Three New York Guards Plead Guilty to Beating Black Prisoner in “George Floyd Challenge”
A third New York Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS) guard pleaded guilty on April 23, 2025, to assaulting a Mid-State Correctional Facility prisoner and lying about it to cover it up. Brandon Montanari, 34, admitted in federal court for the Northern District of New York to depriving the civil rights of prisoner James Barton, 47. Fellow guards Rohail Kahn, 28, and Michael Williams, 38, previously pleaded guilty in the same court to the same charge.
The three woke Barton in his cell on April 13, 2023, and took him to the hallway, where they stood him with his hands against a wall and said, “Hold your ID with your right pinky against the wall and if the ID falls, you’re dead.” They then proceeded to punch and kick him, knocking him to the floor. As they set upon the prisoner to beat him some more, one of the guards cried, “Let’s give him the George Floyd challenge!”—a reference to the Black shoplifting suspect casually strangled to death by a Minneapolis cop in May 2020, touching off a nationwide wave of protests against police brutality.
“Do you think you was going to get away with raping a white woman?” one of the guards taunted Barton, according to a complaint he later filed. Barton was sentenced to a prison term of 10 years to life for his 2008 admission to molesting two preteens, one of whom became pregnant and had his child.
The three guards were not charged with state crimes. Sentencing for their federal convictions is scheduled for later in 2025. See: United States v. Montanari, USDC (N.D.N.Y.), Case No. 5:25-cr-00136; United States v. Khan, USDC (N.D.N.Y.), Case No. 5:24-cr-00391; and United States v. Williams, USDC (N.D.N.Y.), Case No. 5:24-cr-00393.
Barton also filed suit in federal suit for the Southern District of New York, seeking to recover damages for the assault. That case was under seal at the end of May 2025, but PLN will continue to monitor it and report any developments that are available. See: Barton v. Khan, USDC (S.D.N.Y.), Case No. 9:24-cv-01433.
Another prisoner beaten by Mid-State guards in March 2025 later died of his injuries. As PLN reported, two guards were indicted the following month for murdering prisoner Messiah Nantwi, 22, joining 10 other DOCCS guards indicted in February 2025 for the murder of prisoner Robert Brooks, 43, at Marcy Correctional Facility nearby. [See: PLN, May 2025, p.43.]
Additional source: Syracuse Post-Standard
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