A Rikers Island correction officer was busted Monday on charges he ignored the cries of an inmate who swallowed poisonous cleaning supplies and later died, according to Manhattan federal court officials.
Prisoner Jason Echevarria was in a special mental health ward at the complex in August 2012 when he gulped down a ball of combined disinfectant and detergent given to inmates to clean their cells, the US Attorney’s Office said.
Other inmates soon heard him yelling in agony and banging on his cell door for help, officials said.
Echevarria told a prison guard that he had swallowed the ball and the message was relayed to Correction Capt. Terrence Pendergrass.
But Pendergrass told his underling that he should only be disturbed if a prisoner needed to be extracted from a cell or was lying on the floor dead, officials allege.
The staffer later alerted Pendergrass that there was vomit on the floor of Echevarria’s cell but was again ignored, a criminal complaint states, noting that later that day, a pharmacy technician walked by Echevarria’s cell and saw vomit on the floor and noted severe discoloration of his skin.
Despite being briefed on the prisoner’s condition yet again, Pendergrass did nothing, officials said.
“The next morning, Echevarria was found dead in his cell,” officials said. “An autopsy revealed that Echevarria died as a result of swallowing a caustic substance, consistent with the ingestion of a soap ball.”
Echevarria “had internal burns and scarring along his esophagus and into his trachea, indicating that he suffered aspiration of vomit into his lungs,” officials said.
Pendergrass, 49, of Howard Beach, was arrested Monday morning and charged with one count of deprivation of rights. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
“The Constitution protects the rights of everyone, including prison inmates at Rikers,” said US Attorney Preet Bharara in a statement. “The kind of conduct alleged today cannot be tolerated in our criminal justice system.”
The new federal case comes roughly a year after Bronx DA Robert Johnson declined to prosecute Pendergrass despite a city medical examiner’s report that deemed Echevarria’s death a homicide due to denial of medical care.
Bharara declined to comment on Johnson’s failure to prosecute. A spokesman for Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Josh Saul