New York Guards Strike After 10 Charged in Prisoner’s Fatal Beating
On February 18, 2025, charges were announced against nine New York Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS) guards in the fatal beating of prisoner Robert L. Brooks, 43. The announcement was followed by a rogue strike staged by guards at three prisons, which were put on lockdown as a result. A tenth guard was then charged on February 24, 2025.
As PLN reported, Brooks died during the beat-down, which was captured on the guards’ body-worn cameras shortly after he arrived at Marcy Correctional Facility on December 9, 2024. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) then ordered 13 guards and a nurse fired; another guard involved, Anthony Farina, had by then already resigned. [See: PLN, Feb. 2025, p.59.]
Charged with his murder and manslaughter were Farina and fellow guards Nicholas Anzalone, Christopher Walrath and Matthew Galliher, who was also charged with gang assault. Three other guards were charged only with manslaughter: Michael Fisher, Sgt. Michael Mashaw and David Walters. Guard David Kingsley II was charged with murder only. Guard Nicholas Gentile was charged with tampering with evidence. The tenth guard, Nicolas Kieffer, was charged with murder, manslaughter, gang assault and offering a false instrument for filing.
Nine of the guards were reportedly posting bail, which was set by Oneida County Court Judge Robert Bauer at $100,000 cash or $250,000 bond for those charged with murder and $50,000 cash or $100,000 bond for the three facing a manslaughter charge. For his tampering charge, Gentile was released on his own recognizance.
The guard strike that erupted the same week was not authorized by the guards’ union, the New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association (COPBA). But it quickly leapt to most DOCCS lockups, resulting in extensive lockdowns that suspended recreation, programming and visitation—even from prisoners’ attorneys. As the turmoil spread, meal service was disrupted at several prisons, and Gov. Hochul called in troops from the National Guard to maintain security.
Several guards blamed the strike on understaffing and resulting overtime demands. But former prisoner Thomas Gant, now a community organizer for the non-profit Center for Community Alternatives, said that it was “intended to deflect attention from a moment of reckoning for New York’s violent prison system and culture of impunity.” Even COPBA Executive Treasurer Pamela Welch called the guards’ action “understandable.”
Source: Albany Times Union
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