A federal correctional officer at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, has been indicted on charges that he sexually abused an inmate, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Prosecutors announced the case Wednesday and said it is now in federal court, adding another allegation of staff misconduct to the high-profile federal jail’s troubled record.
What prosecutors announced
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York disclosed the indictment in a brief post on its official X account, via US Attorney EDNY. The announcement stated that a federal correctional officer had been indicted for sexually abusing an inmate at MDC-Brooklyn but did not include the officer’s name, the specific criminal counts or the alleged timeline of the conduct. Those details are expected to appear in formal charging documents and related court filings when they are unsealed.
Troubled record at MDC Brooklyn
The new indictment lands as MDC-Brooklyn faces intensified scrutiny over conditions inside the facility, including reports of violence, staffing shortfalls and other safety problems, as reported by AP News. A report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has documented staff-on-inmate sexual abuse at multiple federal facilities and identified MDC-Brooklyn as one of the locations where employees abused detainees, citing gaps in oversight and compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act (U.S. Senate).
Legal context
When corrections staff are prosecuted in federal court, charges in prior cases have included abusive sexual contact, aggravated sexual abuse and deprivation of civil rights. MDC-Brooklyn has already seen related indictments and convictions in earlier prosecutions, according to Department of Justice records. For background on those prior cases at the jail, the Eastern District of New York has detailed several prosecutions on the Department of Justice site (Department of Justice).
Next steps
The indicted officer is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court, and an arraignment along with further docket entries typically follows an indictment. The Bureau of Prisons provides official information about MDC-Brooklyn and its role in housing federal detainees in the Eastern District of New York on its public pages (Bureau of Prisons). Formal charges and the schedule of upcoming proceedings will appear in the federal court filings as the case moves forward.
