NYC jail guard pleads guilty to raking in sick pay while bowling

A corrupt Rikers correction officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to ripping off the city by collecting more than a year’s worth of sick pay while he was off bowling, doing house work and traveling abroad. 

Eduardo Trinidad was the last of a trio of guards to cop to a single count of federal program fraud, as alleged by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

The trio has since been fired and now face up to 10 years behind bars.

Trinidad allegedly raked in $140,000 while faking an injury from June 2021 to November 2022, according to prosecutors. 

During the time he was out on leave, Trinidad showed up to medical appointments with the city Department of Correction wearing fake slings, a cane and boot, prosecutors charged. 

But otherwise, Investigators found, Trinidad would do housework, go bowling and travel to the Dominican Republic and Florida with his fiancee, Monica Coaxum, a fellow correction officer who pleaded guilty to the same charge in February. 

A third officer, Steven Cange, also siphoned off $139,000 in faulty sick pay while on leave from March 2021 to November 2022 and copped to the same count, according to prosecutors. 

In statements, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and the head of the city’s Department of Investigation lauded the guilty pleas. 

“Their conduct — including travel around the country, partying, bowling, and home repairs, on stolen sick leave time — is an insult to the correction officers who do their jobs, who show up to work and risk their personal safety on a daily basis,” DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said.

US Attorney Breon Peace added, “Sick leave abuse is a plague on the New York City Department of Correction that puts fellow officers and inmates at risk during the ongoing staffing crisis in the jails.”