Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on June 22 that four Rikers Island inmates have been charged with gang assault and related offenses for brutally beating a fellow inmate, leaving him hospitalized with serious injuries.

In the context of the announcement, Clark said, “The defendants allegedly carried out a brutal, unprovoked attack against a fellow detainee inside a facility on Rikers Island. They allegedly punched and kicked the victim so severely that his spleen had to be removed and his rib was fractured, among other serious injuries.” She added, “We will not tolerate violence on Rikers Island and are doing everything we can to hold people accountable for it, but more must be done to prevent such incidents.”

Clark said the defendants, Moquease Mendez, 18, and Shatike Robinson, 23, were arraigned on June 21, on first-degree assault, first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault, two counts of second-degree assault and third-degree assault before Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas.

The defendants were remanded in custody and are due back in court on Sept. 13. Two other defendants, former detainees, Akeem Williams, 22, and Nicholas White, 24, have also been charged with the same offenses and are awaiting arraignment.

According to the investigation, at around 5:40 a.m. last month on May 17, inside a bathroom in the intake holding cell of the Eric M. Taylor Center, as multiple detainees were awaiting processing, Mendez allegedly began to antagonize a 39-year-old detainee. He allegedly threw objects at the victim and splashed him with milk. Mendez then allegedly kicked and punched the victim multiple times. After the victim exited the bathroom to get assistance, Mendez, Robinson and Williams allegedly hit the victim multiple times and then followed him. White allegedly joined the group and allegedly punched and kicked the victim about the body, mostly in his abdomen.

According to the prosecution, the victim was taken to a local hospital for abdominal pain, a rib fracture, and a Grade 4 splenic laceration with multiple pseudoaneurysms. Officials for the prosecution said he suffered internal bleeding and had to undergo surgery, needed a second surgery to remove his spleen and was intubated. They said he was discharged from the hospital after two weeks and his rehabilitation continues.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Kevin Bartlett of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, under the supervision of Jonathan Abramovitz, director of the Rikers Island Violence Reduction Initiative, Jose Arocho, deputy chief of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, and Frank Alberts, chief of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, and under the overall supervision of Denise Kodjo, deputy chief of the Investigations Division, and Wanda Perez-Maldonado, chief of the Investigations Division.

Clark thanked Trial Preparation Assistant Mel-Asia Pugh of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau and the New York City Department of Correction Intelligence Bureau, specifically Investigators Korab Hasangjekaj, Jeffrey Rios, and Walter Holmes, for their work on the investigation.

A person arrested and charged with a crime is deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.