A correctional officer at Rikers said he cried when he was cleared of sexually assaulting a colleague while on duty, calling the ordeal the biggest embarrassment of his life.
Carlos Ozrio, 39, was found not guilty last month on charges by a fellow correctional officer that he groped her from behind “while kissing her neck” in a Rikers Island headquarters trailer facility in 2020.
“I started crying and crying and crying. I didn't cry during the entire trial, but at that moment I started crying,” Ozrio said.
Ozrioz told the Post that he received a call in April 2023 from a union representative telling him that the 11-year veteran of the department had to report to the Bronx District Attorney's Office.
“I was shocked,” Ozrio said. “I thought it was a joke and started laughing. When he said he was going to call a lawyer, I thought he might not be kidding.”
The attorney told Ozrio that a female co-worker at Rikers had alleged that Ozrio touched her private parts.
“She said I put my hands on her breasts and vagina and slapped her on the buttocks,” Ozurio said.
Ozrio was charged with sexual abuse, forcible touching and harassment.
Mr. Ozrio categorically denied ever touching or harassing the woman, whom he considered a friend.
“We were friends and worked together in the same office,” Ozrio said.
The prison guard realized that he was not monitoring the cell, but was inside the cell.
“It was the biggest embarrassment of my life. I was in prison asking God why this happened to me,” Ozrio said.
Prosecutors offered Carlos a plea deal in which he would drop the case for disorderly conduct if he pleaded guilty, but Carlos refused and wanted to take the case to trial to “clear his name,” Ozrio said. he said.
Ozrio said the woman's allegations stemmed from a conversation in which she asked the man to “have a baby” with her, but Ozrio, who had a girlfriend at the time, refused.
“I was the only boy and I had three sisters and a mother. I know what it's like to protect women. This is not what I want to do,” Ozrio said.
During the trial, it was discovered that the text messages the woman used to prove her case had been altered on her mobile phone. But investigators never checked the recipient's cell phone, Ozrio claimed.
“She blamed it on iCloud,” Ozrio said.
When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Bronx State's Attorney's Office would only say, “We filed a case and the jury found him not guilty.”
Mr Townsend said he was pleased his client was found not guilty. But he said incidents like this make it difficult for other victims to come forward.
“This woman's actions make it even harder for the real victims of sexual violence at Rikers Island and in the prison system to come forward, whether they are inmates or female correctional officers who are the targets of sexual violence.” Trust “It's a problem when people just lie and prosecutors push their own story when there are obvious sexual issues,” Townsend told the Post.
