A state Appellate Court has rejected the New Jersey Department of Corrections’ argument that a corrections officer at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women be fired, instead of receiving a six-month suspension for inappropriate behavior with an inmate.
Brian Ambroise, of Union, was found not guilty by a Hunterdon County jury in November 2018 of official misconduct and sexual assault by engaging in oral sex with an inmate at the women’s prison.
Less than a month after the acquittal, the Department of Corrections sustained disciplinary charges against Ambroise for “conduct unbecoming” and sought his termination.
Ambroise appealed the decision to the state Office of Administrative Law where Judge Sarah Crowley found he had only violated a rule for “failing to report an unusual incident” and dismissed the conduct unbecoming charge. Crowley ordered a 20-day suspension and Ambroise’s reinstatement as senior corrections officer and back pay.
The Department of Corrections then filed an exception to Crowley’s ruling. The state Civil Service Commission then affirmed Crowley’s decision, but increased the suspension to six months, the harshest penalty short of termination.
The Appellate Court upheld the Civil Service Commission’s decision.
The chain of events began when an inmate at the prison reported on Oct. 3, 2016, that she was in a sexual relationship with Ambroise. The inmate alleged that Ambroise had performed oral sex on her in a storage closet.
The inmate did not testify at the Office of Administrative Law hearing because Crowley found her statements were “inconsistent, unreliable and uncorroborated.” The Department of Corrections also did not submit her testimony from Ambroise’s criminal trial into evidence at the hearing.
Ambroise testified before Crowley that he did not have a sexual relationship with the inmate and that the only inappropriate conduct was when she gave him a “quick kiss” in the storage closet which he believed did not rise to a level of an unusual incident that had to be reported to his superior officers.
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Court papers say that after the inmate reported Ambroise, he was interviewed for almost two hours by Department of Corrections investigators. At first, he denied having oral sex with her, but ultimately said he might have had oral sex with her “for a second or two.” When the interview was over, he was arrested and charged with sexual assault and official misconduct.
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In his testimony before Crowley after he was found not guilty of the criminal charges, Ambroise said that about 90 minutes into the interview with investigators, he began “freaking out” and “had no choice but to tell them what they wanted to hear” just to “get out of there.” He said he was told if he confessed, he would get a lighter sentence and might be able to see his children again.
Crowley viewed the interview and gave it no weight based on the “interrogation techniques that were utilized,” according to the Appellate Court decision. She found the investigators violated his rights by telling him he could not have union representation during the interview.
Crowley also found that Ambroise’s testimony before her was credible and that investigators used “inappropriate interrogation techniques.”
She imposed a 20-day suspension for not reporting the kiss.
The Civil Service Commission agreed with Crowley but ruled that his failing to report the kiss and relaying private messages between inmates was “clearly serious and highly concerning, especially in a correctional situation” and was “puzzling at best.”
The Civil Service Commission increased the suspension to six months but returned Ambroise to the position and awarded him back pay.
But the Appellate Court wrote that it found “no reason to disturb this decision” by the state Civil Service Commission.
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Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ court: Edna Mahan guard can return to job after acquittal