Rikers guards abused inmate and lied – DA

TWO CITY correction officers punched and kicked an inmate in the face and then lied about it, prosecutors charged Thursday.

Jail officers Akeem Cardoza, 29, and Phanes Nervil, 55, claimed they were attacked by inmate Tyreek Shuford inside the George Motchan Detention Center on Rikers Island on Oct. 13, 2015, according to the indictment.

But their report was allegedly contradicted by surveillance video showing the officers pummeling Shuford.

They were arraigned and released without bail. The Correction Department suspended both without pay. Calls seeking comment were not returned.

Separately, on Wednesday a former city correction officer, Rodiny Calypso, was convicted by a federal jury after a weeklong trial of beating up a handcuffed inmate in a shower at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers on Feb. 27, 2014.

Calypso, 38, claimed the unnamed inmate spit on him and never mentioned he punched on the detainee as he held him in a headlock.

A surveillance video showed the entire attack.

Calypso, an Army reservist who served in Iraq, cuffed the inmate’s hands behind his back before he opened the door to the shower stall, the video shows.