Juvenile corrections officer charged with assault on 16-year-old inmate

An inactive correctional police officer for the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission (JJC) was criminally charged today for allegedly using unjustified force and breaking the wrist of a male resident at the JJC Juvenile Medium Security Facility in Bordentown, N.J.

Lt. Edward Day, 52, of Paulsboro, N.J., who worked as a correctional police officer at the JJC Juvenile Medium Security Facility, was charged today by complaint-summons with third-degree aggravated assault by the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA).

The charge is the result of an investigation by the OPIA Corruption Bureau and JJC’s Office of Investigations.

On Oct. 25, 2020, Day and other correctional police officers were escorting a 16-year-old juvenile resident from his room to another location in the facility, with his arms handcuffed behind his back, when the lieutenant, without apparent cause or justification, allegedly grabbed the victim’s ankle from behind, pulled his leg back, and pushed him face forward onto the ground.

Day then allegedly grabbed hold of the juvenile’s handcuffed wrists and twisted and broke one of them.

Deputy Attorney General Brian Uzdavinis is prosecuting the case under the supervision of OPIA Corruption Bureau Chief Peter Lee and OPIA Deputy Director Anthony Picione.

Third-degree charges carry a sentence of three to five years in state prison and a criminal fine of up to $15,000. The charge is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

Lance Lopez Sr., the former president if Policemen’s Benevolent Association 105 which represents correctional police officers, previously said the disciplinary system in place at the Juvenile Justice Commission deteriorated due to negligence and leniency by the Murphy administration, resulting in an unsafe hazardous facility for officers, civilians and inmates.

Several officers suffered broken bones in 2019, after 17 juvenile offenders rioted inside a classroom at the facility in an attack on outnumbered officers who tried to quell the violence.