State dismisses both indictments in jailhouse Case background beatdown, officer faces assault charge
TRENTON » A Mercer County Correction Center officer charged with falsifying records and official misconduct in connection with a 2016 jailhouse beatdown is now being tried on lesser charges in a lower court.
Prosecutors agreed Tuesday to dismiss the indictment against Isaac Wood III in favor of charging him with a new complaint of simple assault on an inmate. The move came 11 days after the state dismissed the indictment against co-defendant Trachell Syphax.
Wood, 42, and Syphax, 33, were originally indicted on two counts of second-degree official misconduct and one count of tampering with public records. The original charges would have exposed both officers to at least five years of incarceration, loss of pension benefits and a lifetime ban on New Jersey public employment if they had been convicted on all counts.
Wood and Syphax were engaged when the May 2016 jail incident occurred but have since become husband and wife. Authorities say Syphax watched as Wood manhandled inmate Rafael Jardines at the county jail in Hopewell Township and that both defendants dishonestly documented the incident with false information after the scuffle.
Authorities dismissed the indictment against Syphax on Feb. 9 and let her totally off the hook after declining to prosecute her. The state on Tuesday dismissed the indictment against Wood but kept him on the hook County seeking damages, attorney fees and a jury trial on allegations the correction center violated his civil rights.
The county suspended Syphax and Wood without pay following the jailhouse incident. They both remain suspended without pay, Mercer County spokeswoman Julie Willmot confirmed Tuesday in an email.
“Officer Syphax is scheduled to return upon completion of the terms of suspension,” Willmot added, “which would be in September, and upon meeting all other county employment requirements, including a health physical and drug test. Isaac Wood is still suspended without pay while the county awaits the outcome of his criminal case.”
Although Syphax is not being terminated from her county corrections officer job, the stiff nature of her administrative punishment has prompted the state to dismiss her indictment.
“Given the severity of the discipline imposed, which is in addition to the unpaid suspension she served from May 16, 2016, until Feb. 8, 2018, the State found that no useful purpose would be served by further prosecution of the criminal case,” Casey DeBlasio, spokeswoman for the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, said earlier this month in a statement about Syphax. “Accordingly, the indictment was dismissed (Feb. 9).”
Defense attorneys Jeffrey Ziegelheim and Stuart J. Alterman represented Syphax in her criminal and administrative cases.
“We were able to resolve it without a trial,” Alterman said Feb. 10 of the case against Syphax, adding his client “will be back to work” after completing her term
Following the jailhouse scuffle that left an inmate beaten and battered on May 11, 2016, authorities filed criminal charges against Wood and Syphax via summons on May 25, 2016.
The summons complaint charged Syphax with only one count of second-degree official misconduct and charged Wood with two counts of second-degree official misconduct and one count of third-degree aggravated assault.
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office presented the case to a grand jury. The grand jurors found insufficient evidence for aggravated assault and dismissed that charge with a “no-bill” declaration. The grand jury did, however, hand up an indictment on March 29, 2017, charging Wood and Syphax with two counts of official misconduct and one count of tampering with public records or information by making a false entry with the purpose to defraud.
The indictments against both defendants have now been tossed out, but Wood remains under prosecution as authorities slapped him with the new complaint Tuesday charging him with simple assault in connection with the jailhouse beatdown.
“In my opinion, there was nothing criminal at all,” Alterman, who does not represent Wood, said of the incident. “The guy was just doing his job and dealing with an inmate who was oppositionally defiant. … This is what happens in jail.”
Alterman described the victim as a “defiant inmate who is a frequent flier in Mercer County jail.”
Prior to their suspensions, Wood was a 20-year veteran corrections officer making $89,560 a year, according to state pension records, while Syphax was employed for eight years and collecting $68,845 in annual salary.