The names of the Justice Department officers in bold type are responsible for Les Coleman's maltreatment while at MDC Federal Detention Center, Brooklyn, NY. Coleman was thrown into solitary confinement by the officers, fearing he would expose their smuggling operation. Coleman was held without bail at MDC for six months on a perjury charge based on an affidavit he gave in the Pan Am 103 bombing civil case

- Lester K. Coleman

 May 22, 1997
FBI - NEW YORK OFFICE

PRESS RELEASE

 Contact: Joseph Valiquette (212) 384-2715 - James Margolin (212) 384-2720

ZACHARY W. CARTER, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, MICHAEL R. BROMWICH, Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice ('OIG") JAMES K. KALLSTROM, Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York, HOWARD SAFIR, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department and DR. CALVIN EDWARDS, Northeast Regional Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, announced today the arrest of 20 defendants, including 11 federal Bureau of Prisons' ("BOP") correction officers stationed at the Metropolitan Detention Center (IIMDCII) in Brooklyn, New York, and a civilian employee of the NYPD, on bribery charges.

The MDC is one of two federal prisons in New York City that houses prisoners awaiting trial and sentencing. In addition, two reputed associates of the Luchese organized crime family, three MDC inmates, and three others were arrested on related bribery charges. This is believed to be the largest case involving corruption at a single federal detention center.

 The investigation began in November 1995 when OIG learned through informant information that various MDC correction officers were being bribed to smuggle contraband, including marijuana, clothing, vitamins and food, into the institution. Over the next 18 months, OIG conducted an undercover investigation in which MDC correction officers were recorded and videotaped receiving bribe money ranging from $100 to $1,000 to violate BOP regulations and to smuggle various contraband, including sham heroin and steroids, large quantities of Italian food, vodka and wine, clothing, radios and other electronic equipment into MDC.

The charges set forth in the complaints filed in United States District Court in Brooklyn and unsealed today include the following:

• Correction Officer Anthony Martinez is alleged to have allowed inmates associated with organized crime to have access to confidential BOP computers in order to identify the names and locations of cooperating witnesses.
• Correction Officer Raymond Cotton (the president of the MDC correction officers union) is alleged to have given organized crime inmates advance notice of prison searches, and to have hidden contraband in his office until the searches were concluded.
• Correction Officer Derryl Strong, together with defendants Cotton and Martinez, are alleged to have accepted bribes to allow convicted felons to visit with alleged members of organized crime, in violation of BOP regulations. Martinez is also alleged to have escorted various prisoners to meetings involving members of organized crime at locations in the MDC, and to have served as a lookout during these meetings.
• NYPD civilian employee Janice Pratt and her son, MDC inmate Timothy Pratt, are charged with bribing Correction Officer Alberto Cruz to smuggle contraband into MDC for another MDC inmate, a captain in the Gambino organized crime family under indictment in Florida and Brooklyn, New York.
• Correction Officer Peter Negron is charged with receiving a $200 bribe, via his wife, defendant Anne Negron, for submitting his own urine for that of an inmate for drug testing.
• Correction Officer Cruz is charged with selling steroids to an undercover agent and seeking bribes of $800 per week from organized crime inmates to smuggle contraband into MDC.
• MDC guard Rodney Robinson is alleged to have agreed to smuggle contraband, including heroin, into MDC in exchange for cash bribes, and arranging to have voided an Immigration and Naturalization Service detainer, or warrant, in exchange for a $5,000 bribe.
• MDC guard Oscar Ortiz is charged with smuggling sham steroids into MDC for a $1,000 bribe.
• Correction Officers Martinez, Cotton and Strong are charged with allowing organized crime inmates to use unmonitored MDC phones to discuss illegal activities.

Included among those arrested today are Eugene Castelle, an alleged soldier in the Luchese organized crime family, who is charged with paying bribes to MDC employees for smuggling Italian food and steroids into MDC, and Anthony Albanese, an alleged associate in the Luchese Family, who is charged with paying bribes to defendant Correction Officer Luis Padilla, now stationed in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

Finally, two MDC inmates, Andre Rodriguez and Julio Pagan (both serving sentences for narcotics offenses), aided by Rodriguez's wife, Carlita, have been charged with assisting defendant Correction Officer Armando Taylor in smuggling sham heroin and other contraband into MDC, and for their alleged role in plotting the escape of a convicted narcotics trafficker in exchange for a bribe ranging from $500,000 to $2 million.

In announcing today's arrests MR. BROMWICH stated: "These crimes constitute a gross abuse of trust by employees given the important responsibility of supervising the conduct of federal prisoners. The American people expect their public officials to protect them against inmates who have been lawfully detained in federal custody and expect them to enforce rules designed to regulate and control the conduct of those inmates. The correctional officers arrested today have betrayed that trust. This case should send a strong message that the Department of Justice is committed to rooting out corruption in its own ranks. These correctional officers, and their criminal confederates, will be prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law.

"MR. CARTER stated: "', Having served as a Magistrate Judge in this district, I know that judges who make pre-trial detention decisions expect that at a minimum defendants will be held in a drug-free environment, that they will not be accorded special privileges, that they will not be permitted to conduct criminal enterprises while incarcerated and that they will be protected from harm by other inmates. Tragically, this investigation has revealed that these fundamental assumptions are not entirely reliable. This prosecution demonstrates our determination that anyone and everyone who undermines the integrity of the federal detention system will be brought to justice."

Today's charges are the result of an 18-month investigation, code-named "Operation Badfellas," conducted by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, with assistance provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City Police Department. The Bureau of Prisons cooperated fully in the investigation.

Nineteen of the defendants will be arraigned today before Chief United States Magistrate Judge A. Simon Chrein at the United States Courthouse in Brooklyn. Luis Padilla is expected to be arraigned today in federal district court in Puerto Rico.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

These cases are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Seth L. Marvin.

Defendants

      Name           D/O/B    Employee Since    Address

Willie H. Artis     10/10/64      7/9/95     Rosedale, NY
William T. Austin   11/9/65       8/27/89     Danbury, CT
Raymond L. Cotton   5/17/58       7/16/89    Flushing, NY
Alberto Cruz        12/9/68       11/13/94   Paterson, NJ
Anthony Martinez    12/12/61      8/3/86     Brooklyn, NY
Peter Negron        7/4/69        12/11/94   Flushing, NY
Oscar Ortiz         6/5/70        5/32/94       Bronx, NY
Luis A. Padilla     4/17/68       3/20/94  Rio Grande, PR
Rodney T. Robinson  9/26/69       1/9/94    Woodhaven, NY
Derryl L. Strong    4/18/58       3/30/86    Brooklyn, NY
Armando R. Taylor   1/8/60        9/7/93     Brooklyn, NY

Additional Defendants

     Name           D/O/B            Address

Anthony Albanese   5/19/68        Brooklyn, NY
Eugene Castelle    3/18/60   Staten Island, NY
Salvatore Ciccone  1/24/69         Maspeth, NY
Anne Negron        10/12/71       Flushing, NY
Julio Pagan        7/23/51       Elizabeth, NJ
Janice F. Pratt    1/18/52      Ozone Park, NY
Timothy E. Pratt   8/14/76      Ozone Park, NY
Andre Rodriguez    7/8/69         Freeport, NY
Carlita Rodriguez  10/14/69       Freeport, NY