Rikers captain sexually harassed and assaulted officer, lawsuit claims
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A correction officer accused her former boss on Rikers Island of sexual harassment and abuse in a recently filed lawsuit. AP file photo by Seth Wenig
By Jacob Kaye
A Rikers Island corrections captain was recently accused of regularly sexually harassing and assaulting an officer who worked under his watch.
The alleged abuses, which purportedly lasted for half a year between 2022 and 2023, wouldn’t be the first Captain Edwich Jasmin committed against women working for the Department of Correction. In 2020, the city settled a lawsuit making similar claims against Jasmin for $250,000.
But correction officer Shante Orr says in a new lawsuit that despite Jasmin’s history, his behavior has not changed.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in November and first reported by the New York Daily News, Jasmin made every day life for Orr difficult by frequently propositioning her for sex. At one point, Jasmin exposed his genitals to Orr, the lawsuit claims.
The alleged harassment and assault took place around the same time the city and its Department of Correction began to be sued by hundreds of former Rikers Island detainees who said they had been assaulted, harassed and raped by officers who worked in the dangerous jail complex. Among the lawsuits, which were filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, include at least one that was filed against Jasmin, according to the news outlet Gothamist, which analyzed hundreds of the lawsuits.
Like many of the claims filed under the Adult Survivors Act, Orr accused the DOC of failing to prevent the assaults and of “permitting a machismo culture to develop within its ranks and enabling harassment of female corrections officers by their direct supervisors to continue unchecked.”
According to the lawsuit, the harassment began in May 2022, when Orr was put on modified duty and transferred to the DOC’s Transportation Division. Orr was hoping to work in the Transportation Division’s store, selling food to officers. But she first had to get permission from Jasmin, a 35-year veteran of the DOC, who oversaw the division.
Once Orr began working in the division, the lawsuit claims she was “subjected to a continuous and egregious pattern of sexual advances and assaults from Jasmin.”
According to the filing, Orr didn’t complain about the alleged harassment for months because she “believed that to keep her job and position, she would have to tolerate the offensive comments and physical advances.”
One of the first alleged incidents came shortly after Orr began working in the division. In need of a new parking pass, Orr went to Jasmin who told her, “I’m Captain Jasmin; I could do that, I could do whatever I want – but what can you do for me? That’s how the world works; you do for me, I do for you. I’m Captain Jasmin; I can do whatever – it’s now on you.”
Orr said it was the start of escalating incidents that made her uncomfortable.
In September 2022, Jasmin allegedly attempted to unbuckle Orr’s pants. A month later, he allegedly texted her “I hope you miss me the way I miss you,” while Orr was on leave attending a family funeral.
At one point, Jasmin sent Orr $100 online unprompted. He said the cash was “to show you what I could do for you, but that is just a tiny amount of what I could do for you.”
In November 2022, Jasmin allegedly kissed Orr while the two were in his office, despite her efforts to turn away. The lawsuit claims that Jasmin then began to unzip his pants and touch the officer before someone knocked on his office door, and he let go.
By the end of the month, Jasmin revoked Orr’s parking pass in an alleged attempt at retaliation for rejecting his advances.
But his harassment still continued, the lawsuit claims.
In December 2022, Jasmin allegedly walked up to Orr while she was working in the store and said that she was “taking too long to give him some,” and that soon his “penis won’t work anymore.”
Over the next several months, the captain allegedly groped Orr on numerous occasions and continued to proposition her for sex, including one instance when he allegedly offered her $200.
According to the lawsuit, Orr filed a complaint with the DOC against Jasmin after leaving the division in August 2023. The suit claims that no investigation or inquiry had been conducted as a result. It’s also unclear if Jasmin was reprimanded in any way for the alleged assaults and harassment.
A spokesperson for the DOC did not respond directly to questions about Jasmin’s current employment.
“We take claims of sexual harassment and assault seriously,” the spokesperson said. “These allegations are under investigation.”
Within the past two years, around 700 lawsuits claiming sexual harassment and assault against officers on Rikers Island were filed against the DOC.
Combined, the plaintiffs behind the lawsuits are seeking over $14 billion in damages from the city.
During a City Council oversight hearing on the DOC’s handling of sexual assault claims in October, DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, who spent nearly a decade working as an attorney within the department, at first stopped short of saying she believed the claims made by several woman who testified during the hearing. Instead, she said she believed “that we really need to look into it.”
“I do believe that people have raised some serious concerns, and I think that as a department, that we have to truly lean in and make sure that these concerns are addressed,” Maginley-Liddie said.
