Jail honcho out
Retires amid accusations he downplayed violence
A TOP CITY JAIL official accused of ordering underlings to minimize serious attacks on or by inmates has quietly retired, as the investigation against him drags on.
Security Chief Turhan Gumusdere directed correction officers to manipulate reports of violent assaults by listing them as routine “logbook entries,” according to multiple jail sources and records obtained by the Daily News.
Gumusdere has denied the charges, saying the downgrades came after close reviews of surveillance videos.
His last day on the job was Aug. 11, records show.
Gumusdere (photo inset) is seeking a disability pension equal to three-quarters of his final salary, citing an injury sustained on the job, jail sources say.
Last August, the Daily News detailed nine downgrades that appeared to defy logic. In one instance, a correction captain was photographed with blood all over his hand.
The incident was first classified as a low-level use of force. But it was later “downgraded . . . on behalf of bureau chief of security Gumusdere,” internal records show.
The Department of Investigation launched a probe after the allegations surfaced in the News.
It remains open with no end in sight.
Critics say DOI Commissioner Mark Peters isn’t serious about investigating the allegations.
The unions representing city correction officers and jail captains say none of their members have been questioned by investigators about the issue.
“I don’t think they really care,” said Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.
Meanwhile, two independent bodies have cited concerns over the potentially phony reports.
On April 3, a federal monitor overseeing the city’s jail system noted The News’ investigation into the alleged juked statistics.
The report concluded that some of those incidents were properly listed but did not address the remaining cases. The monitor, Steve Martin, enacted a new biweekly procedure for studying figures on serious incidents that get downgraded to logbook entries.
On April 26, the city Board of Correction noted that there were six assaults by inmates in a specialized unit that appear to have been questionably downgraded. The incidents “did not meet the department’s definition of a ‘reportable incident,’ but nevertheless occurred, and appear to involve assaults on or harm to staff,” the report said. “For example, in one incident, an inmate in Enhanced Supervision Housing is said to have exited his cell without authorization and, without warning or provocation, punched a correction officer in the face,” the review of the department’s unit for troubled inmates said.
The unnamed officer suffered a broken nose, according to the report.
The oversight board also cited a case in which an inmate tossed a day-room table and punched a correction officer in the face.
Despite their violent nature, all the incidents were listed as logbook entries, the report said.
Critics point out Gumusdere was found guilty of a similar allegation before he was inexplicably promoted by then-Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte in 2014.
In 2011, the department found he “abdicated all responsibility” in documenting incidents of violence. A department investigator recommended he be demoted.
Ponte did the opposite, elevating him to one of the top positions in the department. The move required the approval of City Hall, according to a jail source.
The department has been under intense pressure to reduce all vioAN