Mother in fatal child abuse case says guards facilitated her sexual assault in jail
A Harlem mother in jail for the beating death of her 6-year-old son is claiming that Rikers Island correction officers set up her sexual assault by a fellow inmate.
Geraldine Perkins, filed a notice of claim on Friday that alleges “correction officers who were assigned to watch over (her) did nothing to stop the abuse.”
She also claims some of the officers went so far as to take “material steps to facilitate” the April 16 sexual assault by an “especially violate” inmate named Alexandria James.
The assailant allegedly made a homemade sex device that was used to penetrate Perkins who was supposed to be in protective custody.
“My client was the target of premeditated criminal conduct,” Perkins attorney Aaron Rubin stated.
— Stepfather of black abused child: ‘He’s not my responsibility, I come from a rich white family’ —
According to the court papers, Rikers correction officers “utilized James as an enforcer to intimidate other female inmates … while deliberately turning a blind eye to the consequences.”
The lawsuit will be brought against the city, the Correction Department and as of yet unidentified correction officers.
Perkins was arrested along with her boyfriend Rysheim Smith after her son was beaten to death.
Smith is accused of second-degree murder for beating the boy with a broken broomstick as well as with his bare hands after the boy went to the bathroom in an ice bucket. Next, he hung the boy from a hook on the bathroom door, all while his mother did nothing to help him.
She was charged with manslaughter.
