Legal Aid staffer posing as lawyer busted smuggling weed into Rikers, sources say

The Bobster

Senior News Editor since 2004

Legal Aid staffer posing as lawyer busted smuggling weed into Rikers, sources say​



By
Rich Calder


May 6, 2023 12:45pm
Updated





A picture of  The Rikers Island jail sign.
Officers at Rikers Island searched Tatyana King's belongings and allegedly found bags of marijuana and tobacco. Getty Images




A Legal Aid Society staffer trying to pass herself off as a lawyer was busted trying to smuggle weed and tobacco to a Rikers Island inmate accused of attempted murder, sources told The Post.
Tatyana King, who describes herself on her LinkedIn page as an “incoming staff attorney” for New York’s largest legal aid nonprofit, was arrested around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the jail while trying to visit detainee Shyanne Patterson, according to law-enforcement sources.
She was busted after a drug-sniffing dog at the main gate alerted guards.
Correction officers searched her belongings and uncovered bags of marijuana and tobacco.
King was charged with illegal possession of contraband in a prison, authorities said.
Legal Aid’s website says King is a law graduate working in its criminal appeals bureau.
Sources said she tried to dupe correction officers last month multiple times by signing in as a staff lawyer for Legal Aid while visiting detainees.
She wasn’t working on Patterson’s case, according to sources.

Tatyana KingTatyana King was charged with illegal possession of contraband in a prison, authorities said.LinkedIn Tatyana King
“This is truly a sad incident, which undermines all the hard work we are doing to stabilize this department after years of neglect by the previous administration,” said Correction Commissioner Louis Molina.


“An individual using the shield of legal privilege to traffic and distribute contraband and narcotics in our jails is despicable. This type of behavior places people in custody and our officers at risk.”


During a media briefing Friday, Molina briefly paid tribute to “Colt,” the K-9 unit dog that helped apprehend King, calling him one of the agency’s “most diligent and furriest of employees.”


Patterson, 29, was arrested in the Bronx in September and charged with second-degree attempted murder, grand larceny, carrying a loaded firearm, assault, and other charges, records show.

rikers islandKing busted trying to smuggle weed and tobacco to a Rikers Island inmate accused of attempted murder.Stephen Yang for NY Post
King’s LinkedIn page says she graduated from New York Law School last year and that she has a “passion for advocacy for underrepresented and low-income communities.”


“My desire to effectuate change and promote client’s needs drive me in my legal career,” she wrote on the page.





A spokesperson for Legal Aid Society said, “Tatyana King is a valued member of the Legal Aid Society team and she has our unwavering support” but declined to address why she was at Rikers or whether she is a staff lawyer.


Kings’ arrest comes nearly two months after another legal eagle was busted by DOC officers trying to smuggle illegal drugs to a detainee.


In March, Christopher Hoyt, a lawyer then-representing Viktoria Nasyrova, the Russian-born dominatrix convicted of attempting to murder her pal with drug-laced cheesecake, was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle fentanyl-laced pot into a Queens jail.
 
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