Newark Airport ‘rape table’

Three customs officers were arrested and charged with sexually abusing fellow agents in back-room hazing rituals at Newark Airport that included the use of a so-called “rape table.”

The abuse occurred in a second-floor conference room at Terminal C, and included multiple armed US Customs and Border Protection officers throwing coworkers on a conference table and groping and grabbing them against their will, the victims first alleged in May.

For years, veteran agents would inflict the abuse on new officers in a sordid initiation ceremony, federal prosecutors say.

On Wednesday, agents (pictured from top) Tito Catota, 38, of Newark, Michael A. Papagni, 32, of West Orange, and Parmenio I. Perez, 40, of Paterson, were each charged with two counts of forcibly assaulting a federal officer.

The three agents are assigned to CBP’s Passenger Enforcement Rover Team, which is responsible for intercepting potential smugglers and terrorists.

According to the complaint, one victim claims he was grabbed in the conference room by all three of the suspects and thrown on his back on top of the table.

As the other two held him down, “Perez got on top of Victim One’s mid-section and began to grind his body up and down against Victim One’s genitals through Victim One’s clothing in a motion that simulated a sex act.”

The three suspects were due to be arraigned in Newark federal court on Wednesday. Each faces a maximum eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine.