Who is Officer ‘Champagne’?

24 women say he sexually assaulted them at Rikers. [View this email in a browser.]( Gothamist relies on your support to make local news available to all. Not yet a member? [Consider donating and join today.]( [He was ‘Officer Champagne' at Rikers. 24 women accused him of sexual assault in jail.]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay]( Weather: ⛈️ Cloudy this morning, with [thunderstorms and possible flash floods this afternoon]( and highs in the upper 80s. Lisa wasn’t pregnant when she entered Rikers Island. It was February 1991. She was 22 years old, addicted to crack cocaine and had just been sentenced to six months for selling drugs to support her habit — the first in a long string of stays at the Rose M. Singer Center, the women’s jail more commonly known as “Rosie’s.” As part of the intake process, she submitted to a medical exam that included a pregnancy test. If she followed the rules at Rosie’s, she recalled being told at sentencing, she could leave jail two months early. “Those 60 days meant everything to me. I wanted to go home,” Lisa said. But shortly after arriving, she said, a guard threatened to take away that early release if she didn’t comply with his demands. He repeatedly raped her, forcing her to submit to intercourse and perform oral sex in a part of the jail used to store recreation equipment, she said. Lisa learned the guard had impregnated her when she started experiencing miscarriage symptoms, she said. She was transported to Elmhurst Hospital to treat complications from the miscarriage. No one ever asked how she came to be pregnant inside a women’s jail, Lisa said. Lisa hardly spoke about the experience for three decades. That changed in 2023, when she and 700 other women who were held at Rosie’s sued New York City under the Adult Survivors Act, a state law that opened a one-year window for sexual assault survivors to file claims outside of the statute of limitations. Lisa’s accused rapist appears in 24 of those lawsuits. She and other women knew him by the name “Champagne.” Who is Officer “Champagne?” In city records, he’s a ghost. The Office of Payroll Administration has no record of anyone with that name who worked at Rikers during the period of the allegations. But in Gothamist’s latest investigation, Reporter Jessy Edwards found him. [Read the story here](. Here's what else is happening: - Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on Monday called Gov. 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If it ever came down to any legal action, that would be up to a judge or a jury to decide.”]( - State Assembly member Jeffrey dinowitz of the bronx on [HIS SUPPORT FOR CRIMINALIZING THE WEARING OF MASKS DURING PROTESTS]( More from Gothamist [second image]( [A new food festival brings elevated versions of KFC, Panda Express to NYC]( Dishes at ChainFEST will include butter-poached lobster in a fancy Cheddar Bay biscuit (à la Red Lobster) and “triple pickle” onion rings in a take on Red Robin’s onion rings. [90-year-old Brooklyn man alleging deed theft could face eviction this week]( Ray Cortez, who purchased his St. Mark's Place three-story rowhouse in 1969 for around $20,000, could face eviction this week — unless an appeals court intervenes and allows him to prove he’s the rightful owner after he relinquished the property deed to alleged fraudsters more than a decade ago. 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