Two Rikers Island correction officers allegedly planned and executed an attack on an inmate with help from four other inmates in January of last year, according to an indictment released Thursday by the Bronx district attorney’s office.
Nakia Gales, 39, and Herman Jiminian, 41, are facing several charges in the January 2014, attack, prosecutors said.
Gales is accused of recruiting four inmates with Jiminian’s help to attack inmate Gilbert Bacallao. Prosecutors say the officers wanted to teach Bacallao a lesson after a previous “trash-talking altercation.”
Gales allegedly lured Bacallao into the vestibule of the jail’s Vernon C. Bain Center by telling him he had received a package. Once they were in there, inmates Troy Roberts, Percy Ayers, Luis Garcia and Edwin Martinez surrounded him and attacked him, prosecutors said.
At her arraignment Thursday, prosecutors said Gales’ neck tattoos show she’s affiliated to a gang, and that a member of the Bloods referred to her as “one of us.”
Gales and Jiminian are accused of hiding their involvement in the assault by falsifying paperwork, and Jiminian is accused of lying about injuries related to the incident to receive workers’ compensation.
Gales is charged with assault, falsifying business records, offering a false instrument for filing and official misconduct. She has pleaded not guilty and is being held on $25,000 bail.
Local
Jiminian is charged with assault, falsifying business records, offering a false instrument for filing and official misconduct. He is expected to surrender to authorities and be arraigned Friday.
If convicted, the officers face up to seven years in prison. Attorney information wasn’t immediately known.
In a statement, Norman Seabrook, president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, said, "We certainly don't condone this type of behavior and are troubled by these allegations, but these officers have the right to a vigorous defense under the law and we will make sure that they have exactly that."
The four inmates involved in the attack are each charged with assault. It wasn’t known if they had attorneys.
-Sheldon Dutes contributed to this report
