The second of three Passaic County corrections officers charged with organizing and assaulting a detainee at Passaic County Jail in 2021 admitted his role in the crime last week, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Donald Vinales, a sergeant on the correctional officer staff, pleaded guilty to deprivation of rights under color of law and conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey.
On January 22, 2021, a pretrial detainee at the jail squirted a mixture containing urine onto a correctional officer, the office said.
The next day, Vinales admitted that he, along with Sgt. Jose Gonzalez, and Correctional Officer Lorenzo Bowden, who were also charged in this case, transported the detainee through an area of the jail that does not have a video surveillance camera, investigators said.
Correctional Officers and inmates at the PCJ have referred to this area as a “blind spot,” the office said.
While in that blind spot, Vinales admitted that he and Gonzalez assaulted the handcuffed detainee by knocking him to the ground and hitting him multiple times, authorities said.
One day after the assault, the detainee was taken to a local hospital, which documented injuries from the assault, federal prosecutors said.
The defendants were required to submit documentation regarding their use of force, but none of them did so, the office said.
In April 2022, after receiving federal grand jury subpoenas in connection with this investigation, Gonzalez, Vinales and Bowden, and others who have not been identified, met to discuss the federal investigation, authorities said.
During that meeting, the group agreed not to cooperate with the federal investigation and also agreed to say that nothing had happened to the detainee, officials said.
During an interview with federal investigators in October 2022, Bowden lied and said the detainee had not been assaulted and that there had not been any meeting or communication among those who participated in or witnessed the assault, the office said.
Bowden pleaded guilty on April 18, 2024, to one count of obstruction of justice and is awaiting sentencing, investigators said.
The charges against Gonzalez were still pending on Tuesday, according to the statement.
Stories by Chris Sheldon
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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
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