Public defender arrested after faulty drug test at Rikers—charges dropped, but damage already done.
A public defender has spoken out after being falsely accused of smuggling drug-laced legal documents into Rikers Island—charges that were later dropped after further testing proved his innocence.
Bernardo Caceres, a 30-year-old lawyer, was visiting a client at the notorious New York jail last month, preparing the defendant’s case for an upcoming robbery trial. He had brought with him paperwork printed from his personal computer—routine material intended solely for legal discussion.
But after his meeting, disaster struck. Caceres was stopped by a prison drug-sniffing dog. Officials immediately tested his legal documents for traces of drugs. According to Caceres, he was detained inside a holding cell for two hours before being told the papers had tested positive for THC—the active chemical in cannabis.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe incident quickly escalated. Caceres was arrested and charged with promoting prison contraband, and his name was splashed across headlines. For days, he was publicly painted as a criminal—an attorney accused of smuggling drugs to his own client.
However, when Caceres was due to appear in court, the Bronx district attorney’s office contacted his legal team with a reversal: all charges were being dropped. Additional drug testing, they said, had come back clean. There were no drugs on the documents after all.
The case was dismissed and sealed—but the damage had already been done.
“My name was smeared and my reputation clearly damaged,” said Caceres. “Pretty much the only thing on the internet about me were accusations of me being a drug peddler.”
Caceres’s legal team say this is not an isolated incident. Earl Ward, one of his lawyers, pointed to a 2024 report from the city’s Department of Investigation, which had warned of repeated failures in the Correction Department’s drug testing protocols. The report had found that test results were frequently inaccurate and had led to wrongful arrests in the past.
“This is someone who is a professional,” Ward said. “He had his face plastered all over the media as a drug smuggler.”
The Correction Department initially defended its decision, saying the documents were discoloured—something officials claimed could signal the presence of drugs. They have not issued a statement in response to the updated test results.
In addition to the personal fallout, the arrest had professional consequences. Caceres’s client’s trial was derailed by the incident, resulting in a mistrial. The defendant remains in custody at Rikers.
“My client is back to square zero,” Caceres said. “Because I got arrested, his whole case collapsed. I want the world to know what’s going on, and just how wrong it is. Because I’m not the first. And while I hope to be the last, I don’t expect to be.”
At the time of his arrest, Caceres was employed by Queens Defenders, a public defence organisation representing clients who cannot afford private solicitors. He has since joined Brooklyn Defender Services, which recently took over the Queens contract.
Despite the dismissal, the impact of the accusation continues to haunt him. Caceres’s case has raised renewed concerns over the reliability of prison drug detection methods and the consequences of acting on unverified results.
Legal observers say the incident highlights the fragile balance between prison security and due process—and the ease with which reputations and lives can be upended by faulty assumptions