A federal grand jury indicted two Passaic County correctional officers on Monday for allegedly violating a detainee’s civil rights.
The grand jury charged Sergeants Jose Gonzalez and Donald Vinales with assaulting a detainee after he sprayed a mixture containing urine onto an officer. A Department of Justice press release says the pair took the detainee to a camera-free “blind spot” of the Passaic County Jail, knocked him to the ground while handcuffed, and struck him until he required hospitalization.
Neither Gonzalez nor Vinales filed the required use-of-force documentation after the Jan. 22, 2021, incident, according to the release.
The grand jury also charged Gonzalez, Vinales, and a third correctional officer with conspiracy to obstruct justice after the group agreed to not cooperate with an investigation into the assault. The third officer, Lorenzo Bowden, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice in April and is awaiting sentencing.