Credit: NJ Spotlight NewsA corrections officer who was charged with sexual assault at New Jersey’s women’s prison can go back to work there, an appeals panel has ruled, prompting outrage from the prison’s board and state corrections officials. The officer was among several who were charged in a scandal that prompted federal monitoring of the Edna Mahan Women’s Correctional Facility.
In a ruling issued late last month, a two-judge panel agreed with an earlier decision by the state Civil Service Commission that Brian Ambroise be reinstated as a correctional police officer at the Hunterdon County prison where he worked until his arrest for sexual assault on Oct. 6, 2016. He was charged with engaging in oral sex with an inmate and official misconduct. He was found not guilty of all charges in two separate criminal trials.
Ambroise was fired on Dec. 4, 2020, but appealed his dismissal. The Civil Service Commission instead ordered him to be suspended for six months and return to work with back pay.
The appellate judges ruled against the Department of Corrections, which had contended the commission’s decision was arbitrary and capricious. The judges found the commission’s decision to be “well supported in the record” and stated that they cannot alter a penalty unless it is deemed wildly disproportionate to the offense.
But DOC officials and the board of trustees expressed outrage at the decision, which involves one of seven officers charged more than six years ago with sexual assaults against a number of women at Edna Mahan. Those assaults led to women filing civil lawsuits that prompted the state to agree two years ago to pay $21 million to current and former inmates. It also agreed to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation and findings of a “pattern of sexual abuse” that ultimately brought the women’s prison under federal monitoring, which began 18 months ago.
‘Hard to believe’
Bonnie Kerness, a member of the Edna Mahan board of trustees and a longtime advocate for people who are incarcerated, said, “That this decision could be made now, while we have the federal monitor, while the state is paying $1 million to the Moss Group to change the culture there, is hard to believe.”
Kerness was one of seven trustees who signed a strongly worded statement objecting to the decision.
‘This decision undermines and erodes the Department’s ongoing efforts at enforcing zero-tolerance towards any form of sexual abuse and harassment of incarcerated persons.’ — statement from New Jersey Department of Corrections
“By ruling to return the terminated staff person to duty at Edna Mahan, the Appellate Court stripped the Department of Corrections of its ability to hold employees accountable for their abuse of power, a duty that incarcerated people, their families, the wider community, and the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, has insisted the NJDOC take seriously, and which the current NJDOC leadership has worked hard to do,” the statement reads. “That the Appellate Court would choose to step backwards in this progress by returning a predatory staff member to the institution is shocking to those of us who spend time listening to women who have been abused while incarcerated at the facility.”
‘Deeply concerned’
In its own statement, the DOC said it “is deeply concerned and troubled by the court’s recent decision to reinstate Mr. Ambroise’s employment with the Department. This decision undermines and erodes the Department’s ongoing efforts at enforcing zero-tolerance towards any form of sexual abuse and harassment of incarcerated persons.”
Corrections department Commissioner Victoria Kuhn, referring to the case on Friday, called the ruling “mind-boggling for reasons that we do not understand” during one of the periodic meetings held by Jane Parnell, the federal monitor, about progress in addressing sexual abuse and other issues at Edna Mahan.
“By all accounts he admitted to kissing one of the female inmates. He is alleged to have done much more than that, but by his own account he admitted to kissing her,” Kuhn said. “That is a very clear violation of the undue familiarity policy. He was removed from employment by DOC. The court felt differently and has substituted its judgment for what the department felt was appropriate and brought the individual back to work — that happened here and is unacceptable.”
But Ambroise’s lawyer, James Wronko, said the sexual assault charges against his client were “unfounded” and noted that Ambroise was found not guilty in the criminal trial and the administrative law judge did not find the allegations by the inmate that prompted Ambroise’s arrest to be credible. An inmate had alleged that Ambroise delivered messages from her to an inmate in a different housing unit and that she entered a relationship with him that included kissing and his performing oral sex on her on one occasion. After other initial statements, Ambroise ultimately said the only inappropriate conduct was the inmate’s having given him a “quick kiss” in a storage closet that he did not think he needed to report.
“We were happy with the appellate decision,” Wronko said. “Mr. Amboise looks forward to returning to employment with the Department of Corrections.”
The corrections department may seek leave to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. Because the appellate decision was unanimous, there is no automatic right to appeal.
The Edna Mahan board of trustees said it hopes the state’s highest court will take the case and will do more to ensure judges are sensitive when considering accusations of sexual assault involving inmates, saying they “strongly urge our New Jersey judicial leadership to consider the ways in which they can encourage the courts to become educated on the realities of sexual and gender-based abuses of power in prisons, and to be trained, themselves, in gender informed responses.”
