Major discipline · 2023[1]
Suspended 150 days- Rank as reported
- Sergeant
- Sustained charge(s)
- CHARGES: (a)(6): a public employee; (a)(12): ; Violation of Department Rules and Regulations: 3:1.32 Withholding information or giving false information; 3:1.40 Photographs, Videos, Sound Recordings; 3:7.7 Prohibition on Taking Photographs; 3:7.10 Report and Bookings; 3:10.5 Truthfulness
- Separated while IA pending
- not reported
Plain-language summary (this site, from the cited record only)
Sergeant Ebony Mullin received a 150-day suspension from the Essex County Department of Corrections in 2023. The record states that on June 29, 2021, Mullin entered the Essex County Correctional Facility with a cellular phone and used it to take pictures of the secure Master Control area and of lieutenants inside the perimeter. Mullin later provided a false statement claiming she had the phone to contact her husband. Sustained charges included conduct unbecoming and giving false information.
Synopsis as reported by the agency
On June 29, 2021 at approximately 21:21:00 Sgt. Mullin exits the locker room door and walks towards the security checkpoint. Sgt. Mullin then stops near the cell sense machine with a cellular phone in her hand, and appears to take a picture; she then bypasses the cell sense machine and appears to take a second picture. The Security Officer asked Sgt. Mullin if she was taking a selfie to which she replied “no”. At approximately 21:22:22 a Officer from scheduling walks through the cell sense machine and witnesses Sgt. Mullins phone shuttering a few times taking pictures of Master Control/Center Control and in view were three Lieutenants at the Lieutenants desk. Further, in a memo dated 7/10/2021 and in a statement to an Investigator on Monday October 18, 2021 Sgt. Mullin provided a false statement in which she states the reason she had her cell phone was so she could gain reception to text and call her husband. In the audio review of the red door the Securtiy Officer asked Sgt. Mullin if she was trying to get signal to which she replied “oh, no”. Sgt. Mullin knowingly and willfully entered the Essex County Correctional Facility while in possession of an electronic device, specifically a “cellphone.” The cell phone was equipped with a video camera which was used to take pictures of inside the secure perimeter of the Essex County Correctional Facility and of Lieutenants inside the secure perimeter of the Essex County Correctional Facility. Sgt. Mullin used the cell phone to take pictures of an extremely secure and sensitive area “Master Control/Center Control” which not only has camera locations and monitors that randomly view different areas of the jail but is the operations hub for the entire facility.