Jose Estevez-Luciano pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy, bribery, contraband and misconduct charges.
Westchester County District Attorney Susan Cacace announced that a former correction officer at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, in Ossining, N.Y., was sentenced by Judge James McCarty Feb. 13 to 1 to 3 years in state prison over a scheme to smuggle cellphones into the facility to incarcerated individuals.
Thursday’s sentence comes after Jose Estevez-Luciano, 35, of Yorktown Heights, pleaded guilty in November to one count each of Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree, Bribe Receiving in the Second Degree, Promoting Prison Contraband in the First Degree and Official Misconduct.
DA Cacace said: “Correction officers are entrusted with maintaining facility safety and protecting incarcerated individuals, staff and visitors, in part by rooting out contraband. Scheming to undermine these safeguards, all for personal enrichment, makes our prisons less safe and erodes public trust in government.
“The vast majority of correction officers are law-abiding public servants who work a thankless, often dangerous, job, day in and day out. Correction staff who flout the law are the exception, not the rule. But we will not hesitate to pursue cases against officers who breach their oath of office.”
Estevez-Luciano and a co-conspirator, Francis De La Cruz, 25, of Sleepy Hollow, were initially charged in a 40-count indictment with conspiring to smuggle cellphones to individuals incarcerated at Sing Sing, in exchange for payment from the individuals’ associates, between October 2021 and August 2023.
Estevez-Luciano and De La Cruz exchanged messages with each other in furtherance of the conspiracy, planning their smuggling operation and discussing ways to avoid detection.
In one message, Estevez-Luciano told De La Cruz to avoid sending screenshots of his discussions with incarcerated individuals’ associates about the smuggling operation.
“When they send you a photo, don’t send it to me,” Estevez-Luciano said. “Send me regular because they are investigating and checking all phones.”
De La Cruz pleaded guilty in November to two counts of the indictment. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 6.
The case was investigated by the Public and Law Enforcement Integrity Bureau of the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s Office of Special Investigations.
The case was prosecuted by Jennifer Sculco and Renée Hassel of the Public and Law Enforcement Integrity Bureau.
