MOUNT HOLLY — A white teenage inmate at the Burlington County jail allegedly was held down by two black inmates and raped by a third black inmate purported to be a Bloods gangster.

According to a tipster, a retired former jail officer, the white inmate turned 18 Monday, and the prison rape was his birthday present. The tipster said that while the boy was being raped he started to have seizures.

Burlco Administrator Gus Mosca refused yesterday to give the story any wings: “Right now it’s being handled by the prosecutor’s office and being investigated.”

He wouldn’t confirm the names of the victim or the rape suspect, and when pressed, suggested The Trentonian interview its tipster and have the tipster comment.

Nor would Mosca comment on the tipster’s charge that the state had warned Burlco Jail Warden Ronald Cox not to house high-security inmates at the medium-security Corrections Work Release Center, the juvenile facility across from Burlco Community College in Pemberton Township.

Attempts to reach Warden Cox were unsuccessful.

The tipster said that following Monday’s alleged rape, the prosecutor’s office came in the next morning and removed 16 high-risk inmates who had been housed at CWRC and transferred them back to the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly.

The tipster said officers employed in the jail system wanted the public to know what happened. “Everything’s such a bleeping secret in there, and the warden is nothing but a ‘yes’ man,” he said.

“They said the victim is from Maple Shade, and they said his parents don’t know (about the rape). They said his family doesn’t even have a clue as to what happened.

“They said he was spaced out. They said while they were raping him and holding him down, he was having some kind of seizure. It’s a shame what they did to that boy, man.”

The tipster said the rape occurred in the C and D Wing bathroom and provided the names of the Maple Shade victim and his alleged attacker, “who was caught with (the victim’s) bloody shorts and has been charged with the rape.”

The tipster said jail security is still trying to identify the two inmates who held the victim down during the rape.

Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi’s office was called.

“It’s our policy not to confirm or deny any investigation,” said Joel Bewley, Bernardi’s spokesman. “But I can tell you that no charges have been filed in connection with a sexual assault at that facility.”

http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2009/05/14/news/doc4a0b88469df2c448743841.txt