09-12-05 -- Zayas, Jeannette -- Sentencing -- News Release

Corrections Officer Sentenced to Three Months In Federal Prison for Having Sex with an Inmate

CAMDEN - A former federal corrections officer at Federal Correctional Institution at Fairton was sentenced to three months in federal prison today for having sexual relations with an inmate under her supervision, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

U.S. Magistrate Joel B. Rosen also ordered Jeannette Zayas, 39, of Vineland, to pay $1000 in fines and to serve three years of supervised release upon the completion of her prison sentence.

At her plea hearing on March 22, 2005, Zayas admitted that from March 2004 through July 2004, while employed by the United States Bureau of Prisons as a correctional officer at the Federal Correctional Institution at Fairton ("FCI- Fairton"), she had sexual relations with an FCI-Fairton inmate on numerous occasions.

According to the Criminal Complaint, in May 2004, FCI- Fairton investigators received information that Zayas was having sexual relations with an inmate who is identified only by the initials A.O. This information was passed onto the FBI for further investigation.

According to the Complaint, on May 8, Zayas requested to be assigned to work in the Inmate Housing Unit D Right, which is A.O.'s assigned housing unit. During the months of June and July 2004, investigators observed Zayas enter the prison staff bathroom in an inmate-housing unit with A.O. on eight separate occasions, during which they spent between ten to twenty minutes together on each occasion.

According to the Complaint, on July 23, 2004, Zayas admitted to members of law enforcement that she engaged in sexual intercourse with inmate A.O. on approximately five to six separate occasions. She admitted to sending letters, greeting cards, and photographs to A.O. through the mail. Zayas also admitted to providing A.O. with her cellular telephone for his use on two separate occasions. She also admitted to informing at least one inmate of how investigators with the Bureau of Prisons attempt to covertly transport inmate informants into their office.

In determining an actual sentence, Judge Rosen consulted the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges that take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant's criminal history, if any, and other factors. The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.

Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI's Atlantic City Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Leslie Wiser, Jr., Investigators with the Bureau of Prisons, under the direction of Scott D. Dodrill, Northeast Regional Director, in Philadelphia, and the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, for the investigation of this case.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Richardson of the U.S. Attorney's Criminal Division in Camden.

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Defense Attorney: Vincent Pancari, Esq. Vineland