A former Rikers Island corrections officer pleaded guilty to receiving bribes and to engaging in sexual conduct with an inmate.
Clara Espada, 41, was arrested on March 7 and then pleaded guilty to charges filed by the Bronx District Attorney’s office.
Espada admitted to receiving payment for looking the other way while alcohol, cigarettes and ecstasy were allowed into the George Motchan Detention Center on Rikers Island, where she had worked since joining the Correction Department in 2004.
In a statement issued to the press, Department of Investigation commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said that “arrest, prosecution, jail time, and the loss of a valuable city job is the likely end for any correction officer who receives bribes to transport contraband into city jails.”
Espada also engaged in sexual contact with an inmate at the facility. Under the law, an inmate cannot consent to a sexual relationship while incarcerated.
Espada had been the subject of an investigation by the Bronx DA since June 2011. She left the department in February 2012.
Following the plea deal, Espada is expected to serve six months in prison.
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