The city let a convicted sex offender posing as a Department of Correction o♔ffi𒉰cer wander around city jails where he molested an inmate during a strip search, according to a new lawsuit.
Identified as Andrew M. in court papers, the 21-year-old victim was behind bars in a lower Manhattan lockup on Feb. 27 when Matthew Matagrano used 𝔍a phony badge to break into the jail.
Andrew M., who was on trial for participating in a brutal gang assault, requests anonymity in the Manhattan Supreme Court suit filed yesterd♕ay as🧜 the victim of “an alleged sex crime.”
The inmate blames the head of the city’s Department of Correction, Dora Schriro, for the incident, saying she relaxed regulations on security clearances by allowing non-uniformed employees access in city prisons.
Andrew M. says Matagrano was n𝓰ot wearing a uniform when he groped his genitals and forced him into a body cavity search.
“During the course of the squat search, Matagrano made suggestive and overtly improper comments to the plaintiff,” the court papers say. “Matagrano humiliated the plaintiff.”
According to a criminal complaint, Matagrano had warned, “Don’t f–k with me, I will hurt you,” while pinning his victim against a pillar.
The inmate further alleges that Matagrano reported him to a supervisor and he was thrown in isolation for a week after telling ment🦹al health staff that he was suicidal, his attorney told the Post.
“In the back of his mind he doesn’t know who’s who,” lawyer Andrew Plasse said. “Which is not a good situation to be in if you’re confined.”
Andrew M. is serving a 15 year sentence for joining a group of drunken friends to beat aꦉ man until his skull was fractured in the Lower East Side in 2010.
He wants unspecified damages.
Matagrano, 37, pleaded guilty to burglary and burglary as a sexually motivated felony for the Feb. 27 incident . He was sentenced 🎉to a decade in prisoᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚn in Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, N.Y.
A spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department 💧declined comment saying she has not yet received the suit.