THREE NYC DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION OFFICERS SENTENCED TO SERVE TIME IN ASSAULT, COVER UP OF RIKERS ISLAND INMATE

A Fourth Officer Is Sentenced to Community Service For Filing a False Report 

  Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that three New York City Department of Correction Officers have been sentenced to serve time in a beating of an inmate and its coverup in a Rikers Island jail. 

   District Attorney Clark said, “I hope these sentences continue to send the message that excessive force by those sworn to maintain order on Rikers Island will not be tolerated, nor will covering up violence or corruption. These correction officers will now pay the price for their roles in this crime.”

  Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters said, "Correction Officers should safeguard the facts as well as the City's jails; instead these defendants lied to cover up their crimes and violence. Now, these correction officers are convicted felons, part of the more than three dozen correction staff DOI has arrested in the last several years." 

  District Attorney Clark said Michael Dorsainvil, 36, was sentenced to two years in prison with 1 ½ years post-release supervision, Christopher Huggins, 34, was sentenced to one year in jail, Mark Anglin, 38, was sentenced to four months in jail to be served on weekends and 150 hours of community service, and Ronald Donnelley, 63, received a Conditional Discharge and 100 hours of community service. 

  District Attorney Clark said Huggins and Donnelley were convicted October 27, 2016 by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Michael Gross of first-degree Offering a False Instrument for Filing. Huggins was also convicted of second-degree Assault. 

  District Attorney Clark said Dorsainvil and Anglin were convicted by a jury on October 26, 2016 of first-degree Offering a False Instrument for Filing after the trial before Justice Gross. Dorsainvil was also convicted of second-degree Assault.

  According to trial testimony, on March 15, 2013, inmate Carl Williams was being escorted back to the George Motchen Detention Facility following a court appearance and began cursing at the officers when they confiscated a bag of food from him and threw it in the garbage. 

  According to testimony and to video played at the trial, Anglin, Dorsainvil and Huggins placed Williams into a holding cell. They entered the cell and held him down on the floor while Huggins used his knee to batter Williams’ head. Donnelley stood outside watching. Williams suffered contusions, bumps and cuts to his face and head, and needed nine stitches for a cut to his mouth.

  During a review by the Department of Correction, discrepancies were discovered in the use of force and witness reports. The defendants claimed that they intervened because Williams was threatening to hang himself with a string pulled from his bag, a claim that was contradicted by Department of Correction video recordings of the incident that showed Williams had no bag with him when he entered the holding cell.