NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Two Department of Correction officers pleaded guilty to conspiring with inmates at Rikers Island to smuggle drugs, cellphones and other contraband into the jail for thousands of dollars in payment, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
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The two officers, Krystle Burrell, 35, and Katrina Patterson, 31, were arrested in April and charged in separate complaints by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn. Along with Burrell and Patterson, four other defendants were charged in the scheme.
“The defendants threw in their lot with Bloods gang members and betrayed their sworn duty to maintain the safety of incarcerated individuals and other correction officers at Rikers Island by smuggling cell phones and drugs into the jail,” said United States Attorney Breon Peace. “This Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to rooting out corruption at Rikers Island.”
Both officers accepted hefty sums of money for the products. Prosecutors said Patterson garnered more than $34,000 in bribes to bring contraband, which included drugs, to a supposed Bloods gang member being held at the jail. Burrell accepted nearly $10,000 in bribes to move contraband within the prison–bringing phones to another Rikers inmate and then helping that inmate sell contraband to others.
Burrell faces up to 10 years in prison and Patterson faces up to five years in prison when they are sentenced.
The arrests were a part of an ongoing investigation by the NYPD, Department of Homeland Security and the NYC Department of Investigation into correction officer involvement in bribes-for-contraband rings.
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