 and is set to be sentenced on November 7, 2018. Defendant Christian Martinez pleaded guilty to second-degree Obstructing Governmental Administration on August 29, 2018 and is serving nine months in jail. Defendant Jason Reid was sentenced to eight years in prison on April 20, 2018 after pleading guilty to leading the assault.
The eleven remaining defendants on the indictment are scheduled to appear in court on November 5, 2018 for trial.
According to the investigation, about 90 minutes after Reid called a meeting of inmates in the Otis Bantum Correction Center, he knocked the Captain to the floor and repeatedly punched him. Others joined in the assault, punching the Captain several times. Three weeks earlier, the Captain deployed pepper spray to defuse a tense situation after a fight between inmates, and Reid threatened to assault the captain if he sprayed.
According to the investigation, Summerville and Hennegan helped Reid by blocking correction officers from coming to the Captain’s aid. They also punched the captain.
McQuickin blocked a Correction Officer from helping the Captain and took her pepper spray. The defendants then gave the spray to Martinez, who hid and disposed of the evidence by flushing it down the toilet.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Jonathan Abramovitz and Jared Rosen of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau under the supervision of Deanna Logan, Chief of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, and the overall supervision of James Brennan, Deputy Chief of the Trial Division, and Theresa Gottlieb, Chief of the Trial Division, and Jean T. Walsh, Chief of the Investigations Division.
District Attorney Clark thanked Investigators Scott Frank and Anthony Scoma from the Department of Correction’s Correction Intelligence Bureau for their assistance in the case.
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