By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, April 29, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B03
A 27-year-old Bergen County Jail inmate on Tuesday asked to be moved to a state prison out of fear of violence from other inmates because corrections officers allegedly set him up to look like a “snitch.”
Karl Meisenbach testified before James R. Zazzali, who is holding fact-finding hearings in a class-action lawsuit seeking to reduce overcrowding in the jail. The inmate said that an officer incensed over his February testimony in the lawsuit took steps to make other inmates suspicious of him.
Corrections Officer Richard McMahon spoke to him two times within view of other inmates, the second time shortly after a shakedown in the dormitory, Meisenbach said.
McMahon testified, however, that he knew Meisenbach from “on the street” and had counseled him on drug, marital, and custody problems. His talks with Meisenbach during the occasions cited were not out of the ordinary, McMahon said.
Meisenbach, who said he had been committed to the Bergen County Jail about two dozen times, testified in February that during a disturbance at the jail on Nov. 24, corrections officers accused him of possessing drugs, slapped him around, stripped him naked, and left him handcuffed to the bars in a holding cell.
Officers testified Tuesday that they had been called to the disturbance by other inmates complaining about Meisenbach.
Meisenbach said Tuesday that McMahon approached him in the jail in April and told him he did not like what he had been hearing about him. McMahon said four of his corrections officer friends got into trouble because of the February testimony, Meisenbach testified Tuesday.
A few days later, McMahon came to him, “again, in front of all the inmates,” and asked if he had any information for him. This happened immediately after a shakedown in the dormitory, Meisenbach said, adding that he feared violence from other inmates if they thought he was “ratting” on them.
McMahon testified, however, that he asked Meisenbach about two things: rumors that he had drugs on him in the jail he said that’s what he was referring to when he said he did not like what he had been hearing about Meisenbach and his testimony regarding how four corrections officers treated him during the Nov. 24 incident.
Zazzali said Tuesday’s hearing was to allow testimony from both sides, and that he did not know when, or if, he would rule on Meisenbach’s request.
ID: 17375767 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
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