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Rikers guard accused of sexual assault in a third lawsuit
By
Samantha Max
Published Sep 26, 2024
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(Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
By
Samantha Max
Published Sep 26, 2024
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A Rikers Island correction officer who had already been accused of sexually assaulting at least two women while they were incarcerated is also accused of sexual misconduct by another former detainee in a new lawsuit filed against the city this month.
Officer Anthony Martin Jr. ordered Jessica Brenner, 34, to pull down her pants and “twerk” when she was detained at the Rikers women’s jail in the summer of 2023, she alleges in court filings. She said Martin Jr. ordered another woman to rub her genitals against Brenner’s exposed butt, and that the officer masturbated while he watched.
Brenner’s lawsuit adds to a list of sexual misconduct allegations against Martin Jr., who has been accused in both civil and criminal court. Martin Jr.’s other accusers say city failed to supervise the officer. Criminal justice experts have urged the city to improve how it responds to allegations of sexual abuse in its jails.
At least two other women have sued the city of New York, alleging Martin Jr. sexually assaulted them while they were incarcerated at the women’s jail on Rikers Island. Brenner and the other women all said the officer abused them inside a storage area in the jail.
One of Martin Jr.’s other accusers filed a complaint with state prison officials in May 2021, while she was completing her sentence upstate, but city correction officials previously told Gothamist they have no record of the report or any subsequent investigation. Less than three years after that complaint, Martin Jr. was arrested and charged with an off-duty rape that prosecutors say happened at his home in Queens.
The New York Daily News first reported on Brenner’s lawsuit and Martin’s arrest.
The Department of Correction suspended Martin without pay in April, after his arrest. Spokesperson Annais Morales said in a statement that the agency can’t comment on pending litigation but that allegations against employees or people in custody are “investigated thoroughly” and referred to outside agencies, like prosecutors, “if necessary.”
“The NYC Department of Correction takes claims of sexual misconduct seriously, and such behavior will not be tolerated,” she said.
Martin Jr. has denied the allegations against him. Martin Jr.’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘Degrading and humiliating’
Brenner says in an affidavit that she was arrested while intoxicated in May 2023 and held in a unit at the women’s jail that provided counseling for drug treatment. A few weeks later, she says, she was assigned to a project with a few other women to organize old files, which Martin Jr. supervised.
One day in June, Brenner says, Martin Jr. was supposed to escort the women back to their housing unit but instead led them down a long corridor to an empty office. That’s where she says the officer locked the door and told them they would be playing the game “Simon Says.”
Martin Jr. then ordered Brenner to pull down her pants and shake her butt, she says. He ordered another woman to “hump” her and smack her butt, the affidavit states.
Brenner says she eventually refused to participate any further in the “degrading and humiliating conduct” and pulled up her pants.
Brenner says in the affidavit that she was too afraid to report what happened, but that another woman told a jail employee. After Martin Jr.’s supervisor confronted him, Brenner says, the officer demanded that she write a statement saying nothing happened. She says she told the officer she would do so, but but never did.
Detectives interviewed her months later, and she “told them everything that happened,” according to her affidavit.
Brenner declined an interview request from Gothamist. In a statement, her attorney, Leo Glickman, criticized the city’s handling of sexual abuse in jails.
“Without accountability, women will continue to be victimized by taxpayer-supported sexual predators employed as correction officers,” he said.
For months, Gothamist has been reporting on more than 700 lawsuits filed by people who say they were fondled, raped or otherwise sexually abused while in city custody over the last five decades — some as recently as the last couple years. Nearly all the lawsuits were brought by women who were incarcerated at the Rose M. Singer Center. They’re seeking more than $14.7 billion in damages.
Gothamist identified at least five officers accused in the lawsuits who are current Department of Correction employees, including Martin Jr. One former officer was accused in more than 20 lawsuits. More than 30 women allege that medical professionals sexually assaulted them while they were detained.
A growing number of elected officials and mayoral candidates have urged the city to commission an independent investigation into the allegations. So far, the mayor’s office has only announced an investigation by the Law Department, which is the agency defending the city against the lawsuits in court.
The Bronx District Attorney’s Office, which has jurisdiction over crimes committed on Rikers Island, also said it would review the claims following repeated inquiries from Gothamist. Bronx prosecutors have announced any criminal charges connected to the lawsuits to date.
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public safety
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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