CORRECTIONAL DYSFUNCTION
Jails big allegedly transferred from Sing Sing because of racial, sexual comments when he worked for state
The embattled new security boss for city jails was transferred from Sing Sing prison following allegations he made inappropriate sexual and racial comments to subordinates, according to interviews and records.
The new details about Ronald Brereton’s tenure as sergeant and captain at the prison in Westchester County come one day after the Daily News exclusively reported on his retirement in 2018 amid an investigation into his conduct as superintendent of Lincoln Correctional Center on Central Park North.
In 2008, the state paid $20,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by state Corrections Officer Hope Mickens, who alleged Brereton, then a sergeant, told her to hurry up or he would “slap her big fat a—,” court records show.
Four years later, memos to state Corrections and Community Supervision Department leadership documented a series of alleged racially and sexually charged comments made by Brereton to subordinates.
“You like your sausage black?” Brereton, 63, allegedly asked a veteran corrections officer at at Sing Sing.
Subordinates also submitted complaints claiming he warned underlings they could end up “collateral damage” and compared a corrections officer under his command to fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
The News previously reported that Brereton was suspended and escorted out of Lincoln while facing a misconduct investigation alleging misappropriation of funds, abuse of authority and workplace retaliation.
In response to that article, Brereton, who is Black, claimed he was the victim of racism while working for the state prison system. He said a “good old boys club” targeted him after he sounded the alarm on their “widespread misconduct.”
As deputy commissioner of security operations for the city jails, Brereton is tasked with managing intelligence on inmates and ensuring the safety of detainees and staff. Rikers Island is mired in a yearslong cycle of dysfunction that could result in a federal court takeover.
Now-retired Corrections Officer Jose Maldonado, 53, told The News on Monday he wound up in Brereton’s crosshairs when they worked at Sing Sing in November 2012. He said Brereton asked him “You like your sausage black?” at a staff function.
“I’m heterosexual and Brereton was going around the prison saying I was gay and really degrading me,” said Maldonado, a 25-year prisons veteran who retired June 4. “He threatened my job. It was incredibly stressful and I ended up with” posttraumatic stress disorder.
Maldonado complained to a lieutenant. Brereton barged into the office and warned the lieutenant about talking with
Maldonado, according to a Nov. 30, 2012, memo the lieutenant wrote titled “unwelcome verbal harassment.”
About an hour later, Brereton called the lieutenant and said, “You will be collateral damage,” according to the memo.
“The statement that I will be ‘collateral damage’ is unprofessional and taken as a form of intimidation,” the lieutenant wrote in the memo to Sing Sing Superintendent Michael Capra.
A month later, on Dec. 14, 2012, the same lieutenant overheard Brereton talking loudly in an adjacent office, according to a memo from the lieutenant to Michael Washington, head of diversity for the Corrections and Community Supervision Department. Brereton declared he was changing his religion to the Nation of Islam and was going to pray for all the “sinners” at Sing Sing, according to the memo.
Brereton also got in a tense, racially charged dispute with a corrections officer, according to a separate memo obtained by The News.
The corrections officer wrote that he wished Brereton a Happy Thanksgiving on Nov. 22, 2012.
“Why are you wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving? I have no reason to be happy. Our people have been oppressed for hundreds of years. This is not our holiday,” Brereton allegedly replied.
On Dec. 14, 2012, Brereton allegedly accused the same corrections officer of being a “spy.”
“Watch what you say, the spy is here, you know what team he plays for,” Brereton said, according to the complaint. “Stay away from him, he’s no good.”
When the corrections officer, who is white, asked for clarification regarding a directive, Brereton allegedly replied, “Why would I educate you, so you can keep my people oppressed?”
“Why must you turn this into a black-and-white issue again?” the corrections officer asked.
Brereton allegedly responded, “It’s not a black-and-white issue, it’s a ‘you people’ issue . ... You know, Mussolini.”
“I feel as if I’m left with no other recourse other than to write this complaint of harassment to you,” the corrections officer wrote to the Sing Sing deputy superintendent.
The memos from the lieutenant and corrections officer were provided to The News on condition their names not be published because both still work in the prisons.
Brereton was later transferred to the Edgecombe Correctional Facility in Manhattan.
The state prisons agency and city Correction Department have declined to share the outcome of internal investigations he faced.
City Correction Commissioner Louis Molina said Saturday he has “complete confidence” in Brereton and blamed “a few disgruntled individuals” for trying to discredit him. The agency did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the allegations at Sing Sing.