CITY CORRECTION OFFICER GUILTY OF ATTEMPTED OFFICIAL
MISCONDUCT - ADMITS ROLE IN DISABLING SURVEILLANCE CAMERA IN
EFFORT TO COVER-UP AN ASSAULT ON AN INMATE

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today the conviction of New York City Correction Officer Nicholas Zito on a misdemeanor charge of Attempted Official Misconduct in connection with an assault on an inmate at a City jail facility on Rikers Island.

Zito, 35, of Staten Island, pled guilty before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett who sentenced Zito to a Conditional Discharge. This misdemeanor conviction has not cost Zito his job, however he still faces administrative sanctions from the Department of Correction.

The charge against Zito was the result of an investigation by the New York City Department of Investigation. It stemmed from a disturbance at the Anna M. Kross Center on October 5, 2005 that began when an inmate slashed another Correction Officer with a sharpened piece of metal. That attack allegedly set into motion a series of retaliatory assaults by correction officers on inmates who were not involved. Zito admitted that shortly after the first incident occurred he entered a control room in the unit and turned off a Digital Video Recorder and surveillance camera that monitored the area where the initial assault on the correction officer had taken place.

This incident also led to various charges, ranging from assault and filing false reports to official misconduct, being brought against another Correction Officer and a Correction Captain, however both were acquitted by a judge following non-jury trials.

Several other Correction Officers, who did not face any criminal charges, were disciplined by the Department of Correction for administrative violations in connection with this incident.

Kenneth Robinson, 29, the inmate whose actions sparked the series of incidents pled guilty last November to one count of Aggravated Assault Upon a Peace Officer and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Donald Levin of the Investigations Division.