Wardens accused of wanting threesome still on job
TRENTON » When allegations emerged that Mercer County’s wardens were on the prowl for a threesome, someone on Facebook suggested they “need to just throw the whole jail away.”
“Not the whole jail,” one Mercer County corrections officer shot back. “Just them two.”
The corrections officer was talking about Warden Charles Ellis and Deputy Warden Phyllis Oliver, the high-paid targets of a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against the county over the jail bosses’ alleged sexual overtures.
The response from the CO, one of many bashing Ellis and Oliver, Sign at the entrance to the Mercer County Correction Center.
demonstrated disdain some employees have for the allegedly sexstarved, porno-watching, pajamaparty-having wardens.
Despite the allegations, which are exactly the same as ones that cost another county employee his job, and low standing among disgruntled employees, the county has chosen to stick by the wardens – at least for now.
The wardens were at work the day after The Trentonian published a front-page spread under the banner “Wardens Gone Wild.”
While the wardens tried to carry themselves like nothing happened, sources inside the jail said inmates were ruthless toward them once news spread of the allegations.
One inmate shouted at Ellis as he walked by in the cellblock.
“Yo, Warden Commando,” referring to allegations he had told the nurse he wasn’t wearing any underwear while picking out clothes at a Men’s Warehouse. The warden shot back an “evil look,” a source said.
One a more serious note, The Trentonian asked about the statuses of Ellis and Oliver since the newspaper broke news of the sex-crazed complaint against them.
A county spokeswoman tried to quash potential criticism of a double standard.
Looking to knock down any suggestion the county remains loyal to some high-prized employees while getting rid of others, like former airport boss Stanley Patterson, who faced almost the exact same allegation from underlings who said he propositioned them for threesomes and sexual favors, spokeswoman Julie Willmot wrote: “In the case of Stanley Patterson, the county performed an internal investigation and handed the findings to outside counsel for review. The recommendation was to terminate the employee, which the county executive did within hours of that determination.
“The allegation involving the correction center is undergoing the same scrutiny and process,” the spokeswoman continued, “and the county will withhold further comment until
the investigation is complete.”
Willmot did not respond to follow-up questions about which firm recommended firing Patterson and why it felt
secure it had substantiated the allegations enough to feel comfortable giving him the boot.
To be sure, the decision to retain Ellis and Oliver stands in stark contrast to swift, trigger-finger moves companies across the country have made to fire employees
– many of them high-profile men in prominent position from entertainment to politics – over allegations of sexual improprieties.
The county’s wait-andsee approach also flies in the face of a promise from Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes to crack down on employees who commit sexual misconduct.
“When it happens in Mercer County, we’re going to make sure there’s a result,” he told The Trentonian ina
prior interview.
But since The Trentonian revealed the allegations against Ellis and Oliver, the executive has been mum, not responding to multiple phone calls and texts messages requesting comment about whether he plans to take action against the wardens.
Many of the disgruntled corrections officers who blasted their bosses on Facebook noted they were suspended over less-explosive allegations.
Pointing out that Ellis apparently liked to go commando, one corrections officer complained the warden had jumped on workers for lesser dress infractions.
“But he quick to tell us we out of uniform,” the CO wrote, with a bunch of laughing-face emojis. “Dog, you ain’t got no drawers on. Lil dookie butt ass. Dirty ass!”
While some have taken hacks at the wardens, a longtime friend of Oliver’s who
asked to remain anonymous because of the charged situation doubted allegations of a romantic link between the wardens or that they retaliated against the nurse and corrections lieutenant who brought the allegations to the county.
“I can drive a truck through it,” the friend said. “Phyllis works damn hard and is a tough boss. When you have lazy, incompetent employees, they can be resentful.”
Adding to more conspiracy theories that attacks on Ellis and Oliver are from factions with axes to grind, the law firm that represents the nurse and corrections officer, Alterman & Associates, is the same one representing suspended corrections officer and former union president Donald Ryland.
Ryland is on house arrest and has been suspended without pay after he was charged with raping two women in Trenton.
Many corrections officers privately believe the charges against Ryland, who has been a vociferous opponent of Hughes’ plan to send inmates to Hudson County and lay off Mercer COs, were fabricated to silence him and help Hughes’ plan come to fruition without opposition.
Hughes was asked in a previous interview about a morale problem at the jail that may have contributed to the tragic suicide of an inmate and other problems for COs.
He took it as an opportunity to revive his Hudson plan, boasting how it could save the county $15 million.
“I think some of the problems with the correction center is not the services we give there, and the corrections officer we have,” the executive said. “Part of the problem is we have over a 100-year-old facility and we have bunk beds. … You have to feel sorry for people who reach the end of their rope.”