A former federal corrections officer has pleaded guilty to accepting $10,000 to smuggle drugs into the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center.
Jeremy Monk, 32, pleaded guilty Monday in Brooklyn Federal Court to one count of bribery and could face up to three years behind bars.
Monk brought contraband into the Sunset Park jail multiple times, and on April 15 tried to hide more than 9 ounces of weed in a staff bathroom, according to the feds. He resigned three days later, telling human resources staff that he was resigning over “a stupid investigation,” federal prosecutors said.
He was arrested in August.
Monk was smuggled in beginning in December 2020, just seven months after beginning the job. On Dec. 5, 2020, jail staff found a cellphone while searching the cell of an organized crime suspect after smelling marijuana, and the inmate told investigators about Monk, according to a criminal complaint.
Three days earlier, the prisoner’s romantic partner made seven payments to Monk through a mobile cash app account, ranging from $750 to $4,000, but the transactions were blocked.
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On April 14, federal jail officials received a notice that Monk had been paid $10,000 to smuggle drugs, alcohol and tobacco into the detention center in a black bag, according to a criminal complaint. He was supposed to leave the drugs in the staff bathroom and then leave the door open.
The next day, he went into the bathroom and left about four minutes later, and when jail staff searched the room, they found two vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana hidden under two floor polishing pads on a shelf, the feds said.
Although Monk faces a maximum of 15 years behind bars, federal sentencing guidelines will likely set his possible prison sentence at between 30 and 37 months.
“Defendant admitted to breaching his duty as a federal corrections officer by accepting bribes in exchange for smuggling contraband into the Metropolitan Detention Center, a serious betrayal of his fellow corrections officers and staff, incarcerated individuals, and the trust placed in him by the government.” said US Attorney Breon Peace.
Monk’s sentencing date has not yet been set.
The Metropolitan Detention Center has housed several well-known inmates, including sex-trafficking R&B superstar R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein enabler Ghislaine Maxwell and Frank James, who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges after shooting 10 people in a crowded N train last year.
The feds have launched emergency searches for a smuggled weapon at the jail at least twice since October 2021. One of those searches turned up numerous contraband cellphones, a source familiar with the shutdown said.
