Bronx prosecutors quietly cut plea deals with two former correction officers for failing to act when an 18-year-old man tried to hang himself in 2019 in a Rikers Island jail, records show.
Daniel Fullerton pleaded guilty back on May 11 to official misconduct, a misdemeanor, while Mark Wilson pleaded out on Sept 9, 2022 to the same charge for failing to intervene over 8 minutes after Nicholas Feliciano tried to hang himself in the George R. Vierno Center. Feliciano suffered lifelong brain injuries.
Fullerton, Wilson, Officer Kenneth Hood and Captain Terry Henry were originally charged in July 2022 with official misconduct and felony reckless endangerment, which can yield a prison sentence of up to 7 years.
Official misconduct carries a possible jail term of up to one year, but Fullerton and Wilson got a conditional discharge with no time behind bars as long as they stay out of trouble for a year. Fullerton quit the Correction Department and Wilson was fired in February 2022.
“We’re gratified that at least someone has taken responsibility for what the city did to Nicholas. Though, it is shocking you can just let someone almost die and you don’t get so much as community service,” said David Rankin, attorney for the Feliciano family which has a pending lawsuit against the city
The cases against Hood and Henry are still pending with the next court date slated for Dec. 14.
George R. Vierno
James Keivom/New York Daily News
The George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island.
After issuing a press release following the 2022 indictments, the DA’s office didn’t publicize the pleas when they took place.
At Wilson’s Sept. 9, 2022 plea hearing, he declined to make any statement, a transcript shows. Prosecutors Cassie Perez and Jared Rosen also declined to make statements to the court.
A spokeswoman for Bronx DA Darcel Clark declined comment.
Feliciano had a history of mental illness and suicide attempts when he was sent to Rikers on Nov. 19, 2019, following an arrest for a parole violation, but DOC didn’t classify him as a suicide risk, a Board of Correction report on the case revealed.
Feliciano not only disclosed the details of his mental condition, but had bouts of banging his head on the walls, and fought with other detainees.
FELICIANO
Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News Madeline Feliciano holds a picture of her grandson, Nicholas Feliciano, who suffered brain damage on Rikers Island in 2019. Pictured with Feliciano, from left, are Angel Jimenez, Jorge Carmoega and Joshua Carmoega. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)
On Nov. 27, 2019, he was being held in an intake pen in the Vierno Center, he told a friend he might kill himself if they were separated by jail staff. As the day progressed, he got into a fight, threw food, kicked the pen gate and screamed.
Just before midnight, he tied two sweatshirts together, placed them on a hook in the ceiling and tried to hang himself as an officer stood several feet away facing the pen, the October 2021 Board of Correction report found.
For 7 minutes and 51 seconds, according to security video, the officers walked past his cell and didn’t take action to cut him down or render aid, prosecutors alleged. One officer told him to stop “fronting,” or faking it, the Board of Correction report said.
Henry, Fullerton and a third officer eventually cut him down and tried CPR after calling for a medical response.
Feliciano suffered severe brain injury from lack of oxygen and requires extensive, lasting medical care.
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Graham Rayman
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