A corrections officer at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park was found guilty on 23 counts of sexual abuse in Brooklyn federal court on Monday.
Eugenio Perez forced five female inmates — through physical force and intimidation — to engage in sexual acts with him over a three-year period between January 2013 and September 2016, while he was a lieutenant at the jail.
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said Perez took advantage of his professional power.
“Perez was a calculating predator who brazenly abused the authority of his position and betrayed his oath as a correctional officer when he sexually abused women under his control and entrusted to his care,” said Richard Donoghue.
Donoghue said that he and the other prosecutors hoped the verdict would help the victims move forward.
“We hope that today’s verdict brings some measure of closure and justice to the victims of Perez’s crimes.”
The five victims who testified during the two-week trial said that Perez arranged for them to clean his office at night so he could be alone with them, and that he subsequently forced them to keep quiet about the abuse.
Perez faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The conviction of Perez is the latest indication of a pattern and culture of sexual abuse against female inmates in the jail.
One of his former fellow lieutenants, Carlos Richard Martinez, was convicted in January of raping a female inmate there, and a guard, Armando Moronta, pled guilty to sexually abusing three female Metropolitan Detention Center inmates last November.
