Queens public defender arrested at Rikers Island jail with drug-soaked legal papers, law enforcement says

Graham Rayman, New York Daily News on Jun 13, 2025

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NEW YORK — A public defender with a Queens nonprofit mired in controversy was hauled off in handcuffs after he was caught smuggling 130 sheets of suspected THC-soaked paper into a jail on Rikers Island, officials said Friday.

Bernardo Caceres, a lawyer with Queens Defenders, was visiting his client, burglary defendant Luis DeJesus, at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center about 3 p.m. Wednesday when a drug-sniffing dog named Brimma signaled a hit on a yellow legal-sized envelope placed next to a security machine, according to an account provided by the Correction Officers Benevolent Association and confirmed by law enforcement sources.

A search of the envelope found “multiple discolored papers” inside, the union said. Officials have previously said in public testimony that discolored pages are often a clue of the presence of narcotics.

A range of liquified drugs including fentanyl have been found in similar searches. Typically, the papers are torn into small pieces and smoked or resold for smoking within the jails.

Caceres and a second lawyer who happened to be going through security at the same time were detained and the Correction Intelligence Section was called in to do further testing.

That test registered positive for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, the union said. Caceres was charged with promoting prison contraband. The other attorney was let go because the officers concluded he was unaware of the contents of the envelope.

Caceres, who appeared to be smiling when his photo was taken during the arrest, was issued a desk appearance ticket and has yet to be arraigned. Further investigation and testing of the evidence is necessary to confirm the presence of the contraband substance, a law enforcement official said Friday.

COBA President Benny Boscio seized on the arrest as an example of why searching and scanning of detainee mail into electronic form should be approved in the jails.

“The fact that this attorney would brazenly attempt to smuggle in a large quantity of THC into one of our biggest jails is further proof of why paper documents brought by visitors should be scanned and downloaded electronically onto tablets,” said COBA President Benny Boscio.

“This also includes moving toward paperless mail which CBA has been calling on the Board of Correction to implement for many years. Our calls have fallen on deaf ears.”

The union relished the arrest, captioning one photo, “Correction Intelligence Bureau Officer Vasquez escorting drug peddling attorney Bernardo Caceres out of OBCC.”

Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie has been pressing for approval to open non-legal mail and search it outside of the presence of detainees, but the Board of Correction rejected the measure earlier this year.

Maginley-Liddie’s predecessor Correction Commissioner Louis Molina previously tried to obtain board approval for electronic scanning, meaning people in jail wouldn’t get actual paper copies of the mail, but the board refused to bring the measure to a vote.

Caceres could not be reached for comment. Brian Schatz, a spokesman for Queens Defenders, declined to comment on the arrest.

He declined to say whether Caceres had been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

Caceres’ arrest came the same day that founder and former executive director of Queens Defenders, Lori Zeno, and her boyfriend and youth program director Rashad Ruhani, were indicted in Brooklyn federal court for stealing roughly $60,000 from the nonprofit.

Zeno and Ruhani, who previously served 26 years in prison for robbery, billed a range of personal luxuries, including the rent for a penthouse apartment in Queens, a trip to Bali, and a $2,600 meal at a steakhouse to the group’s credit cards. They also submitted documents claiming the spending was business related, the indictment alleges.

In the wake of Zeno’s late-January ouster as executive director, the city transferred the organization’s contract to a separate legal defense nonprofit called Brooklyn Defenders. That transfer will take official effect on July 1, The News previously reported.

A Brooklyn Defenders spokesman also declined comment on Caceres’ arrest.

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