Metro

Rikers prison guard indicted in death of mentally ill inmate

A Rikers Island correction officer was indicted on a civil-rights charge of deliberately ignoring the cries of an inmate who swallowed poisonous cleaning supplies and later died, the feds announced Tuesday.

Terrence Pendergrass, 49, a former correction captain, faces up to 10 years behind bars for allegedly turning a blind eye when prisoner Jason Echevarria in August 2012 gulped down a ball of combined disinfectant and detergent given to inmates to clean their cells.

Pendergrass, of Howard Beach, allegedly refused to call for medical help even after Echevarria, 25, complained he had swallowed the ball and became ill and started vomiting, prosecutors said.

Inmate Jason Echevarria.Facebook

Echevarria had been in a special mental health ward.

Pendergrass was arrested March 24.

The new Manhattan federal court 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.