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Guards "systemically and casually" beat Robert Brooks to death in New York prison, lawsuit claims

Family files lawsuit in Robert Brooks' death
Family sues after video shows man beaten by guards in New York prison: "It was murder" 05:01

NEW YORK — The family of an inmate who died after being beaten by prison guards in an upstate New York facility has filed a civil rights lawsuit.

Body camera video from Dec. 9, 2024 shows officers punching Robert L. Brooks Sr., 43, while he was handcuffed on a medical examination table at Marcy Correctional Facility, located east of Syracuse. Brooks died the next day.

His family is now suing more than a dozen guards, the former head of the facility and a state corrections official. They say the prison used excessive force in a system that tolerates violence.

"I keep living the same nightmare over and over," son Robert Brooks Jr. told "CBS Mornings" in an interview just moments after they filed the lawsuit. He described what he saw in the video of his father's beating as "torture, anger and overall hate."

"I see a helpless man, and I see myself in him, because I am his son," he continued. 

Fifteen officers and two nurses have been suspended without pay. One officer quit.  

New York Attorney General Letitia James appointed a special prosecutor to investigate, and Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered state officials to initiate proceedings to fire the employees implicated in the attack. Hochul also appointed a new leader for the prison 200 miles northwest of New York City. 

"I want them all to get prosecuted. It was murder, there's no other word for it. They murdered my father, they robbed him from me. He doesn't get to come home," said Brooks Jr. 

"I hope that you're man enough to admit to what you did," Brooks Sr.'s brother, Jared Ricks, said in the interview. 

CBS News New York reached out for comment, and the state Department of Corrections said it does not comment on pending litigation.

"I want the name Robert L. Brooks to be known forever"

Brooks Jr. said in a federal lawsuit Wednesday that his father's attackers "systematically and casually beat him to death" in a correctional system that tolerates violence.

The lawsuit said the assault lasted about 10 minutes, and describes the video as showing "several large white law enforcement officers torturing a bloodied Black man who is restrained, helpless, and struggling to maintain consciousness."

Officers struck the handcuffed Brooks in the chest with a shoe and lifted him by the neck and dropped him while employees who were watching the beating appeared indifferent.

"We will not allow his death to be in vain. This pain must lead to justice for my father and for our family, and we will not stop fighting until we get it," Brooks Jr. said at a news conference Wednesday. "I want the name Robert L. Brooks to be known forever and not just for his last final moments." 

His son described feeling helpless and devastated while watching the video but said the world needed to see the images.

"They have the power to spark the change we need," he said.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges that defendants at the prison used excessive force and were indifferent to Brooks' serious medical need. It also claims gross negligence and wrongful death.

New York state cannot be sued for civil rights violations in federal court, so a separate action against the state will be filed in the state Court of Claims, attorneys for the family said.

They said the corrections officers never expected the video to come to light and called it evidence of "rampant abuse" at the upstate New York facility.

"What troubles us the most is that this is the tip of the iceberg, we think," said attorney Steve Schwarz, "and that's why we're very interested in digging deeper."

The family has yet to be told why Brooks had been transferred to Marcy from another facility earlier that day or what he was doing before the assault, Schwarz said. He had served nine years of a 12-year sentence for assault.

Brooks Jr. told "CBS Mornings" his father was serving time for stabbing his mother. 

"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.

"He recently told me that he asked for forgiveness for everything and he felt the Lord came to him," he added. "It just makes me OK knowing that he's at peace. That's truly the only thing that makes me OK."

"We're going to use our agony to fight for justice"

The results of Brooks' autopsy have not been made publicly available. But preliminary findings from a medical examination indicate "concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being due to actions of another," according to court filings.

The lawsuit says the beating was the sole cause of Brooks' death.

Brooks' relatives said he had not expressed concern for his safety while behind bars, describing him as creative and passionate about the music and stories he was working on.

"We're going to use our agony to fight for justice, so that no one has to watch clips of devastation for 30 minutes at a time or go to the plethora of emotions that I've gone through in the last month," Ricks said at Wednesday's news conference. "We want these killers prosecuted and we want change."

The lawsuit notes that a watchdog group in 2023 reported "rampant abuse by staff" at Marcy after interviewing people incarcerated there in October 2022. The Correctional Association of New York said they were told of physical assaults in locations without cameras, such as between the gates, in vans and in showers. A guard told one new arrival that this was a "'hands-on facility,' we're going to put hands on you if we don't like what you're doing," according to the report.

"What we see is a clear systemic problem that makes the people on the video think they can do what they're doing because they don't think anybody is watching," attorney Elizabeth Mazur, who represents the Brooks family, told "CBS Mornings."

"No person of good conscience can look at the video and say this should happen in America," Schwarz added. "When somebody is shackled and beaten the way Robert Brooks was, no one, in good conscience, can justify that."

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