Former Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center guard admits smuggling cell phone chargers

A former guard at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center admitted she abused her power to give inmates a different kind of power – for example by smuggling in a supply of cell phone charging cables last year.

Fabienne Osias, 40, of Brooklyn, wept Tuesday as she pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to smuggling the contraband into the troubled Sunset Park prison.

According to federal authorities, she attempted to secretly smuggle five USB charging cubes and nine cables to an inmate.

“I understood at the time that it was against the law and also against the rules of the BOP [Bureau of Prisons] and the MDC,” she said tearfully. “I am sorry for what I have done. I am aware that my actions may have harmed others.”

Osias was arraigned and pleaded guilty before Judge Marcia Henry on Tuesday. She faces one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. However, under federal court guidelines, her sentence will likely be between zero and six months.

The verdict is scheduled for January 31.

At one point, the judge had Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik present her legal arguments as to why the chargers should be considered phone contraband or a more benign “other” type of prohibited item – which would make the difference between a maximum sentence of six months or a year.

Osias, who quit her job at the federal prison last week, agreed as part of her guilty plea that she will not seek future work in a prison or detention facility. She had worked at the Metropolitan Detention Center since January 2021, federal prison officials said Tuesday.

“The Federal Bureau of Prisons fully supports the duty to hold accountable those who abuse the public trust and commit criminal activity,” bureau spokesman Benjamin O'Cone said Tuesday. “As prison professionals, we are trained and have taken an oath that requires us to act with integrity. Above all else, we have a sacred responsibility to protect those in our care and custody.”

Osias and her attorney, Anthony Cecutti, declined to comment as they left the courtroom Tuesday.

“The defendant abused her position of trust to smuggle cell phone chargers into the Metropolitan Detention Center,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Tuesday. “Smuggled cell phones enable federal prisoners to continue committing crimes while incarcerated at the MDC, endangering both the prison population and society as a whole.”

Osias is the latest correctional officer caught smuggling prohibited materials into the Metropolitan Detention Center. In July, Quandelle Joseph was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for accepting bribes to smuggle drugs, cigarettes and cell phones.

Another former correctional officer, Jeremy Monk, was sentenced in December to three months of house arrest and one year of probation for smuggling marijuana into prison.

The federal prison – which houses violent gang members and white-collar criminals such as crypto fraudster Samuel Bankman-Fried and which at one time also incarcerated Ghislaine Maxwell and R. Kelly – faces constant criticism from judges and defense attorneys for its “barbaric” conditions and inadequate staffing.

There were two stabbing murders at the prison in June and July, and a video shows an inmate being stabbed 44 times on April 27 before a single correctional officer arrived to stop the attack.

On July 17, Edwin Cordero was stabbed to death during a fight in the prison while awaiting transfer to another facility to begin serving a two-year sentence. Nearly six weeks earlier, on June 7, another inmate, Uriel Whyte, was fatally stabbed in the neck.