CLINTON, N.J. (AP) - A former corrections officer who admitted having sex with two inmates at New Jersey’s only women’s prison is now headed behind bars.
Joel Mercado recently received a three-year sentence. The 38-year-old Lyndhurst man will also forfeit his pension and is barred from holding public employment.
Besides serving as an officer at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, Mercado also was an academy instructor there for new officer recruits. Part of the curriculum he taught involved him explaining that state law prohibits sexual contact between officers and inmates.
Mercado was arrested in May 2017 and charged with two counts each of official misconduct and sexual assault. He pleaded guilty in February to the official misconduct counts.
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