TRENTON, NJ– The New Jersey Attorney General, Matthew J. Platkin, and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) have announced that a state grand jury has indicted six correctional police officers. These charges are linked to the 2020 assault of an inmate at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility.
The indictment, composed of seven counts, accuses the officers of pepper spraying and forcibly removing an inmate from a cell on April 8, 2020. Additionally, the officers are alleged to have filed false reports concerning the incident.
The officers facing charges include Sgt. Michael Emmert and Senior Corrections Officers Christopher Toth, Mark Sadlowski Jr., Raymond Quinones, Michael Gaines, and Michael Ambrozaitis. The indictment follows an investigation by the OPIA’s Corruption Bureau and the Department of Corrections’ Special Investigations Division.
All officers are charged with official misconduct, tampering with public records, and falsifying or tampering with records. Emmert and Toth face an additional charge of aggravated assault. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.