Former city correction officer, Jose Cosme, 36, will not be serving any jail time despite pleading guilty to assaulting a female inmate when he was working for Rikers Island as a guard.
In a deal which saw the offender serve probation for 10 years and register as a sex offender, the 36-year-old man from Brooklyn will be exempted from serving a jail time.
Jose Cosme assaulted Jacqueline Healy during his time as a correction officer at Rikers Island. The assault occurred back on November 30, 2015, when Cosme ambushed Healy, an inmate at Rikers, inside a closet hidden from cameras.
Reports claimed that Healy was not keen to report to the authorities as she was worried correction officials would not take her allegation seriously, so she mailed pieces of her soiled shirt with Cosme’s DNA on it to a friend and to a relative to assist on lodging the complaint.
The nine-year Correction Department veteran admitted that he engaged in oral sex with Healy in court. Cosme was initially facing up to 50 years behind bars based on the initial rape charges filed last summer before agreeing to the plea which saw the jail time waivered. Cosme lost his job as a result of the assault allegations.
In announcing the plea deal, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark condemned the action by the former correction officer and said correction staff should not use their position to abuse inmates.
“We will prosecute any jail employee who undermines the public’s trust and tarnishes the honest, hardworking employees of the Department of Correction,” she said in a statement.
Healy is in prison after being convicted of a robbery.
“She felt violated,” said Healy’s boyfriend, Rich Rodriguez, who attended the court hearing. “She’s always said, ‘He violated me.’ This really affected her.”
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