Inmate charged with attempted murder of Philadelphia correctional officer
Tarrell R. Rister, 35, allegedly knocked the correctional officer unconscious Sunday afternoon. Last year, Rister allegedly punched his lawyer and threatened the jury during a murder trial.
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A 35-year-old man awaiting retrial for a 2017 murder was charged with attempted murder for an assault on a Philadelphia correctional officer last weekend, the District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.
Around 3 p.m. Sunday, Tarrell R. Rister allegedly attacked a correctional officer who was attempting to lock his cell at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility.
The correctional officer was knocked unconscious and suffered several fractures to his face as well as bruising to the brain that required treatment in an intensive care unit, prosecutors said.
Rister also was charged with aggravated assault, assault by prisoner, and related offenses.
The president of the union representing the city’s correctional officers told KYW News Radio that the injured officer is 51 years old with 21 years on the job. At the time of the assault, the injured officer was overseeing 80 inmates by himself.
David Robinson, president of AFSCME Local 159 DC 33, said the city’s prisons are understaffed and the situation is dangerous for the correctional officers.
In May, members of the union unanimously voted “no confidence” in Prisons Commissioner Blanche Carney. At a City Council budget hearing in April, Carney acknowledged that the jails had 820 vacant officer positions, about 40% short of a full complement.
Last year, a mistrial was declared in Rister’s murder case for the 2017 fatal shooting of 25-year-old Muhammaud Johnson after Rister allegedly attacked his lawyer.
“He assaulted me in the courtroom,” said George S. Yacoubian Jr., his lawyer at the time, in a phone interview Thursday.
“He punched me in the face,” Yacoubian said, recalling that the incident occurred on the third day of Rister’s trial
After Rister was secured by sheriff’s deputies, Rister made threatening statements against the jury, Yacoubian said.
For that, Rister was charged with aggravated jury tampering involving violence, as well as aggravated assault and numerous related offenses. Since that incident, Rister was found in contempt of court several times for “misbehavior” in the courtroom, court records show.
Prior to Yacoubian being appointed to represent Rister, three prior court-appointed lawyers had withdrawn from representing Rister.
Yacoubian said he was warned that Rister was “difficult.”
Court records show Rister pleaded guilty in 2011 to aggravated assault and aggravated harassment by a prisoner. He also served several years in prison for drug trafficking and for aggravated assault.