In latest Rikers security breach, man takes ‘drunken’ scooter jaunt around jail island
Gerald Yanez, 23, drove his moped past the initial DOC checkpoint in Astoria, over the bridge connecting to Rikers Island, and then rolled through the heavily secure Gate 1 checkpoint, per court records.
A wee bit tipsy man on a scooter somehow blew past two checkpoints and roamed around Rikers Island before his nighttime joyride was cut short by security, court records show.
Gerald Yanez, 23, drove his moped past the Correction Department’s initial checkpoint in Astoria about 11:35 p.m. Monday, over the Francis R. Buono Memorial Bridge, which connects the island to Queens, and then evaded security and rolled through the heavily secure Gate 1 checkpoint.
From there Yanez drove along at least one roadway, ignoring stop signs, before correction officers finally closed in and pulled him over, the complaint states. His motive for the nighttime jail-island jaunt was unclear.
Correction Captain James Thomas spotted Yanez “moving along the roadway at a high rate of speed, swerving in and out of the lane and crossing over the double yellow line,” the complaint states.
Yanez “flailed his arms, twisted his hands and body and locked his arms” as he was being arrested, the complaint states. Thomas reported that Yanez smelled strongly of alcohol.
The incident was reported to DOC’s Central Operations desk more than an hour later at 1 a.m., records show.
Yanez, of the Bronx, was charged with reckless endangerment, drunken driving, resisting arrest and two counts of trespassing, the complaint states. His lawyer, Carolina Garcia, did not reply to a request for comment.
The Correction Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
At his arraignment Tuesday, Yanez was released on his own recognizance. He is due back in court on Jan. 15.
Word of the incident emerged two days after the city Department of Investigation issued a report on lax security in the jails that allows contraband to enter the system “with ease.”
The report noted that, as far back as 2014, DOI had concluded that DOC protocol at the key security gates was not sufficient: “Ten years later, these same issues persist. DOI has noted continued lax front gate procedures and observed staff circumventing established protocols,” the report said.
DOI recommended the city hire an outside contractor or law enforcement agency to patrol the security gates on the edges of the system. A past effort to do that during the de Blasio administration in 2021 met with fierce opposition from the correction unions and was abandoned.
Back in April 2022, The News reported that a former detainee arriving with a friend to pick up his belongings was waved through two Rikers checkpoints before they were stopped.
A correction officer simply gave them directions to one of the jails on the island and let them through, The News reported.
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