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Rikers Guard Nicole Bartley Charged With Raping Inmate Lover

By Ny MaGee
Published on: 15:41 PST, Feb 7, 2016

Rikers Island correction officer Nicole Bartley said her inmate lover “played me for a fool” after their transgression was discovered, and she was charged with rape and conspiring to traffic marijuana into the jail for him, according to the criminal report.

Under New York law, the inmate cannot legally consent to sex because he is a prisoner. Still, Bartley said he duped her into a romantic relationship. She was busted by the drug sniffing dog that was stationed with her. Thirty-year-old Bartley admits that she slept with the inmate and agreed to help him maintain his weed habit by supplying him with the drug, Daily News notes.

“I, Nicole, being a fool had my guard down to this man I thought (I) was falling in love with,” she said, according to the criminal complaint. “I was in love with him. He used me and played me for a fool. I had sex with him on one occasion in the jail a few days before January 30,” she said.

“I used a condom,” she continued. “It was in the closet in the morning when everyone else was locked in. It only lasted five minutes.”

Bartley was arrested on Saturday at her Bronx home after investigators found her with about 70 grams of marijuana, which she said was intended for her jailbird lover. Yahoo reports that she is the second corrections officer to be arrested in four days for allegedly trying to bring illegal narcotics into the complex. Nicole was released on $1,000 bail and faces up to four years in prison for the third-degree rape charge. She started working for the Department of Corrections in May 2014, the same year the department launched an investigation into drug trafficking at Rikers.

Rikers Island is “comprised of 10 separate jails, and typically has about 10,000 inmates, most of whom are either awaiting trial or serving short sentences after conviction,” per Yahoo. Daily News obtained a deposition last year in which a Department of Investigation inspector general expressed her frustration with correctional officials and jail guards she believed allowed prisoners to trade tobacco, drugs, and weapons.

“Based on the amount of contraband and the number of inmates distributing, I just don’t believe that you could not know if you regularly worked with that person,” said DOI’s Jennifer Sculco, in the Aug. 26, 2015, deposition.

Sculco testified in a lawsuit filed by inmate Alonzo Moore against the department that ended in a $200,000 settlement. Mayoral spokeswoman Monica Klein said the Correction Department has toughened its efforts to stop contraband from entering the system, but Sculco said weapons and narcotics are still easily available in the jails.

The recent arrest of yet another guard, Mohammed Sufian, promoted union president Norman Seabrook to stress their efforts to crack down on criminal activity among jail guards.

“Anyone found to be breaking the law should be prosecuted,” union president Norman Seabrook said. “We have zero tolerance for anyone who would potentially bring dangerous contraband into New York City’s jails.”

Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters said the arrest “demonstrates DOI’s continued focus to stem the flow of contraband smuggling within the city’s jails, a significant factor that feeds the violence and disorder on Rikers.”

Nicole Bartley is the 26th corrections staffer to be arrested since the department launched its 2014 probe to uncover corruption at the jail. Since that time, more than two dozen officers and other staffer members have been charged with crimes including assault, misconduct and smuggling.

[Images via Spencer Platt/Getty Images/Twitter]

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