UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A special prosecutor said Monday he made offers to resolve criminal cases against 10 New York prison guards indicted in the beating death of a handcuffed man.
Six correctional officers were charged with murder last month in the December death of Robert Brooks, 43, whose brutal beating was captured on body-worn cameras. Three other prison employees were charged with manslaughter and another with evidence tampering.
The offers were publicly revealed during a pretrial court conference by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, who declined to provide details afterward. The individual defendants will appear in court in April to either accept or reject the offers.
The prosecutor’s offer to David Walters, charged with second-degree manslaughter, was to plead guilty to the existing charge with a recommendation for a mid-range sentence, his attorney Nick Passalacqua said.
“We’ve not been made an offer as I define it. We’ve been asked to plead guilty to the charge,” Passalacqua said, adding that he believed other defendants received similar offers.
Other attorneys declined comment after court.
Walters was due back in court April 30.
Fitzpatrick also told defense attorneys that he talked to federal prosecutors looking into Brooks’ death about the offers.
“They are actively pursuing the matter. I have suggested to them that the dispositions I have offered would satisfy the case completely,” Fitzpatrick said in court. “They have not agreed to that, but they did respond in a favorable manner indicating they would consider that.”
The body-worn camera video shows officers beating Brooks the night of Dec. 9 while his hands were cuffed behind his back. Officers are seen striking him in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck, and dropping him. Brooks died the next day.
Brooks had been serving a 12-year prison sentence for first-degree assault since 2017. He had been transferred from a nearby facility to the prison 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of New York City shortly before the videotaped beating.
Three other prison employees have reached plea agreements, Fitzpatrick has said.
Fitzpatrick also is investigating the death of Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy. A court filing by the attorney general’s office said there is “probable cause to believe” that as many as nine correctional officers either caused or could be implicated in his death.
