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Corrections Officer Joseph Conde rushed in to protect a defense attorney from an angry Steven Trainer during a visit at the Bergen County Jail in January when he was “struck in the face with a closed fist,” an indictment returned by a county grand jury says.
Conde sustained a broken nose and other injuries before he was subdued with the help of other officers, his colleagues told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Just six days later, Trainer — who turned 53 on Sunday — was sentenced to a combined 15 years in state prison in connection with purse snatchings in Lodi, Paramus, Clifton and elsewhere that authorities said he committed while driving a blue SUV through store parking lots in 2010.
In one case, police said, he knocked one of his victims down and dragged her 10 feet with the vehicle before fleeing with her Coach purse.
Trainer, of Hackensack, was on parole at the time after serving 14 years in a Georgia prison for a series of similar crimes in the early 1990s, records show.
Trainer, who was brought up to Bergen County this week for a status conference before being returned to state prison, has a May 20 appearance scheduled in Superior Court in Hackensack on the recent assault charge.
“It just shows the jail is not a country club,” Sheriff Michael Saudino told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “With no weapons, they rely solely on the help of their fellow officers.
Conde “put himself in harm’s way” to help the attorney, and ended up hospitalized for it, the sheriff said.
ABOVE, INSET: New Jersey Department of Corrections photo
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