By Zoe Sottile and Raja Razek, CNN
(CNN) — At least three of the officers involved in the fatal beating of Robert Brooks, a New York man held at the Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York, were previously accused of assault, according to court documents obtained by CNN.
The officers were among 14 staff named by the Department of Corrections related to Brooks’ death. None of the officers have been charged with wrongdoing. CNN has not been able to confirm the identities of the officers shown in the video, or what specific role each named person is alleged to have had.
Body-worn camera footage released Friday shows correctional officers at the facility punching and kicking Brooks with his hands handcuffed behind his back in a medical examination room. The fatal beating is now under investigation by the New York Attorney General, and Gov. Kathy Hochul has called for those involved to be fired.
Federal officials are also looking into the case. “The FBI Albany Field Office and the Department of Justice are reviewing the facts and circumstances surrounding the death of Robert L. Brooks to determine the appropriate federal response,” the FBI said in a statement to CNN.
None of the officers or their representatives have commented since the video came to light.
CNN has reached out to the officers for comment.
However, the correctional officers’ union, which typically speaks on behalf of prison employees, issued a statement that described the footage as “incomprehensible to say the least” and “certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day.”
Two of the New York officers, Sgt. Glenn Trombly and Officer Anthony Farina, were named in a complaint filed in federal court in 2022, based on a 2020 incident which occurred at the same prison where Brooks died.
The complaint alleges as another correctional officer beat a handcuffed inmate at the correctional facility, Trombly and Farina “looked on and failed to intervene in any manner to prevent or stop the beating,” leaving the plaintiff with “a permanent facial deformity.” The case remains pending.
CNN has reached out to the plaintiff’s attorney for comment.
A different officer, Nicholas Anzalone, who was named by the department, is also named in a separate federal complaint in 2022, stating he joined an assault on an inmate by another correctional officer at the same facility. The complaint alleges the officer was involved in a cover-up fabricating disciplinary charges against the inmate, who was left with “substantial physical and mental injuries.” The case is still ongoing.
Court documents detailed the incident. “Defendants CO Nicolas Anzalone … entered the bathroom during the assault and joined CO Iodice in kicking Plaintiff while he lay on the ground and/or failed to stop CO Iodice’s assault … After beating him, Defendants took Plaintiff to the Marcy infirmary in a van wherein they forced Plaintiff to lie face down on the floor while CO Anzalone kicked his feet.”
The inmate’s attorney, Katie Rosenfeld, told CNN her client was “brutally assaulted in 2020 at Marcy CF, the same prison where Robert Brooks was just murdered (involving) one of the same corrections officers.”
Her client “thought he would die that day, as officers punched and kicked him to a bloody heap. The officers then lied to cover up the beating,” Rosenfeld’s statement says.
Rosenfeld added, “If DOCCS (the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision) had done anything about the officers at Marcy who it knew were routinely terrorizing incarcerated people, Mr. Brooks would still be alive today.”
The New York Times first reported the previous accusations against the officers.
Brooks was pronounced dead on December 10 at Wynn Hospital in Utica, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James. Brooks, 43, had been serving a 12-year prison sentence since 2017 for first-degree assault, prison documents show.
Watchdog calls out previous assault reports
A 2022 report from a watchdog organization found widespread reports of assaults at the Marcy Correctional Facility by officers and recommended an investigation from the attorney general’s office.
The investigation by the Correctional Association of New York, an independent agency charged under the law with visiting and examining New York’s correctional facilities to report on prison conditions and treatment of inmates, consisted of 117 interviews with incarcerated individuals at the facility.
In a statement at the time, the organization’s executive director Jennifer Scaife said, “A number of issues at Marcy troubled us during our monitoring visit, including pervasive allegations of racial discrimination, mistreatment by staff, and non-adherence to the requirements of HALT (the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act).”
“We are calling upon the State Inspector General and DOCCS’ Office of Special Investigations to investigate these serious allegations of racial discrimination and violations of human rights,” said Scaife.
The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said in a statement, “We have addressed or are in the process of addressing the majority of the recommendations contained in the 2022 CANY report on Marcy Correctional Facility.”
It singled out a recommendation for body-worn cameras. “One of those recommendations adopted has been DOCCS investment of millions of dollars to continue to expand fixed cameras in all facilities, along with body-worn cameras. Body-worn cameras were deployed to Marcy Correctional Facility in May 2024. Those cameras were critical in preserving the evidence of the fatal attack of Mr. Brooks.”
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