Robert Brooks’ son sues prison staffers, officials for father’s death

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Robert Brooks Jr. is suing Marcy Correctional Facility staffers, its superintendent and New York’s corrections commissioner in federal court for his father’s death in custody.

The lawsuit, filed last week, alleges 15 prison staffers at Marcy, which is outside Utica, caused Robert Brooks Sr.’s death on Dec. 10, either by beating him or failing to intervene.

It also claims his death resulted from officials not addressing systemic brutality within Marcy and the state’s entire prison system despite New York’s prison oversight body repeatedly drawing attention to it and insisting on changes. Daniel Martuscello III, commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and Marcy Superintendent Danielle Medbury are named as defendants in the suit.

“There can be no doubt that responsibility for Robert’s killing extends beyond the Marcy staff present at the scene of his fatal beating,” the complaint reads. “Robert’s killers did not act in a vacuum. Their actions were the entirely foreseeable result of NYSDOCCS leaders knowingly maintaining an utterly broken system that condones, tolerates, or turns a blind eye to violence on incarcerated people, as those leaders have done for decades.”

The lawsuit pulls from the highly publicized body camera footage released by Attorney General Letitia James in the course of her office’s investigation into Robert Brooks Sr.’s death. James has since recused herself from the case because she is defending some of the officers involved in other cases. She has appointed William Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney, as special prosecutor.

On the claims of systemic abuse, the lawsuit cites a report by the Correctional Association of New York, the state’s official prison oversight body, that uncovered a retaliatory environment reported by inmates at Marcy and rampant abuse by staff that included physical assaults and racialized abuse and discrimination.

Ongoing court cases launched by William Alvarez and Adam Bauer—who allege they were illegally beaten by Marcy prison staff, including several officers involved in beating Brooks Sr.—also factor into Robert Brooks Jr.’s case. 

Several other lawsuits that highlight systemic violence in New York’s prisons, reporting by the New York Times and the Marshall Project, and the experiences of civil rights attorney Amy Jane Agnew, who says she and her clients at Marcy have experienced retaliation when attempting to assert their legal rights, are also part of Robert Brooks Jr.’s complaint.

“The extensive and thoroughly documented history of NYSDOCCS staff brutally attacking—and in the worst cases like this one, killing—incarcerated people, then conspiring to cover up their crimes and elude accountability, can leave no doubt that Supervisory Defendants Medbury and Martuscello knew that the system they oversaw was dangerously broken,” the complaint concludes. “They knew that people like Robert faced a serious risk of harm by officers who felt free to act with impunity, but they took no meaningful steps to abate the risk of harm. The result was fatal for (Brooks Sr.), whose group of killers never even flinched as they beat him to death.”

Robert Brooks Jr., on behalf of his father’s estate, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

Representing him are Stephen G. Schwarz and Lesley E. Niebel of the Rochester-based Faraci Lange, along with Elizabeth Mazur, Matthew J. Piers, Caryn C. Lederer and Kate Schwartz of the Chicago-based Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym.

Justin O’Connor is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. 

The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real nameSee “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing  [email protected]

6 thoughts on “Robert Brooks’ son sues prison staffers, officials for father’s death

  1. I was a State Corrections Officer for 23 years serving most of that time at Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, NY. On May 9, 2017 I was attacked and injured by another CO which ultimately led me going to the emergency room by ambulance. The administration, the Union NYSCOPBA, DOCCS OSI and Labor Relations all participated in a cover up in order to protect the CO that attacked me. They turned their backs on me after years of being an asset to the Facility. I’ve seen it all. Violence and Corruption. DOCCS is quick to cover up anything because they’re afraid to lose their jobs and get sued. I wrote a book which was published June 2022 called Justice or Not which depicted my observation and experiences as a CO inside of NY’s Prisons.

    Those Officers at Marcy deserve to lose everything including their pensions and freedom over their action causing death. If the Department hasn’t learned from its mistakes by now, it’s time to shut it all down.

    • Thank you Mr. Harrington for you comment on this article, your service, and your book which I just bought on Amazon.

      I live in Brockport, NY and many of my neighbors work at Orleans Correctional, Albion Correctional, Attica, and Wyoming. I have also visited inmates in these facilities and others such as Gowanda, Marcy, and Groveland.

      Being a CO is a tough and important job. I am interested in how the cultures of these various facilities are influenced by the Superintendent and the command staff. Any ideas about this?

      In New York State we spend a tremendous amount of money incarcerating people, about $556,000 per year per inmate. Think of what could be done with that kind of money to improve the lives of our citizens in this state if we could find better ways of keeping the community safe and improving offenders lives. Wow!

      Thank you.

      • You’ll find the book to be looking through the eyes of the uniform. A different perspective,one that is rarely, if ever, given by a retired CO. NYS spends money in ways that unfortunately it is political. But that money isn’t spent on prisons, until they have to…..after an incident. NY is reactive and has never been proactive to prevention. There’s alot of dirt under the rugs of the prison system.

    • Yes they need to lose everything, they need to be held accountable for their criminal acts/ murder, every single person that entered that room and did not intervene also need to be arrested the nurse that was laughing oh most definitely put that disgrace to the healthcare field behind bars point blank lock them all up and plz throw away the key a circus act of evil monsters , no care whatsoever for human life and the fact that they all looked so comfortable and proud of what they were doing just proves what sick evils they are and they are a danger to society . Also any government officials and supervisors that were aware of this need to lose their jobs also as this could of been prevented if they weren’t corrupt and obviously committed criminal acts they got to go as well ! Cleaning house ny get honest individuals to represent our state ! And lastly close down that facility as I beleive those will never change due to the Ignorance and prejudice surrounding that area!

  2. Thank you for the excellent article.

    When I read about the death of Robert Brooks I immediately thought, “Who are the people in charge of this system which allows such behavior by COs?” It is possible for people who hide in bureaucracies to never be held accountable for the choices they make as decision makers in these systems. Unfortunately, incompetent people get placed in charge of these systems for various reasons.

    Mr. O’Connor writes in his article “Daniel Martuscello III, commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and Marcy Superintendent Danielle Medbury are named as defendants in the suit.” How did Martuscello and Medbury ever it into positions of leadership that produces such horrific outcomes? Does Martuscello report to Governor Hochul? Does Medbury report to Martuscello?

    When Robert Brooks, Jr. wins his lawsuit what is going to cost New Yorkers. We as New York taxpayers will pay for the egregious behavior of the COs who act in our name. All New York taxpayers have a financial as well as a moral stake in this lawsuit.

    Perhaps Mr. O’Connor will follow up on this excellent article and report further on the criminal justice system in our state: how its run, its philosophy of corrections, how it is funded, and the outcomes for our society it achieves. There is seems to be no question that we as New Yorkers can do better.

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