‘Make it go away’
an investigation launched. Similarly, when an inmate resists restraint by an officer, it must be recorded as an official use of force.
The examination by The News of nearly a dozen “24-hour reports” reveals a pattern where high-ranking jail officials override the judgment of correction officers and doctors.
After a Jan. 21 fight, Christian Sims was found on the floor of the Otis Bantum Correctional Center at Rikers.
He suffered a slice to his forehead 6 centimeters deep and cuts on the nose and upper lip, documents show. From the start, Sims said he fell on his face, slamming his head on the edge of the bed.
Citing a medical review, frontline jail staff deemed it a slashing, records show.
But a day before the end of the fiscal year on June 29, the incident was “downgraded” to “a logbook” entry.
Sims, now in an upstate New York prison for a drug sale conviction, downplayed the episode, saying in a jailhouse interview that although he was jumped by four men, he hurt his head on a metal bedpost.
A jail source familiar with the case maintains the downgrade six months later was pure politics.
“It smells of manipulation,” the source said.
Gumusdere defended the recasting. “That was an inmate who was running around his dorm. All the phone conversations say that he tripped,” Gumusdere said, referring to secretly recorded phone exchanges.
Department officials insist incident upgrades are actually more frequent than downgrades, citing statistics largely compiled before Gumusdere took over as security chief. They said since January 2011, there have been only 62 downgrades, along with 108 upgrades. But the department declined to share details of any of the cases — including the 14 Gumusdere said were downgraded since he stepped into the security chief role early this year.
In one instance on June 12, Lesane Tyquan slashed another inmate, Michael Bryant, 21, on his side and back in the George Motchan Detention Center at the lockup by the East River.
The incident was initially recorded as a logbook entry because of pressure from Gumusdere, a source familiar with the case says.
But Chief Hazel Jennings reviewed the case and took the unusual step of ordering staff to upgrade it, according to email obtained by The News.
For example, on June 8, inmate Ricardo Wright “attempted to assault another inmate” and a captain “utilized control holds” to restrain him, an internal report says.
A photo shows one of the captain’s hands covered in blood.
The incident — with no video surveillance — was initially classified as a low-level use of force. But it was later “downgraded . . . on behalf of bureau chief of security Gumusdere,” records show.
Critics say Gumusdere cherrypicks portions of video that does not reveal what really happened.
“Gumusdere is up to his old tricks,” a July 1 anonymous letter sent to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and The News alleges. “Please scrutinize this agency further.”