Guards in fatal New York prison assault of Robert Brooks were accused of beating inmates before

Shocking bodycam video of prison guards beating the inmate was released on Friday by New York Attorney General Letitia James

Three New York corrections officers allegedly involved in the beating death of an inmate while he was handcuffed had been previously accused of similar attacks, a new report reveals.

The inmate, 43-year-old Robert Brooks, died on December 10, a day after the incident at the Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

Two of the corrections officers and a sergeant implicated in Brooks’ death were previously named in federal lawsuits filed by inmates, according to the New York Times. The suits accused the guards of the attacks that left one man disfigured and another in a wheelchair.

Katie Rosenfeld, a lawyer for one of the inmates, criticized the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision for fighting her client’s lawsuit for four years.

“The fact that they failed to rein in these officers that they knew had beaten someone else is a direct contributor to Mr. Brooks’s death,” Rosenfeld told the Times.

Bodycam footage shows New York inmate Robert Brooks being beaten by prison staff while restrained on a medical exam table (New York attorney general’s office)

In a statement on Friday, Daniel F. Martuscello III, the state’s corrections commissioner, vowed to address the issue.

“It is not enough to simply condemn this horrific act and then go back to business,” he said in a statement on Friday. “Institutional change must follow.”

The new report comes after New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday released shocking body cam footage of the guards violently beating Brooks while his hands are cuffed behind his back.

For about 20 minutes, they are seen beating him on his head, chest, and genital area in the medical exam room with one officer hitting him with a shoe. He died the next day.

Brooks, 43, had been serving a 12-year prison sentence for first-degree assault since 2017, according to the corrections department.

James’ office opened an investigation into Brooks’ death on December 16.

At one point in the footage, the staff can be seen removing items of Brooks’ clothing while he remains handcuffed (New York District Attorney’s Office)

Since the incident, one corrections officer has resigned and 13 others have been suspended without pay. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called for all the individuals involved to be fired over the fatal beating.

According to the lawsuits, alleged assaults by the same guards revealed similar details to the Brooks attack.

In February 2020, corrections officers allegedly beat inmate Adam Bauer in a bathroom at the Marcy prison and then accused him of attacking them, according to a lawsuit.

One of the officers was named as Nicholas Anzalone, who is also accused in the assault of Brooks.

Bauer claimed he was walking out of a bathroom stall and about to light a cigarette with a battery when a guard stopped him. The officer then ordered him to stand against the wall for a frisk and then began punching him in the head until he fell to the floor, according to the lawsuit.

Anzalone and two sergeants joined in on the beating, Bauer claimed in the lawsuit, adding the guards then dragged him out and drove him to the infirmary, where he was forced to lie facedown on the floor as they kicked his feet.

To cover up the assault, the lawsuit claims, the officers lied. They first told a nurse he had harmed himself. Then, after being transferred to hospital, they claimed another inmate had attacked him.

When he was back in prison, he was sent to solitary confinement on false disciplinary charges for 60 days until a prison official reversed the decision, according to the Times.

Three of the corrections officers implicated in the beating of Brooks had been previously accused of similar attacks, according to lawsuits (AP)

The inmate’s lawyer said the corrections department’s Office of Special Investigations looked into the accusations, but ultimately found that the force was “necessary and reasonable” to get Bauer to comply. She added that the officers were never interviewed by investigators.

Later that same year, Sgt. Glenn Trombly and Officer Anthony Farina, two guards implicated in the beating of Brooks, were involved in the assault of another inmate – William Alvarez, according to a lawsuit.

Alvarez was cleaning the bathroom when an officer pepper-sprayed him without provocation, according to his lawsuit. He was ordered against the wall and an officer slammed his head repeatedly as he was cuffed.

The three officers kicked him in the head and body before dragging him into a van and taking him to the infirmary, similar to Bauer’s attack, he claims.

Alvarez, like Bauer, was accused of attacking the guards and held in solitary confinement for 60 days. He is now permanently disfigured.