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Odd Fellow Accused Of Breaking <em>Into</em> Jail Allegedly Grabbed Prisoner's Balls
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 15, 2013
Modified Jul 15, 2013
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Matthew Matagrano
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 15, 2013
Modified Jul 15, 2013
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The strange story of the man accused of impersonating an officer to break into NYC jails gets ever stranger. Today the Daily News reports that Matthew Matagrano faces new charges for his time spent hanging out at the Manhattan Detention Center last February. According to court papers obtained by the News, Matagrano is accused of groping and strip-searching an inmate during his visit, and further terrorizing the prisoner by "pinning him against a pillar, grabbing his testicles and threatening him."
Matagrano, who is a convicted sex offender with a record (he did time in federal prison back in the '90s for sodomizing a 15-year-old boy), allegedly waltzed right into the detention center by brandishing a fake badge and pretending to be an investigator from the NYPD Intelligence Unit. He spent almost eight hours hanging out inside, doling out cigarettes to inmates and, apparently, forcing one to strip for his pleasure. Matagrano is also accused of pulling the same impostor stunt at Rikers; he previously said he likes being in jail because “they made me feel important."
The badge, it turns out, was from a group called Civil Advocates of New York, an opaque organization whose mission is to "assist and educate people in navigating through the bureaucratic obstacles that come about in their daily lives." It's still unclear how this badge enabled Matagrano to fool security at the jails. In addition to the new charge of burglary as a sexually motivated felony, he's been charged with burglary, possession of a forged instrument, criminal impersonation and promoting prison contraband.
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impostors
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matthew matagrano
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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