A Bronx jury Tuesday acquitted a correction captain while convicting an officer for their roles in a 2019 incident during which a Rikers Island detainee tried to hang himself, and at least four officers waited to intervene for nearly 8 minutes, officials said.
The jury found Captain Terry Henry not guilty of reckless endangerment and official misconduct, but found Officer Kenneth Hood guilty of those charges for the incident in the George R. Vierno Center on Nov. 27, 2019, that left Nicholas Feliciano, 18, paralyzed.
In April, the city settled Feliciano’s lawsuit and agreed to pay $28 million — one of the largest settlements in history for a jail incident — for damages and the ongoing medical care he will need.
Two other officers who were charged in the incident — Daniel Fullerton and Mark Wilson — pleaded guilty to lesser offenses in October 2023.
Paul Idlett, the president of the Correction Captains Association, applauded the verdict in Henry’s favor.
“It brings a sense of closure for him and his family after this whole challenging process. This has been going on for the past 5 and a half years,” Idlett said.
“My prayers go out to the person in custody,” he said of Feliciano. “But my captain was the one who saved his life to get him where he is now. He got him down, did CPR and notified medical. He’s the one who tried to save him from dying.”
The Bronx District Attorney’s Office declined comment.
With the conviction, Hood will be terminated from the Correction Department, officials said. Sentencing is slated for March 12.
The criminal charges in the case hinged on security video that showed officers and other staff spotted Feliciano hanging in Intake Pen 11 with two sweatshirts tied together around his neck, but didn’t immediately act to save him.
Feliciano’s body shook and twisted for 2 minutes before he stopped moving, prosecutors said. The video showed uniformed officers and other staff walking past Feliciano’s cell during a period of 7 minutes and 51 seconds before they intervened to cut him down.
Hood, then 35, Wilson, then 46, and Fullerton, then 27, were on post in the unit, while Henry was their supervisor. Henry, then 37, Fullerton and a third unnamed officer attempted to cut Feliciano down and he fell to the ground unconscious.
They attempted CPR and called for medical assistance, but Feliciano suffered severe brain damage.
Henry and the three officers were indicted by a Bronx grand jury in July 2022 following a probe by the city Department of Investigation.
“These officers violated Department of Correction regulations, which required them to protect that inmate, and they broke the law,” said DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber at the time.
After the city settled Feliciano’s lawsuit in April, his grandmother Madeline Feliciano told NY1, “You got people walking by seeing him hanging and nobody intervenes. How does that happen?”