(CNN) — Six prison workers in New York were indicted on murder charges Thursday in connection with the death of an inmate who was beaten while handcuffed.
Robert Brooks, a 43-year-old Black man, died in the early hours of December 10 after he was beaten by multiple correctional officers at Marcy Correctional Facility, an all-male state prison about 50 miles east of Syracuse, New York. Brooks, who had been serving a 12-year sentence for assault, was transferred to Marcy that night from the nearby Mohawk Correctional Facility.
His death and the body camera footage that emerged of the beating sparked a firestorm of criticism over the violence and brutality some inmates experience at the hands of corrections officers.
“Several of his internal organs were bruised,” special prosecutor Bill Fitzpatrick said Thursday after the court hearing. “His hyoid bone was fractured. His thyroid cartilage was ripped. He also died as a result of repeated restriction to his airways, causing severe brain damage. And finally, he died by choking on his own blood.”
The defendants were accused of acting with “depraved indifference to human life,” while others did nothing to stop the beatings or order immediate medical aid for Brooks, according to the grand jury indictment.
Brooks was beaten three times while under restraint, according to the indictment, “with no legitimate law enforcement purpose.”
Nicholas Anzalone, David Kingsley, Anthony Farina, Christopher Walrath, Mathew Galliher and another correctional officer whose name was redacted from the indictment were charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. Prosecutors said the identity of the sixth officer would be revealed when he makes his own court appearance, likely next week.
All of the defendants who appeared in court on Thursday entered not guilty pleas, and at least six were released on bond, according to the prosecutor. Jail records showed Kingsley and Walrath were still in custody in the Oneida County Correctional Facility Friday morning.
Two of them were also charged with second-degree gang assault, and two officers were charged with offering a false instrument for filing, writing in a report that no force had been used once Brooks got to the infirmary. “This was a demonstrably false statement … with the intent of falsely minimizing their own conduct,” the indictment states.
Three other prison workers were each charged with second-degree manslaughter, and another was charged with tampering with physical evidence.
“To me, the disturbing (thing) is the sense of normalcy,” said Fitzpatrick. “The way that everyone was just going about their business as if this was acceptable behavior.”
In total, 10 people face charges in connection with Brooks’ death, according to the indictment. Among them is David Walters, who is accused of telling a nurse at the prison infirmary not to enter the emergency room to assist Brooks after he was beaten.
CNN has reached out to attorneys for the named defendants charged with murder. James Riotto, who represents Farina, declined to comment on the case at this time.
The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision told CNN it has no record of previous disciplinary action against Farina. Additionally, the agency withheld details on any such action against Anzalone, citing an ongoing investigation.
Fitzpatrick said three other people who have not been named publicly are cooperating on a plea bargain. Their names and the nature of the deal with prosecutors will be revealed in future court filings, he said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the murder charges Thursday afternoon in a statement.
“Robert Brooks should be alive today. The brutal attack on Mr. Brooks was sickening, and I immediately moved to terminate the employment of those involved. Now, the perpetrators have been rightfully charged with murder and State Police are making arrests,” the statement says.
Officers didn’t know they were being recorded
Body camera footage on December 9 showed officers repeatedly punching and kicking Brooks while his hands were cuffed behind him. Officers struck him in the chest with a shoe, lifted him by his neck and dropped him while employees who were watching the beating appeared indifferent, the footage shows. Brooks died the following day.
The officers did not turn on their body-worn cameras during the incident, Fitzpatrick said, but didn’t know that the cameras automatically record a limited amount of footage without audio even when they are not activated.
“The officers were not aware that they were being taped,” said Fitzpatrick.
The Onondaga County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report lists Brooks’ cause of death as “compression of the neck and multiple blunt force injuries and the manner” of death as homicide, an attorney for Brooks’ family, Elizabeth Mazur, previously told CNN.
Brooks was being transferred from Mohawk to Marcy for his own safety after two recent fights involving other inmates, Fitzpatrick said, but the medical examiner determined that those altercations did not contribute in any way to his death.
The charges come about a month after Brooks’ son, Robert Brooks Jr., said in a federal lawsuit his father’s attackers “systematically and casually beat him to death.”
“Nothing can bring him back to us. Nothing can return to us what these men have taken away,” he said in a statement following the court hearing Thursday. “Still, these indictments are a necessary and important step toward accountability.”
“But even the convictions of these corrections officers for the murder of my father will not be enough,” he added. “Every person in authority who allowed this system of violence and abuse to exist and continue for so long must also be held accountable.”
Hochul had ordered state officials to initiate proceedings to fire employees implicated in the attack. More than a dozen individuals were suspended without pay, and one officer quit.
Prison has reported history of inmate abuse
Over the years, Marcy Correctional Facility has developed a reputation for being a place where inmates often experienced violence, intimidation and racism at the hands of staff, experts and attorneys who spoke to CNN said.
A 2022 report about Marcy from the Correctional Association of New York, which provides independent oversight of prisons in the state, notes multiple problems at the facility, including allegations of “physical assaults” by staff on inmates and “pervasive allegations of racial discrimination.”
Around 80% of inmates surveyed in the report said they had seen or been subjected to verbal, physical or sexual abuse by staff. Inmates reported experiencing seemingly random assaults from the staff as well as targeted attacks handed out as punishment, the report found.
The governor announced the appointment of a new superintendent at Marcy Correctional Facility and expedited $400 million to install fixed cameras and distribute body-worn cameras at all Department of Corrections and Community Service facilities after a visit to the facility following Brooks’ death.
Jennifer Scaife, executive director of Correctional Association of New York – the independent ombudsman tasked with monitoring the state’s 42 correctional facilities – previously told CNN she’s confident any investigation into the prison would reveal the attack on Brooks was “not an aberration.”
“It’s really been a facility that we’ve heard a lot of very troubling allegations out of for quite some time,” she said. “I think what will be shown … is a pattern and practice of brutality and violations of people’s human and civil rights.”
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