A former guard at New York City's troubled main prison today was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of ignoring the pleas of a dying inmate.
Former Department of Correction Captain Terrence Pendergrass was also fined USD 5,000 after a jury convicted him in December of depriving 25-year-old Jason Echevarria of his civil rights.
Echevarria was serving time at Riker's Island, the second-largest jail system in the US that has drawn considerable scrutiny over the last year after repeated reports of inmate beatings, guard corruption and the mistreatment of the mentally ill. The prisoner swallowed toxic detergent while housed in a now-closed solitary confinement unit for inmates who break jailhouse rules.
According to court papers, the 51-year-old Pendergrass told other jail employees he didn't want to be bothered unless there was a "dead body" in the cell after Echevarria told two other correction officers he swallowed the deadly substance.
"Such criminal indifference will not be tolerated," Judge Ronnie Abrams said as she imposed the sentence.
The judge said the ruling was an important consideration so guards know they will be held responsible for wrongdoing even when they work in a troubled correction system. Federal sentencing guidelines had called for a sentence of roughly two years.
Prosecutors had asked for a substantial punishment, saying in court papers that his crime was "particularly cruel."
Defense lawyer James G. Frankie wrote that Pendergrass had no reason to accept reports that Echevarria had swallowed a soap ball since it was without precedent that an inmate would receive an unauthorized soap ball and ingest it.
He said the claim that he had swallowed the soap ball seemed "more consistent with malingering to get out of a cell rather than a genuine call for medical assistance.
