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Corrections officers, teacher and probation officer among 13 arrested

BY ALICIA CRUZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

A five month investigation by the Essex County Prosecutor's Office's Professional Standards Bureau and Intelligence Units has led to the arrest of 13 people, including two Essex County jail corrections officers, a Cedar Grove teacher and a Union County probation officer, in what investigators are calling a jailhouse smuggling ring that gave prisoners roaming access to cell phones, narcotics and other contraband.

Officials say the alleged ringleader is Essex County Corrections Officer Joseph Mastriani who was the first of the two corrections officers to be arrested Thursday morning when he arrived at the jail to work, unnamed law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, told The Star-Ledger.

The other corrections officer arrested has been identified as William Rupp, of Bloomfield.

Joe Amato, president of the Essex County corrections officers union, Local 382 said the arrested officers do not qualify for legal representation. "We represent officers for infractions that come under duty of their job. We do not represent people who violate the law, who violate the trust given to them."

Amato told The Star-Ledger that as far as the union was concerned, the jail was "a little safer" after the arrest of the two corrections officer. "The PBA has zero tolerance for this kind of stuff," said Amato.

Residents on Plymouth Road, where teacher Jill Watral, of Cedar Grove, was arrested this morning, told The Star-Ledger that they noticed strangers arriving to the Watral house through the day to hand over packages.

"A lot of people would come on the street, talk to them and then leave," said one neighbor, who declined to give his name to protect his family.

Thursdays arrest and the investigation that led to it, was not a first for Mastriani, 30, of Nutley. He was the subject of a criminal investigation once before when he and five other corrections officers faced a grand jury in 2005 for their involvement in a staged "boxing match" with a 34-year-old inmate at the facility. None of the officers were indicted, and it is not clear if Mastriani ever faced a disciplinary charges.

The jailhouse contraband ring worked like a call center, with two jail inmates taking requests for contraband from other inmates, and then passing their requests onto corrections officers, The Star-Ledger reported. The corrections officers would then send the requests to the girlfriends of the corrections' officers involved in the scheme, the girlfriends of inmates and known gang members, who would then purchase the contraband items from the outside.

The items were then given to the corrections officers, who would pass them on to the two prisoners for distribution throughout the facility, the officials said.

One of the two inmates involved in the scheme, 20-year-old Wilbert Best, is awaiting trial in the 2009 shooting death of an East Orange man. Best is facing murder and weapons charges from May 2009 after Newark Police arrested him in connection with the slaying of Kenneth Kelly last year.

Inmates having access to cell phones has long been a concern for corrections officials who pointed to the case of 38-year-old Anthony Kidd who allegedly ordered the murder of his ex-girlfriend's from inside New Jersey State Prison in 2005. Investigators say that Kidd allegedly used a smuggled cell phone to order the hit.

NewJerseyNewsroom.com reported the grand jury indictments of 35 state prison inmates for the illegal possession of cell phones in September 2009. DOC officials said that between August and July 2009, they confiscated a total of 391 cell phones from various inmates, some who were serving prison sentences ranging from 5 years to life for crimes that included murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, armed robbery and drug and weapons offenses.

The indictments came as a result of a collaborative effort involving the Division of Criminal Justice and the Department of Corrections. Twenty-five of the indicted inmates were members or associates of criminal street gangs, including various sets of the Bloods, as well as the Crips, Latin Kings, and Netas.

The unlawful possession of a cell phone in a correctional facility is a third-degree crime that carries a maximum sentence of five years in state prison and a $15,000 fine.

Wilbert Best, a Northern State inmate who was arrested in June in conjunction with Operation Red Storm along with forty other people, including Northern State Prison corrections officer, Gale Bishop, was also arrested Thursday for his part in the jailhouse scheme.

Operation Red Storm was an 18-month investigation led by the state Division of Criminal Justice, with assistance of the Boonton and Newark police, The New Jersey State Department of Corrections and the State Police, into a drug distribution network linked to the Bloods street gang that operated in two Newark neighborhoods, NJNR reported.

That investigation also led to the seizure of more than 250 "bricks" of heroin, over a kilogram of cocaine, more than $60,000 in cash, four semi-automatic handguns, an assault rifle in addition to smuggled cell phones at the Northern State Prison in Newark.

Additional arrests in Essex, Union and Morris counties followed for these individuals accused of taking part in the jailhouse smuggling ring, according to The Star-Ledger:

• John C. Smith: Union County probation officer
• Jill Watral, of Nutley: Cedar Grove schoolteacher
• Wilbert Best: Inmate awaiting trial in the 2009 shooting death of 34-year-old Kenneth Kelly
• Ricardo Ortiz: Known Latin Kings gang member who is currently being housed at the jail
• Madeline Rodriguez, of Newark: City woman with ties to the Latin Kings organization, but not a recognized gang member.
• Rose Guinyard, of Newark
• Chang Park, of Bloomfield
• Anthony Rotonda, of Bloomfield
• Joseph Lehman, of Bloomfield
• Shannon Arguello-Falke, of South Amboy
• Robert Koval Jr., of Bloomfield