N.J. corrections officer sentenced to prison for assaulting detainee who later died
Updated: Feb. 21, 2025, 4:40 p.m.|Published: Feb. 21, 2025, 4:11 p.m.
Darrell Smith died days after he was assaulted by a corrections officer in 2019, according to the state Attorney General's Office. The officer was sentenced to prison for the assault, but was not accused of causing Smith's death.
By Matt Gray | For NJ.com
A New Jersey corrections officer was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday after admitting to assaulting a civilly committed s** o** who later died.
Officer Giuseppe Mandara, 55, of Brick, was accused of using “excessive or unlawful force” against Darrell Smith during a 2019 incident, according to the state attorney general’s office.
Smith died several days later of a stroke, but Mandara was not accused of causing his death.
A state grand jury indicted Mandara last July on a second-degree count of official misconduct.
Under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors, Mandara pleaded guilty in December to a third-degree count of aggravated assault.
Prosecutors had recommended a four-year state prison term.
The plea agreement also requires that Mandara forfeit his public employment and bars him from future public office or employment.
New Jersey Superior Court Judge Thomas Isenhour sentenced Mandara Friday morning at the Union County Courthouse and ordered him to surrender in March to begin serving his prison term.
Mandara had been working in the Special Treatment Unit, a facility that houses more than 400 civilly committed s** o**s next door to East Jersey State Prison in the Avenel section of Woodbridge Township. On Aug. 23, 2019, he got into a “physical altercation” with Smith, the state attorney general’s office previously said.
The officer abandoned his equipment, including his keys and radio, and “used excessive or unlawful force against the resident,” prosecutors said.
Smith, 50, suffered a fatal stroke several days after the incident, officials said.
Smith’s family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging he was attacked twice by a group of correctional officers in “gang-style” assaults at the treatment unit prior to his death.
“Mr. Smith was tortured, beaten, kicked, punched, stomped, placed in an illegal chokehold, slammed to the ground, and had his head slammed into a glass door,” the ongoing lawsuit alleges, adding that he was denied “prompt and critical medical care” after the first attack.
The second attack resulted in “catastrophic injuries that left him in an unresponsive and catatonic state” in a cell covered in his own feces, urine and vomit, the suit claims.
Four days after the attack, Smith was taken to a hospital, where he arrived unresponsive, according to his family. He was placed on life support, declared brain dead and died two days later.
The grand jury heard testimony from the state medical examiner about the cause of the stroke and manner of death, but “the grand jury did not initiate homicide charges in connection with the victim’s death,” according to the attorney general’s office.
After serving more than 23 years in prison on kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault charges, Smith was civilly committed in 2016 under the state’s Sexually Violent Predator Act.
He worked in the kitchen at the Special Treatment Unit’s main building and it was after breakfast that the encounter with Mandara occurred, according to witnesses and court documents.
After serving breakfast, Smith allegedly asked a fellow detainee to bring leftover peanut butter and sugar packets to his living quarters while he continued cleaning the kitchen.
When a female corrections officer saw the other detainee taking a tray with the peanut butter and sugar packets for Smith, she allegedly told him to place the tray on her desk. Then, she entered Smith’s cell, removed bananas and distributed the food to other detainees, witnesses alleged.
The female officer, who was working with Mandara that day, verbally berated Smith, accused him of stealing the food and used anti-gay slurs, according to the lawsuit.
As Smith began walking away, he said, “You can’t go in my room and just take stuff out of my room,” according to the family’s suit.
Mandara became “enraged,” called Smith a thief, yelled slurs and vowed to “f-- you up,” the suit alleges.
While the attorney general’s announcements on the case didn’t include those details, it said Mandara “purposely took off his duty belt, which included keys to the facility and a radio” and “advanced toward the victim in order to continue an earlier verbal dispute.”
The encounter escalated into a physical fight and Mandara “repeatedly punched the victim while he was on the ground,” admitting in court that his punches were thrown “with the specific intent to cause significant bodily injury to the victim and that his actions were excessive and without justification under the circumstances,” according to the attorney general.
In a statement following Mandara’s guilty plea in December, Smith’s family expressed its appreciation for the work of prosecutors on the case.
”The family is deeply grateful for this outcome. This guilty plea serves as validation for Darrell, our family, and the courageous witnesses who came forward about this tragic event,” the family said.
