An appeals court has upheld a decision by the Department of Corrections that a convicted killer from Carteret is too dangerous to release from a maximum security unit at the New Jersey State Prison.
Eligio Bueno, at his 2004 murder trial in Middlesex County, will remain in a maximum security unit in N.J. State Prison after his appeal was rejected. NEW BRUNSWICK -- An appeals court has upheld the decision by the state Department of Corrections that a convicted killer from Carteret is too dangerous to release from a maximum security unit at the New Jersey State Prison.
The two-judge panel ruled in a 10-page decision released Friday that Eligio Bueno, who is serving a 56-year sentence for murder, should remain in the prison's Management Control Unit until administrators of the corrections department believe he should be released.
While serving the sentence for shooting a Carteret man to death in 2002, Bueno pleaded guilty in 2013 to racketeering, money laundering and drug charges arising from an investigation into heroin trafficking in Middlesex County and in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but the judge ran the time concurrent to his murder sentence.
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The appellate judges said between 2004, when he entered the prison, and 2013, he "committed numerous disciplinary infractions," and was found guilty of fighting, refusing to submit to a search and refusing to obey orders.
The judges said Bueno, who authorities said is also a member of a violent Perth Amboy street gang, had been assigned to administrative segregation as a punishment for committing institutional infractions prior to the decision to place him in the Management Control Unit.
A prior appellate decision quoted by the judges said, " MCU confinement for inmates is not imposed as punishment but is used to prevent a potentially dangerous situation within the prison. It is a housing assignment within NJSP where inmates are housed after a determination is made that the inmate poses a substantial threat to the safety of others, of damage to or destruction of property or, of interrupting the operation of a state correctional facility."
Bueno argued that he was not given a hearing prior to be placed in the unit and that the decision to place him there violated his rights.
But, the judges said, the United States Supreme Court "has clearly stated that an inmate does not have a constitutionally protected liberty interest in his or her placement by the state's penal authority."
The appellate panel said the courts have upheld the Department of Corrections right to reclassify an inmate based on a variety of reasons.
The judges said the decision to place Bueno in the special unit is "supported by sufficient credible evidence in the record."
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
