The New York Attorney General’s Office on Friday released footage from four corrections officers’ body-worn cameras showing the beating taken while in custody of inmate Robert Brooks, 43, who the AG’s office says was brutalized by prison guards while in handcuffs. Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida, New York earlier this month.
In the footage reviewed by ABC News, which the AG’s office says was from a Dec. 9 incident, several officers can be seen holding Brooks upright on an examination table, holding his arms, punching and kicking him in the face, torso and genitals. . The beating was described in a statement by an investigator with the New York Department of Corrections’ Office of Special Investigations.
Brooks was transferred to Marcy Correctional Facility on the day of the attack from the nearby Mohawk Correctional Facility.
He was pronounced dead at a local hospital the next day by New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office is investigating the incident.
“As the attorney general, you have my word that we will use every tool possible to investigate this death thoroughly and quickly,” James said at a news conference Friday.
Body-worn camera footage of corrections officers at Marcy Correctional Facility released by the New York Attorney General’s Office
New York Attorney General’s Office
Elizabeth Mazur, an attorney for the Brooks family, told ABC News: “Members of the public can now see for themselves the horrific and extreme nature of the fatal attack on Robert L. Brooks. As viewers can see, Mr. Brooks was deadly. Keeping him safe he was brutally beaten by a group of officials. He deserved to live, and everyone else at Marcy Correctional Facility deserves to know that they don’t have to live in fear of violence at the hands of the prison staff.”
Details of Brooks’ death were revealed in a state coroner’s statement released Tuesday by the New York State Police.
The statement was filed by Ryan Paparella, an investigator with the Department of Corrections and Community Services, who was brought in to investigate this incident. In the deposition, Paparella details the evaluation of the body camera that shows Brooks’ assault.
Paparella cited no apparent provocation or motive in his statement and noted that Brooks had his arms and legs restrained during the 15-minute attack. Paparella is a former corrections officer at the same prison where the incident took place.
Paparella’s statement read: “The male was on the ground (outside by a fence)… I saw corrections officers pick up the handcuffed male from the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back. The male’s hands were extended directly above his head with his upper torso parallel to the ground and , they continued walking the male down the sidewalk and into an open door of the infirmary.
Body-worn camera footage of corrections officers at Marcy Correctional Facility released by the New York Attorney General’s Office
New York Attorney General’s Office
Paparella reported that a corrections officer “closed his fist to the chest” while handcuffing Brooks, and specific officers pushed Brooks’ body against an interior window.
Preliminary findings from Brooks’ autopsy by the Onondaga County Medical Examiner’s Office “point to concerns about asphyxiation due to neck compression as the cause of death, as well as that the death was the result of the actions of another,” New York State Police wrote. a court file.
Paparella stated that two sergeants and a nurse saw the attack and stopped to intervene. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is among 14 prison workers ordered to be furloughed by the state.
“Like all New Yorkers, I was outraged and horrified after seeing the footage of the senseless killing of Robert Brooks. I have made it clear that the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Services has the responsibility to provide appropriate care and protection to those in its custody, and I will not tolerate anyone violating that responsibility. ” Hochul said on Friday. “New York State has zero tolerance for people who break the law, and I am committed to holding everyone involved fully accountable.”
One of the officers Paparella reported involved in the incident is facing civil charges for his alleged involvement in the beating of another inmate at Marcy Correctional in 2020, according to court records.
The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association released a statement: “What we saw is incomprehensible and certainly not reflective of the excellent work that the vast majority of our members do every day… This incident has taken a toll on our custodial facilities. The potential to be even more violent, hostile and unpredictable than ever.”
The Correctional Association of New York (CANY), a state watchdog group, said in a statement that terminating the officers involved in the incident “is a good start, but Governor Kathy Hochul and the legislature must go much further.”
“They must take bold and courageous actions to fulfill their past commitments and usher in a new era of transparency and accountability in state government,” he said. let go he reads
2023 CANYA the report At Marcy Correctional Facility, they found that four out of five inmates reported witnessing or experiencing abuse and seven out of 10 inmates reported racial discrimination by guards.
One person interviewed at the Marcy Correctional Facility told CANY: “Physical abuse is rife; (the corrections officer) told me when I got here, ‘This is a hands-on facility, we’re going to put our hands on you if we do it.’ I don’t like what you’re doing.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union said Brooks’ death “highlights a culture of violence and culpable lack of accountability by correctional officers that puts the lives of incarcerated New Yorkers at risk.”
A 2024 review by the Department of Justice found that at least 28 inmates died while in custody during 2022, and 50 deaths were classified as “accidental,” a term not defined in the report.
James, the attorney general, announced Friday that the four officers involved did not turn on their body-worn cameras, which violates state policy, however, that cameras recorded on standby have no audio.
Department of Corrections Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III issued a memo this month stating that correctional officers must actively record body cameras while interacting with inmates. Martuscello wrote that employees should “immediately report any person who intentionally or unintentionally circumvents the (body-worn camera) policy.”
“This was a murder, and people will be held accountable,” according to a statement Martuscello released after Brooks’ death. “No one is above the law and everyone who works here is held to the highest ethical standards. These individuals are not representative of the culture of DOCCS, or anything that DOCCS stands for, to aggressively seek justice for the Brooks family and for our agency to take the necessary steps to heal the community.” to make sure they have
Brooks was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2017 for stabbing his girlfriend in Monroe County.
Thirteen of the employees have been suspended without pay and one resigned the day after the incident.
The investigation is ongoing with the New York AG’s Office and the NY Department of Corrections Office of Special Investigations.
