Three Former Rikers Officers Plead Guilty To Sick Leave Fraud: Feds

QUEENS — Three correction officers employed by the NYC Department of Correction (DOC) at Rikers Island pleaded guilty to federal program fraud after lying to stay on sick leave for over a year, Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said Tuesday.

Eduardo Trinidad, Monica Coaxum, Steven Cange, pleaded guilty after fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary between 2021 and 2022 amid a city jail staffing shortage, prosecutors said.

Cange, 49, pleaded guilty on Feb. 15 after he obtained more than $139,000 in salary and submitted more than 100 fraudulent medical notes to DOC from March 2021 to November 2022, Peace said.

Cange claimed he was at physical therapy, but records revealed he never attended the medical appointments and he was engaging in regular activities, officials said.

Federal prosecutors said that Coaxum, of Harrison, fraudulently obtained more than $80,000 in salary by being on sick leave from March 2021 to May 2022, and that Trinidad, her fiancée, fraudulently obtained more than $140,000 in salary by being on sick leave from June 2021 to November 2022.

All three were arrested in November 2022, and resigned from the DOC in January 2023, Peace said.