Nancy Gonzalez, 29, was taken into custody in her Huntington, Long Island, home. She is eight months pregnant, possibly from the relationship with the inmate.
Gonzalez is accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with Ronell Wilson, who was convicted of fatally shooting detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews on Staten Island in 2003. The officers were undercover, posing as gun buyers, when they were killed.
Wilson had denied the claim by prosecutors that he knew the undercover detectives were policemen when he shot them.
Wilson was initially sentenced to death, but an appeals court in 2010 found that prosecutors improperly advised the jury after the 2007 verdict and sent the ruling back to a lower court. His case is currently undergoing a new death penalty phase.
At least three other inmates reportedly knew about the relationship and told authorities Gonzalez had inappropriate relations in both in Wilson's cell and in a vacant room next to his cell.
The alleged relationship went on for more than four months, and investigators believe she is now eight months pregnant with Wilson's child.
In a series of phone calls routinely monitored by jailhouse supervisors, Ms. Gonzales is overheard saying, "I took a chance because I was so vulnerable and wanted to be loved and now I am carrying his child." She continued, "Why not give him a child as far as giving him some kind of hope."
In one of her phone calls, Nancy Gonzalez seemed to struggle with her conscience.
"How am I going to explain this to this little boy?" Gonzalez said on the tape. "Mommy was in the military. Mommy was a C.O. Mommy got wrapped-up with a person who took lives. So how do you explain that?"
According to the criminal complaint, Gonzalez at one point told one of the other inmates that she could "get 15 years for this."
Further investigation revealed an inappropriate relationship with another inmate, currently in a New York State prison but previously at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center. That inmate told his mother on a recorded conversation that Gonzalez is pregnant with another man's baby.
According to this inmate's mother, Gonzalez is willing to "own up to (her) part of it, but by no means is (she) going to make someone go on death row," an apparent reference to Wilson.
Gonzalez is charged with engaging in sexual relations with an inmate and faces a statutory maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted.
She is currently free on $150,000 bail.
---
