Robert L. Brooks, left, with his son Robert Brooks Jr., who is now an adult. The elder Brooks died on Dec. 10, a day after he was allegedly beaten by correction officers at Marcy Correctional Facility, a state prison in Oneida County. (Photo provided by family of Robert L. Brooks)
At least 17 officers and two nurses have been suspended for their involvement in the brutal death of Robert Brooks, a 43-year-old inmate who was beaten in December at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Marcy, New York.
Brooks’ death sparked a wave of protests across the country after New York Attorney General Letitia James released several videos of the incident on December 10. James recused herself from the case because her office is prosecuting some of the officers in another case.
According to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), 17 officers have been suspended without pay and will likely lose their jobs. New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the agency to begin the termination process. One officer, Anthony Farina, resigned before he was notified of his suspension, according to the DOCCS.
DOCCS has released the officers’ names: Sgt. Michael Mashaw, Sgt. Glenn Trombly, Sgt. Christine Ploss and Sgt. Evan Thisse; Correctional Officers Matthew Galliher, Nicholas Anzalone, David Kingsley, Nicholas Kieffer, Robert Kessler, Michael Fisher, Christopher Walrath, Michael Along, Shea Schoff, David Walters, Anthony Farina, and Jared Popiel; and Patricia Matos, a registered nurse, and nurse Kyle Dashnaw.
Brooks, who was serving a 12-year sentence for assault, died in the early hours of December 10 after he was beaten by at least three officers at Marcy Correctional Facility, an all-male state prison in north Albany.

Four officers captured the beating on their body cam videos, but none of the recordings contain audio. The videos begin with officers carrying Brooks into the examination room with his face down and handcuffs behind his back.
As one officer holds Brooks by the throat, another officer appears to shove a white material in Brooks’ mouth. The officer then repeatedly punches Brooks in the face while another officer punches him in the groin. One officer strikes Brooks with a shoe.
Two officers in the room then pulled Brooks to a seated upright position at the edge of an exam table before laying him flat on his back. Another officer then puts his foot on Brooks’ lower torso while another officer hits him again in the chest.
While moving Brooks, one officer held him by his neck, and the officer who struck Brooks with his leg can be seen restraining Brooks’ legs before punching him in the buttocks approximately three times.
He and another officer appear to yank Brooks up to the edge of the exam table once again, his face visibly bloody. Brooks tries to speak before an officer punches him in the chest again.
Two officers then grab Brooks by the collar and shoulder area. They removed him from the table and forced him to the back right corner of the room. They hold him up against a wall as other officers look on.
Minutes later, one of the officers gives Brooks a sternum rub –– a technique used to assess if a person is conscious – as another officer pulls off what appears to be Brooks’ green inmate uniform. The footage ends with Brooks no longer handcuffed, lying on the table, motionless in his underwear.
A 2022 report from the Correctional Association of New York, which provides independent oversight of prisons in the state, notes multiple problems at the Marcy facility, including allegations of “physical assaults” by staff on inmates and “pervasive allegations of racial discrimination.”
Around 80 percent of inmates surveyed in the report said they had seen or been subjected to verbal, physical, or sexual abuse by staff. Inmates reported experiencing seemingly random assaults from the staff as well as targeted attacks meted out as punishment, the report found.