| Indicted
For Smuggling Gun Into MCC Former Guard
Greg McKenzie To Keep On Trucking
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
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SDNY MAG COURT
EXCLUSIVE, March 18- In
the U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York on March 18, a detention
or release proceeding was held
by Magistrate Judge Robert W.
Lehrburger on a former
Corrections Officer at the
Metropolitan Correctional
Center charged with smuggling
in a gun to an inmate then
lying to the FBI about it.
Inner City
Press covers the SDNY
Magistrates Court, sometimes
alone in the gallery, as it
was on March 18. Defendant
Greg McKenzie had a retained
lawyer - and an agreement to
be released on $200,000 bond
and travel as a trucker from
Maine to West Virginia.
McKenzie's
retained lawyer pleaded his
client not guilty and wanted
to be sure that Pre-Trial
Services will not turn down
any of these trucking trips.
Judge Lehrburger inquired and
it appears that they will not.
The assigned District
Judge, P. Kevin Castel, has
set an April 6 conference.
Speedy Trial Act time was
excluded on consent. Inner
City Press has unloaded the
unseal indictment to its
DocumentCloud, here
The US
Attorney's Office earlier in
the day said:
On or about March
5, 2020, a loaded .22 caliber
firearm (the “Firearm”) was
recovered from inside an MCC
prison cell that had last been
occupied by two inmates,
including “Inmate-1.”
Several weeks before the
Firearm was recovered,
Inmate-1 and his wife had each
communicated by phone with a
particular cellphone used by
MCKENZIE (the “McKenzie
Prepaid Cellphone”).
However, when law
enforcement agents interviewed
MCKENZIE regarding the Firearm
investigation, MCKENZIE
falsely denied having any
connection to the McKenzie
Prepaid Cellphone.
Specifically, on January 30,
2020, MCKENZIE purchased the
McKenzie Prepaid Cellphone
from a store in lower
Manhattan, just moments after
having withdrawn approximately
$120 in cash from a nearby
ATM. The next day,
MCKENZIE used the McKenzie
Prepaid Cellphone to
repeatedly exchange calls with
Inmate-1 – who was using a
contraband cellphone from
within the MCC – and
Inmate-1’s wife.
Meanwhile, cellphone location
information revealed that the
McKenzie Prepaid Cellphone
frequently traveled between
MCKENZIE’s Danbury,
Connecticut residence and the
MCC on dates and times
consistent with MCKENZIE’s
work schedule. On the
evening of January 31, 2020,
MCKENZIE and Inmate-1’s wife
each briefly traveled to the
same location in the Bronx at
the same time, and MCKENZIE
thereafter traveled directly
to the MCC to begin a shift
beginning at midnight on
February 1, 2020, whereupon he
was assigned to the very unit
where Inmate-1 was housed and
from where the Firearm was
later
recovered.
Surveillance video and call
detail records further
established that after
beginning his February 1,
2020, shift, MCKENZIE and a
colleague conducted a routine
check of Inmate-1’s
cellblock. Moments
later, Inmate-1, using a
contraband cellphone, called
and then texted the McKenzie
Prepaid Cellphone.
Within minutes, MCKENZIE
briefly returned to Inmate 1’s
cellblock – this time alone –
while appearing to carry an
object under his left
arm.
On November
4, 2021, two federal agents
conducted a voluntary
interview with MCKENZIE.
During the interview, MCKENZIE
falsely denied ownership,
possession, and use of the
McKenzie Prepaid Cellphone,
and falsely denied ever using
any prepaid cellphone to
communicate with an MCC inmate
or inmate’s associate.
The case is US v.
McKenzie, 22- cr-166 (Castel /
Lehrburger)
***
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