Two Nassau County Corrections Officers have come under fire recently. District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced Tuesday John Andujar 55, retired from the Nassau County Sheriff’s Department, and Joseph Donlon, 48, employed as a Correction Officer by the Nassau County Sheriff’s Department, were arrested for allegedly lying under oath before a grand jury and making false statements on sworn documents.
“We expect to hold law enforcement officers to the highest standards of honesty and discipline,” DA Rice said. “When that trust is broken, it unfairly taints the vast majority of law enforcement who serve honorably and we must act to correct it.”
Rice says the duo lied about an incident which involved a physical altercation on October 21st, 2011, between Officer Andujar, Officer Donlon, several members of the Sheriff’s Department, and an Inmate named David Page. The two officers claimed Page attacked Andujar in the jail’s transportation unit.
In December 2011 the two officers told a grand jury that Page spontaneously struck Andujar. The grand jury indicted Page on Felony Assault charges due to their testimony.
The case was recently overturned by the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office after the Internal Affairs division of the Nassau County Sheriff’s Department conducted an investigation based on the testimony of a witness. The witness claims Andujar removed Page’s shackles and cuffs to engage in a mutual fight.
Andujar and Donlon were charged with Perjury in the First Degree, Making an Apparently Sworn False Statement in the First Degree, Making a Punishable False Written Statement, Official Misconduct, and Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree. Both men face up to seven years in prison.