THE FORMER PAROLE OFFICER SERVED A YEAR ON RIKERS ISLAND FOR FALSIFYING STATE RECORDS OF PAROLEES

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All the so-called “legal experts” predicting former president Donald J. Trump won't see the inside of a prison cell for felony falsification of business records don't know Staten Island Joe.

Joseph J. Poser was sentenced to a year in jail on Rikers Island in 2021 after he pleaded guilty to falsifying the official records of parolees he was supervising as a New York State parole officer, two of whom were convicted of murder.

“In this case, the defendant completely neglected his duties by failing to properly monitor at least four parolees under his supervision and then allegedly attempted to cover it up by submitting false paperwork to his superiors,” Staten Island District Attorney Michael E. McMahon said in a statement after Poser’s arrest.

One of Poser's parolees, Joseph Desmond, 32, killed an off-duty fire-fighter, Faizal Coto, 33, with a baseball bat during a fit of road rage on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn on Dec. 9, 2018, court records show.

Desmond's killing of Coto sparked an investigation that revealed Poser's deceptions, police said.

Poser worked as a parole officer for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s (DOCCS). Prosecutors alleged Poser made false entries into DOCCS'  computerized database for Desmond and three other parolees.

Specifically, Poser falsified the records of the four parolees a total of 18 times between 2017 and 2018. Poser allegedly indicated he conducted home visits he never conducted. He also made entries in DOCCS' computer system indicating they completed court-mandated rehabilitation programs when, in fact, they did not complete them, according to the indictment charging Poser. 

Poser began working as a parole officer in 1997. Before being forced to resign in 2019, he made $84,000 a year, public records show. 

Poser made $120 as a New York City Parks Department seasonal aide in 2021, before he was sentenced to prison.

Poser pleaded guilty to tampering with public records in the first degree in Sept. 2021. It's a class "D" felony punishable by up to seven years in prison, under New York law. The charge Trump was convicted of, falsifying business records in the first degree, is a class "E" felony punishable by up to four years in jail.

The parole officer was a first-time offender—like the former president.

Nevertheless, Poser was sentenced by Acting State Supreme Court Justice Alexander Jeong to a year in jail on Rikers Island on Dec. 9, 2021. He also ordered him held in protective custody.

Poser could not be reached for comment. A parole officer who worked when Poser worked told The Free Lance "I feel for him because in a lot of ways it could have been me."

Poser, the parole officer added, "just took a shortcut and got caught cuz we were under so much pressure and being gas lit about it. It was impossible to do the job." 

But judge Jeong called the one-year sentence he imposed on Poser “fair and just … based on all the surrounding circumstances.”

Time will tell what Judge Merchan decides is a “fair and just” sentence for Trump.

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