Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey announced today that a suspended assistant director of the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center has pleaded guilty to charges of witness tampering in a sexual assault investigation and, in a separate case, admitted making and carrying false police identification.
Derick Stevens, 42, pleaded guilty on February 10 to obstructing the administration of law or other governmental function, and witness tampering during the investigation into the sexual assault of a 21-year-old female when she was incarcerated more than 14 years ago at the county’s youth detention center.
He also pleaded guilty in the separate case to creating a false government document, admitting he was in possession of a bogus police identification card.
Detectives discovered the false police identification on October 17, 2012 during their investigation into the sexual assault.
Under a plea agreement reached with Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Christie L. Bevacqua, the defendant will be placed on probation for up to five years when he is sentenced on March 27, 2015 by Superior Court Judge Barry A. Weisberg in New Brunswick.
Stevens also will be required to forfeit his job at the corrections center, and will be banned from holding any public jobs in New Jersey.
The guilty plea was entered after a grand jury in Middlesex County charged that during the investigation of the sexual assault case, Stevens attempted to convince the woman not to provide incriminating statements. He also attempted to convince the woman’s mother to ask the woman not to provide incriminating statements.
Stevens, a resident of Burlington Township,had been employed as the assistant director of the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick, but was suspended without pay on December 8, 2011 from his $70,291-a-year job.
He began working for the Middlesex County Department of Adult Corrections and Youth Services on August 19, 1996.