Author: Reuven Blau and Dan Mangan
Publication: The New York Post
Date: February 4, 2010
URL: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/muslim_chaplain_smuggled_box_cutters_BVF0VWUOLCw0vjjnRzjZRP
A city Department of Correction Muslim chaplain
who served 14 years in prison for murder and robbery was arrested today for
carrying three utility blades and a pair of scissors into a lower Manhattan
jail, authorities said.
The chaplain, Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid, had
the utility blades and scissors in his duffel bag when he arrived at the Manhattan
Detention Complex in the morning, according to the city Department of Investigation.
The dangerous items were found after an X-ray
machine alerted correction officers to the presence of metal in the bag, the
DOI said.
Authorities did not say why Abdu-Shahid was
visiting the jail, commonly known as the Tombs, or why he was carrying the
scissors and the rectangular blades, which were 1-and-1/2 inches long by three-quarters
of an inch wide.
Abdu-Shahid, 58, was arrested at the scene
and charged with four counts of first-degree promoting prison contraband -
a felony carrying a maximum 7-year prison term - and four counts of the same
charge in the second degree, a misdemeanor.
The Staten Island resident, who is married
with three children, was ordered held in lieu of $30,000 bail during a hearing
in Manhattan Criminal Court last night, where he appeared in a long robe and
navy blue skull cap.
His lawyer, James McQueeney said the blades
were 'injector razor blades from an injector razor," and that when Abdu-Shahid
told that to the correction officers who stopped him, "his explanation
that he didn't know there were there [in the duffel bag] was accepted."
"He was allowed into the" Tombs
after the blades were confiscated," McQueeney said. "Only later
were questions raised about this."
Despite that claim, DOI Commissioner Rose
Gil Hearn said, "This arrest demonstrates the serious consequences of
bringing in contraband to the city's correctional facilities."
"Thanks to the immediate action of a
DOC officer, this potentially dangerous situation was disarmed."
Correction Commissioner Dora Schriro said
Abdu-Shahid was immediately suspended.
"Additional steps up to and including
dismissal will be pursued consistent with the findings of" DOI, said
Schriro, whom sources added has ordered "a thorough review of his hiring."
"I commend our officers whose diligence
prevented contraband from entering the jail. They are representative of our
workforce, whose commitment to excellence keeps our city safe," Shriro
said.
Abdu-Shahid was hired as a Muslim imam chaplain
by the DOC three years ago tomorrow, and has a salary of $49,471 annually.
State Corrections Department records show
that he entered state prison in September 1979 to begin serving a sentence
of 15-years-to-life for a second-degree murder and a first-degree robbery
committed in Manhattan. He was paroled in August 1993, and finished his parole
in August 2001.
According to news accounts at the time, the
cleric, a Brooklyn resident then known as Paul Pitts, was convicted with three
other defendants in 1979 after the longest criminal trial in New York State
Supreme Court history - one year, three months and three days.
Pitts and his co-defendants had held up a
Harlem supermarket on Dec. 9, 1976, and during the robbery shot and killed
a 30-year-old customer named Philip Crawford.
The Post also has learned that his criminal
record includes an arrest for sexual assault in Queens, but that case later
was dismissed.
Abdu-Shahid's lawyer, McQueeney, said, "He's
been out of prison since the early '90s. He's completely reformed."
But a city Correction source said of Abdu-Shahid's
arrest, "It's a disgrace that taxpayers are funding Muslim chaplains
who not only have criminal records, but also are promoting violence."
Abdu-Shahid's boss - head chaplain Umar Abdul-Jalil
- himself was hired by the DOC despite having done a 14-year stint in prison
for drug dealing.
Abdul-Jalil who also is a Muslim imam, last
year was stripped of two weeks vacation as punishment for signing off on a
plan by Tombs chaplain Rabbi Leib Glanz to allow a bar mitzvah party for the
son of an inmate in that jail.
After The Post uncovered the bar mitzvah -
which included catered food, a live band, and scores of non-inmate guests,
Abdul-Jalil among them - the politically connected Glanz resigned as chaplain,
as did Correction security chief Peter Curcio.
In addition to the party, Glanz had also routinely
arranged other preferential treatment for Jewish inmates at the Tombs, including
allowing them nearly unfettered use of his office and phone, and bringing
them food from the outside, The Post disclosed.
A DOI probe into Glanz's conduct has dragged
on for months, with no official result.
