Officers concerned within the beating dying of Robert Brooks Sr. at Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York have been indicted by a grand jury.
The officers are charged with second diploma homicide and different expenses, together with manslaughter and tampering with proof, the courtroom doc launched Thursday exhibits.
Gov. Kathy Hochul stated in an announcement launched earlier the officers have been being arrested on homicide expenses.
“Robert Brooks must be alive at this time. The brutal assault on Mr. Brooks was sickening, and I instantly moved to terminate the employment of these concerned. Now, the perpetrators have been rightfully charged with homicide and State Police are making arrests,” the governor wrote.
Onondaga County District Lawyer William Fitzpatrick’s workplace had stated a “noteworthy improvement” can be introduced earlier than a state decide Thursday afternoon, however didn’t instantly present every other particulars. Fitzpatrick beforehand stated he wouldn’t touch upon the investigation till a grand jury had acted.
Fitzpatrick took over the case as particular prosecutor after state Lawyer Normal Letitia James recused herself over a possible battle of curiosity, saying 4 of the officers beneath investigation have been being represented by legal professionals in her workplace in earlier brutality lawsuits.
A information convention on the Brooks case is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. You’ll be able to watch it stay on CBS Information New York within the video participant above.
Beating of Robert Brooks Sr. caught on physique digital camera
Physique digital camera video launched final month confirmed a number of corrections officers at Marcy Correctional Facility in Onondaga County punching Brooks whereas he was handcuffed on a medical examination desk on Dec. 9, 2024. The officers have been seen hitting Brooks within the chest with a shoe and lifting him up by his neck after which dropping him.
The 43-year-old died the following day. The county medical expert’s workplace dominated his dying was a murder, brought on by compression of the neck and a number of blunt trauma accidents.
“I would like all of them to get prosecuted. It was homicide, there isn’t any different phrase for it,” his son, Robert Brooks Jr., informed CBS Mornings in an interview final month. “They murdered my father, they robbed him from me. He does not get to return residence.”
Brooks had served 9 years of a 12-year jail sentence for stabbing his son’s mom. He was transferred to the jail from a close-by facility solely hours earlier than the beating.
“He did the crime, and he was doing the time. He was coming residence a reformed — that is what jail is for, and that is not what my father obtained. He obtained a dying sentence,” Brooks Jr. stated.
The household filed a civil rights lawsuit, alleging the jail used extreme pressure in a system that tolerates violence.
Gov. Kathy Hochul visits Marcy Correctional Facility
Outcry over Brooks’ beating prompted Hochul to go to the correctional facility, which is situated about 200 miles northwest of New York Metropolis, between Rome and Utica.
Hochul named a brand new superintendent to run the jail and vowed to expedite $400 million for brand spanking new cameras on the facility. She additionally ordered the state to provoke firing proceedings for greater than a dozen workers.
“In the present day, as I stood within the room the place Robert Brooks was killed, I used to be as soon as once more heartbroken by this pointless lack of life and additional sickened to think about the actions of wicked people with no regard for human life,” the governor stated in an announcement after her go to. “Mr. Brooks and his household didn’t deserve this.”
To date, 15 nurses and two officers have been suspended with out pay, pending the investigation. Not less than one officer give up.
Even earlier than the Brooks case, workers on the medium-security jail had been accused of abuse.
A watchdog group reported “rampant abuse by employees” after interviewing individuals incarcerated there in October 2022. The Correctional Affiliation of New York stated it was informed of bodily assaults in places with out cameras, akin to between the gates, in vans and in showers. A guard informed one new arrival this was a “‘hands-on facility,’ we’ll put fingers on you if we do not like what you are doing,” the report stated.
contributed to this report.
