NJ corrections officer admits beating sadistic sex offender who died

🔻 NJ corrections officer admits brutal attack
🔻Inmate died of stroke days later
🔻Ex-officer faces prison term

TRENTON — A New Jersey corrections officer has admitted to beating a sex offender inmate, who died of a stroke days later.

Giuseppe Mandara, 55, of Brick, pleaded guilty to third-degree aggravated assault at a Tuesday state Superior Court hearing in Union County.

Under his plea deal, Mandara forfeited his job and was barred from any future public office or work.

The plea deal clears an official misconduct charge, which would have resulted in a mandatory minimum sentence. The grand jury that reviewed the case declined to hand up any homicide-related charges.

Mandara had been suspended without pay since July 5, 2023, a Department of Corrections spokesperson previously told NJ.com.

Prosecutors would recommend a four-year prison term for Mandara at a sentencing hearing on Jan. 31, 2025.

RELATED: NJ guard indicted in beating of man at sex offender ward who died

The 2019 incident happened in the Special Treatment Unit at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center, in the Avenel section of Woodbridge. The unit houses compulsive repeat male sex offenders.

On Aug. 23, 2019, the man, identified by his family as Darrell Smith, was walking away to his assigned work spot when Mandara took off his work belt, which held prison keys and a radio.

Mandara then confronted Smith within a secure entryway, following an earlier dispute that escalated into a physical fight with both men on the ground.

The now ex-officer admitted his repeated punches were meant to cause significant injury — and that his actions were excessive and without justification under the circumstances.

Several days after the beating Smith suffered a fatal stroke. He died on Aug. 28, 2019, days before turning 51, according to his online obituary.

A lawsuit filed against the state by his sister said that Smith had been assaulted by a number of corrections officers in the days before his death.

Mandara was the only officer charged in the incident.

Smith had served more than 23 years in prison after being convicted of a 1989 kidnapping and sadistic rape of a developmentally disabled 14-year-old who Smith had recently met, according to court documents.

During a three-day ordeal in an abandoned house in Irvington, Smith raped and tortured the boy, choked him with an electric wire, broke a tooth off with a shovel slam to his face, slashed his scrotum with a glass shard, and left the victim tied to a pipe in the basement, according to court records. The victim escaped by freeing himself and asking a neighbor for help.

In 2016, Smith was transferred from prison to the ADTC, where he worked in food preparation. Smith had been promoted to chef shortly before his death, according to his obituary.

“This conviction demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that those in positions of power do not abuse their authority or harm those in their custody,” said Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

“Those in state custody have rights and are entitled to the protections of the law, and violators will face justice.”

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