A public defender has been charged with trying to smuggle contraband into the Rikers Island jail complex after, officials said, he brought papers to a client meeting that were laced with THC, the main psychoactive chemical compound in marijuana.
The public defender, Bernardo Caceres of Queens Defenders, was arrested about 3 p.m. Wednesday at the complex’s Otis Bantum Correctional Center, a Correction Department spokeswoman and the correction officers’ union said on Friday.
Mr. Caceres and a second lawyer were there to meet with a client being held on a burglary charge, a union spokesman said. The second lawyer was not affiliated with Queens Defenders.
A yellow envelope Mr. Caceres had with him caught the attention of a Correction Department dog, the agency’s spokeswoman said. When an officer retrieved the envelope from the client and opened it, he found a stack of discolored legal-size paperwork, the spokeswoman said.
Jail officials have said that such discoloration can indicate the presence of drugs, and testing determined that over 130 sheets of the paper contained traces of THC. Mr. Caceres was arrested and charged with promoting prison contraband, officials said. The second lawyer was released after officers determined he did not know that the papers might contain drugs.
It was unclear whether Mr. Caceres had a lawyer. The Queens Defenders, one of several organizations in the city that represent indigent clients under government contracts, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The officers’ union has long argued that all mail coming into the city’s jails should be digitized and made available to detainees via electronic tablets to prevent paper from being used as a vehicle for smuggling. The Board of Correction, which has oversight of the city’s jails, considered such a change in 2023 but ultimately did not approve it.
Benny Boscio Jr., the union’s president, said the episode on Wednesday underscored why a move to paperless mail was necessary. “Allowing paper documents to continue to enter our facility only compromises the safety of everyone in our jails,” Mr. Boscio said.
The smuggling of contraband into the Rikers complex is a longstanding problem that has sometimes involved those who work there. Last year, for instance, several correction officers were charged with sneaking cellphones, oxycodone, marijuana, fentanyl and sheets of paper soaked in drugs into the complex.
The arrest of Mr. Caceres, 30, came the same day that a founder of Queens Defenders, Lori Zeno, and her husband, Rashad Ruhani, were charged with wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and theft of funds.
The couple, prosecutors said, spent tens of thousands of dollars in organization funds on personal expenses, including a vacation in Bali, rent for a luxury apartment and teeth-whitening procedures.
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