JAHMAL LIGHTFOOT
After beating at Rikers.
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A high-ranking Department of Correction official ordered the beating of a Rikers Island inmate who gave him a dirty look, authorities said yesterday.
Eliseo Perez Jr., who resigned as assistant chief of security after the incident, was charged along with nine other correction officers.
Inmate Jahmal Lightfoot, 28, suffered broken bones around both eyes, a broken nose and other injuries when he has assaulted by a crew of jailers “the size of NFL linemen” who held him down and stomped on his head and testicles, Bronx prosecutor Lawrence Piergrossi said in court.
Piergrossi said Perez demanded that his subordinates beat Lightfoot after the con locked eyes with him during a July 11 search at the maximum-security George R. Vierno Center.
“This guy thinks he’s tough. When you get him down to intake, I want you to kick his f–king teeth out,” Piergrossi quoted Perez as saying.
Capt. Gerald Vaughn echoed, “Yeah, I want to see his teeth on the floor,” before Capt. Michael Pollard went to oversee the beating, Piergrossi said.
After Lightfoot was taken to Bellevue Hospital, all 10 defendants filed bogus reports to justify the beating, with Correction Officer Alfred Rivera falsely claiming that Lightfoot had slashed him with a homemade knife, officials said.
Yesterday’s indictment followed a suit that Lightfoot filed earlier this year after slapping the city with a $5 million notice of claim. He’s currently serving four years for stealing a handbag.
Lightfoot’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, said the beating was part of a “systemic problem,” adding: “It is imperative that the Justice Department come in and move to have a federal monitor appointed to oversee the prison at Rikers Island.”