By Jolene Cleaver
Observer-Dispatch, Utica, N.Y.
UTICA, N.Y. — A prison inmate, Chaz Robinson, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Oneida County Court to first-degree sexual abuse in connection with the 2017 assault of a Midstate Correctional Facility correction officer.
At his sentencing scheduled for March 28, Robinson, 33, of Monroe County, faces six years in state prison.
Robinson — previously convicted of first-degree rape in 2012 and sentenced to five years in prison — was charged after an April 2, 2017 incident where he attacked and groped a female Midstate correction officer where he was incarcerated.
"(This) should be a wakeup call that (the Department of Corrections) needs additional staff and resources to adequately monitor and patrol these facilities, especially at Midstate,” said Scott Carpenter, the union vice president representing the correction officer, in a Tuesday statement. “In this case, we were extremely fortunate that our fellow officer was not more seriously hurt at the hands of a vicious convicted rapist.
“He was able to overpower her and the attack would have continued if she had not been able to activate her alarm,” the statement continued. “It is our hope today, that his plea of guilty will serve as a deterrent to other inmates — that when you attack a (New York state) correction officer, it will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for the protection of all staff,” Carpenter continued.
The attack occurred at about 2:55 a.m. April 2 inside one of the dorms at the medium-security prison. Robinson reportedly walked into the officer’s station with the blanket from his bed, threw it over the officer’s head and then began to grope and attack her.
Then, while on the ground, the officer was able to pull and activate her emergency pin, causing an alarm to sound, authorities said. Robinson ran out of the office and into the dorm bathroom. It was there that two other inmates who heard the alarm ran after Robinson and held him until a response team arrived on the scene.
Robinson was transferred to Five Points Correctional Facility after the attack.
©2018 Observer-Dispatch, Utica, N.Y.