NYC DOC OFFICER SENTENCED TO CONDITIONAL DISCHARGE FOR FALSIFYING SUICIDE PREVENTION TRAINING FOR 74 OFFICERS

 

Jury Convicted Defendant of Records Tampering, ID Theft, Official Misconduct

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a New York City Department of Correction Officer has been sentenced to a Conditional Discharge for falsifying suicide prevention training for dozens of officers. 

District Attorney Clark said, “During the growing crisis of inmate suicides in 2021, and apparently amid pressure to increase the number of officers taking a suicide prevention course, the defendant directed a group of officers to take the training for 74 of their colleagues. This was a callous disregard for Correction Officers’ duty to care for those in custody.” 

New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said, “Correction officers are required to take suicide prevention training so that they know how to identify persons in custody in crisis who may need immediate medical and mental health services. This correction officer falsified records to reflect that 74 officers had taken the training when they had not, enabling officers to skip this critical course, thereby jeopardizing the safety of persons in custody. I thank DOC and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for their continued partnership to ensure correction officers fulfill their responsibilities to maintain safety in the City’s jails.”

District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Vinette Tucker-Frederick, 43, a Correction Officer for nine years who was assigned to the Anna M. Kross Center (AMKC) on Rikers Island, was sentenced today to a Conditional Discharge by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Timothy Lewis. 

On May 15, 2025, a jury convicted Tucker-Frederick on 25 counts of first-degree Tampering with Public Records, 25 counts of first-degree Identity Theft, and Official Misconduct. 

The People had recommended a sentence of one year in jail.

According to the joint investigation by the Bronx DA’s Public Integrity Bureau and the Department of Investigation, in the Spring of 2021, a mandatory refresher course on suicide prevention was made available to Rikers Island staff to take via a computer at the jail. TuckerFrederick, a control room officer with significant authority in determining officers’ assignments, directed multiple officers to take the training posing as 74 fellow officers who actually were on leave, and she provided their personal identification and log-in information. When each course was completed, an entry was generated in DOC training records indicating the absent officers had taken the required training. False training sessions were completed on behalf of 74 officers.

District Attorney Clark thanked Department of Investigation/Department of Correction Captain Antonio Fonseca, of DOI’s Office of the Inspector General for DOC, under the supervision of Inspector General Marissa Carro and Deputy Commissioner/Chief of Investigations Dominick Zarrella.