Four city correction officers were among five defendants indicted Tuesday for alleged using forged disability parking placards, prosecutors announced.
One of the correction officers, Nakia Gales, 44, of Manhattan, is accused of selling the phony placards to her colleagues for up to $280 apiece.
“Members of our community with severe disabilities need these placards to enable them to park near their place of work, doctor’s office and other essential places so they can go about their lives more easily,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement announcing the charges.
“The defendants—four of them Correction Officers—allegedly corrupted the placard program for their own convenience,” Clark said.
Gales, the other three corrections officers — Judy Guity, 46, Rasma Caines, 43 and Shyiera Daniels, 29 — along with 60-year-old Craig Scott, are facing criminal possession of a forged instrument charges.
The four corrections officers were arraigned Tuesday and released on their own recognizance.
Prosecutors said the illegal placards were seen in cars belonging to all five defendants.
Gales ran into trouble with the law in September 2015 when she and other Rikers Island correction officer were charged with allegedly staging a retaliatory attack on an inmate who trashed talked them, the New York Times had reported, citing prosecutors.
