Sunset Park Jail Guard Convicted Of Raping Female Inmate: Feds

SUNSET PARK, NY — A guard at a Sunset Park jail faces life in prison after he was convicted of repeatedly raping a female inmate for months, federal prosecutors said.

Carlos Richard Martinez, 48, a lieutenant at the Metropolitan Detention Center on 20th Street, was convicted after a two-week jury trial for raping the woman at least five times in the jail from 2015 to 2016, a spokesman for federal prosecutors announced.

“Martinez exploited the victim’s fear of being punished with additional jail time and other disciplinary action, but his attempts to intimidate the victim into silence ultimately failed as evidenced by her brave testimony at the trial," United States Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement.

"Martinez has now been held to account for violent, criminal misconduct that will never be tolerated in a correctional institution."

Martinez was hit with an indictment in May along with two other guards who worked in the federal jail, at 80 20th St., for repeated sexual attacks on at least 10 female prisoners from 2013 to 2016.

Guard Armando Moronta and lieutenant Eugenio Perez were also accused of raping inmates for years until 2016, prosecutors said. The three have been suspended without pay since the indictments were filed.

Starting in Dec. 2015, Martinez raped a Dominican woman in her 20s at least five times until she was released into ICE custody in April 2016, according to prosecutors and the New York Times.

The woman spoke limited English and was being held in the jail on drug trafficking charges, the New York Times reported.

She worked as a cleaner while incarcerated at MDC and Martinez would direct her to clean a lieutenant's office in the building. He would then pin her facedown on a desk and rape her while he watched surveillance video to make sure he didn't get caught, prosecutors said.

Martinez told her if she reported him he transfer her to the Special Housing Unit and she would receive additional jail times.

Moronta, 39, was previously charged for accepting bribes to smuggle in cellphones and drugs into the jail in January 2017. He was indicted for raping three women inside the prison starting on May 2016, prosecutors said.

Perez, 46, a high-ranking lieutenant who was responsible for training guards on the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), was also accused of raping six inmates starting in 2013.

The allegations of rape inside the jail came after a report by judges who found "third world" conditions for inmates held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

The judges found women crammed inside rooms with no windows and no opportunities to go outside for exercise. The report led to a federal judge to order hearing based on the conditions of the jail in 2016.

Martinez faces a maximum of life in prison for his conviction and no date has been set for his sentencing.

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