A correction officer at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing a male inmate — including one time in the prison chaplain’s office.
James Johnson allegedly sexually abused the inmate on multiple occasions, directing him to private areas of the jail where the officer forced him to perform oral sex.
Johnson, 36, “leveraged his position as a correctional officer to take advantage of a man he was supposed to be protecting in his capacity as a prison guard and used his access to gratify his own sexual desires,” United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.
Concealed by a collection of stacked chairs at the chaplain’s office, the officer also attempted to have intercourse with the “John Doe” inmate, but the victim refused, officials said.
Another time, in a remote area in a rarely used suite of offices, the officer forced the inmate to perform oral sex again. Federal agents later recovered semen from the victim’s prison jumpsuit, and after obtaining a search warrant, determined that the two samples matched, officials said.
The Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
Authorities said the abuse occurred last year and Johnson had denied the allegations.
In addition to sex abuse, Johnson is charged with making false statements to federal law enforcement officers