A crooked Rikers guard offered to break into jail computers and advance the release dates of no fewer than five inmates — demanding to be paid in cocaine or cash, according to shocking testimony in a Manhattan bribery trial.
“The officer said he preferred drugs because he could make more money with drugs,” inmate Rafael Montadoca told jurors of disgraced correction officer Robert Whitfield yesterday.
The guard never shortened any sentences, as Montadoca and three other inmates eventually got cold feet and backed out of the bribes, prosecutors say.A fifth inmate, convicted heroin dealer Julio Bello, was Montadoca’s downfall. Bello told jurors yesterday that he cooperated with investigators and wore a bugged wristwatch to record the guard making him a coke-for-freedom offer in a Rikers kitchen.
Cops arrested Whitfield, 50, of Queens, in 2011 after he allegedly showed up to collect three kilos of cocaine, worth $100,000, at a McDonald’s in Inwood from a Bello pal.
But in their first recorded kitchen conversation, Whitfield asked for a cash down payment, Bello testified.
“If you want I give you $20,000,” Bello tells Whitfield on a tape from March 2011, played for jurors yesterday.
“Mmm-hmm,” the taciturn Whitfield answers.
“[I’ll be] by in two days,” adds Bello.
“OK,” Whitfield agrees.
“By Monday, $20,000,” Bello repeats of the down payment.
When Whitfield asks, “You sure?” Bello answers, “Positive.”
At another point in the tape, Whitfield claims to Bello that another inmate is going to pay him $500,000 for an early release — but that he told the inmate, “No, no, you pay 250.”
Turns out Bello may well get his early release after all. He’s facing 15 to 25 years for heroin sales, but could be sprung in just 4 1/2 years under his cooperation deal with the office of Bridget Brennan, the city’s special narcotics prosecutor.
Bello is due to be cross-examined today by defense lawyer Andres Manuel Aranda.
Whitfield was hired as a correction officer in 1990 and did not miss a day of work until his stunning arrest.