Five other officers were charged with failing to report the beating
View of the exterior of New Jersey State Prison in Trenton in this 2009 file photo.TRENTON — A state corrections officer allegedly caught on tape beating an inmate was indicted along with five other officers who failed to report the incident, state officials said today.
Kevin McEady, a senior corrections officer at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, repeatedly kicked an inmate’s head on Oct. 26 while transferring the inmate to a medical facility inside the prison, prosecutors said. The inmate was not named.
Officials said McEady, 48, of Camden, failed to mention the beating in a report, and the inmate didn’t speak up. Instead, the Department of Corrections began to investigate after a routine review of a video showing the inmate’s transfer.
The indictment, signed Feb. 4, also says Sgt. Kevin Newsom, 46, approved misleading reports by McEady and senior corrections officers Damian Albanese, 33; Derrick Smith, 44; and Efrain Gonzalez, 29. One other officer, Sgt. Lorenzo Foster, 46, was charged with failing to give an accurate report. All were suspended without pay on Feb. 9, except Newsom, who was suspended in November pending charges from a separate indictment.
Casey DeBlasio, a spokeswoman for the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, said she didn’t know whether the officers agreed to whitewash their reports.
"But none of them mentioned the force that was used," she said. No date has been set for the officers’ arraignment, she added.
On Oct. 29, three days after McEady allegedly used excessive force on the inmate, Newsom was indicted on charges of aggravated assault and official misconduct after a separate incident on July 13. The 23-year veteran officer struck a handcuffed inmate’s head several times with a metal baton and then ordered subordinates to leave the beating out of their reports, according to that indictment.
The Department of Corrections said in November it was moving to fire Newsom, though a spokeswoman said today that they were waiting for the charges to be resolved first.
"We did what we needed to do," said Deirdre Fedkenheuer, spokeswoman for the department. "He was put in no-pay status on separate charges in November."
Jim McGonigal, president of the New Jersey Law Enforcement Supervisors Association, which represents corrections sergeants, said he wasn’t worried about the new indictment for Newsom.
"I’m confident once the case goes to trial that he’ll be cleared of all charges," he said. "The prisons are very violent, dangerous and dynamic places, and things happen."
McGonigal said he hasn’t spoken to Foster, the other sergeant represented by the union. DeBlasio said she knew of no attorney representing McEady and Gonzalez. Attorneys for Albanese and Smith could not be reached for comment late today.
The defendants face five to 10 years in prison for each of the charges, which include official misconduct for all of them and aggravated assault for McEady.
Fedkenheuer said Newsom earns $92,900 a year. Foster, Gonzalez, McEady and Smith each make $80,396 and Albanese earns $55,842.
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