Officers involved in the beating death 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 degree murder and other charges, including manslaughter and tampering with evidence, the court document released Thursday shows.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement released earlier the officers were being arrested on murder charges.
“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 governor wrote.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick’s office had said a “noteworthy development” would be announced before a state judge Thursday afternoon, but did not immediately provide any other details. Fitzpatrick previously said he would not comment on the investigation until a grand jury had acted.
Fitzpatrick took over the case as special prosecutor after state Attorney General Letitia James recused herself over a potential conflict of interest, saying four of the officers under investigation were being represented by lawyers in her office in previous brutality lawsuits.
A news conference on the Brooks case is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. You can watch it live on CBS News New York in the video player above.
Beating of Robert Brooks Sr. caught on body camera
Body camera video released last month showed multiple corrections officers at Marcy Correctional Facility in Onondaga County punching Brooks while he was handcuffed on a medical examination table on Dec. 9, 2024. The officers were seen hitting Brooks in the chest with a shoe and lifting him up by his neck and then dropping him.
The 43-year-old died the next day. The county medical examiner’s office ruled his death was a homicide, caused by compression of the neck and multiple blunt trauma injuries.
“I want them all to get prosecuted. It was murder, there’s no other word for it,” his son, Robert Brooks Jr., told CBS Mornings in an interview last month. “They murdered my father, they robbed him from me. He doesn’t get to come home.”
Brooks had served nine years of a 12-year prison sentence for stabbing his son’s mother. He was transferred to the prison from a nearby facility only hours before the beating.
“He did the crime, and he was doing the time. He was coming home a reformed — that’s what prison is for, and that’s not what my father got. He got a death sentence,” Brooks Jr. said.
The family filed a civil rights lawsuit, alleging the prison used excessive force in a system that tolerates violence.
Gov. Kathy Hochul visits Marcy Correctional Facility
Outcry over Brooks’ beating prompted Hochul to visit the correctional facility, which is located about 200 miles northwest of New York City, between Rome and Utica.
Hochul named a new superintendent to run the prison and vowed to expedite $400 million for new cameras at the facility. She also ordered the state to initiate firing proceedings for more than a dozen employees.
“Today, as I stood in the room where Robert Brooks was killed, I was once again heartbroken by this unnecessary loss of life and further sickened to think of the actions of depraved individuals with no regard for human life,” the governor said in a statement after her visit. “Mr. Brooks and his family did not deserve this.”
So far, 15 nurses and two officers have been suspended without pay, pending the investigation. At least one officer quit.
Even before the Brooks case, employees at the medium-security prison had been accused of abuse.
A watchdog group reported “rampant abuse by staff” after interviewing people incarcerated there in October 2022. The Correctional Association of New York said it was told of physical assaults in locations without cameras, such as between the gates, in vans and in showers. A guard told one new arrival this was a “‘hands-on facility,’ we’re going to put hands on you if we don’t like what you’re doing,” the report said.
Mark Prussin
contributed to this report.
