A Rikers Island guard smuggled a tattoo gun to her female prison paramour to help alter a tattoo that linked the accused crook to a string of robberies, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Correction Capt. Shantay Dash was arraigned in Manhattan Supreme court on felony charges of promoting contraband and official misconduct — but is still drawing her salary and likely to get her pension even if convicted.
“The case that is before you now presents an appallingly flagrant violation of public trust,” said Assistant District Attorney Aaron Ginandes.
Dash was asked to smuggle the tool by jailbird Robin Hamilton, who wanted to mask a tattoo on her forearm after a judge ordered it be photographed as evidence in a 2013 robbery, Ginades said.
The original tat was of the name ERICKA — and it matched a tattoo that was seen on the arm of the perpetrator of the crime in a surveillance video.
But when Hamilton appeared at the DA’s office to have the image photographed, the ERICKA tat was nowhere to be found.
“She had a brand new tattoo on her forearm that had not completely healed,” Ginandes told Justice James Burke.
The Department of Correction and the DA’s office launched an investigation that led them to Dash, then a supervisor at the Rose Singer jail for female inmates.
Dash — who earned a robust $134,287 last year — allegedly ordered the tattoo gun on Amazon.com, delivered it to her lover and later helped Hamilton dispose of it, according to court papers and public records.
The tattoo revision didn’t save Hamilton. She was convicted of five violent felonies for several Manhattan and Queens robberies and was shipped off to state prison for 51 years to life.
Dash was arrested Jan. 25, 2017, and allegedly admitted to the forbidden dalliance with Hamilton — along with the tattoo gun gambit to get her off.
But she apparently still hadn’t learned her lesson.
The Department of Correction and the DA’s office met with Dash and asked her to help them identify additional suspects in the robberies.
“A few days later Robin Hamilton’s daughter called her mom in prison and shared the ‘entirety’ of the discussion “including details that only Dash would have known,” Ginandes said.
“The purpose of the call was to warn Robin Hamilton that the state was still investigating her,” added the prosecutor, arguing for $50,000 bail.
Defense lawyer James Frankie told the judge that Dash, who has a young daughter and resides in Brooklyn, was not a flight risk and is still working full time.
“If it’s demonstrable that she leaked the information, isn’t that alone enough to fire her?” the stunned jurist asked.
Union rules protect Dash’s job until she’s actually convicted of a crime — and even then she’ll still get a pension, Frankie and the prosecutor said.
Dash, who earns a base salary of $81,000, is on modified duty without inmate contact, said DOC spokesman Peter Thorne.