Surprise plea after jury deadlock in manslaughter case
A New York prison guard accused of failing to intervene as other officers beat an inmate to death pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment on Friday after jurors in his manslaughter trial said they were deadlocked. The surprise plea ended the weeklong trial of former guard Michael Fisher.
The plea came in a case involving the death of Robert Brooks, a 43-year-old Black man who died after a beating that prosecutors said began immediately after his arrival at Marcy Correctional Facility on the night of Dec. 9, 2024. AP reported that guards’ body cameras captured the beating, and the case prompted calls for prison reform.
Prosecutors had charged Fisher as part of a broader group of 10 correctional officers indicted in February. According to AP, Fisher had been facing second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Proposed sentence and deferred punishment while appeals continue
Fisher was expected to be sentenced on Jan. 30 to six months in county jail under a plea agreement, AP reported. The misdemeanor charge is second-degree reckless endangerment, and the expected sentence would be deferred while Fisher appeals the prosecution’s theory of his criminal liability, according to local media reports.
Fisher’s attorney, Scott Iseman, said the resolution alleviates stress for his client and his family. “I can’t tell you the amount of stress someone goes through when they’re facing five to 15 years in state prison, and so this resolution helps alleviate a lot of that, provides certainty to him and his family,” Spectrum News reported Iseman as saying.
Prosecutors’ account: standing by during a beating
Prosecutors said Fisher failed to intervene as other guards beat Brooks in a prison infirmary room. In closing arguments Thursday, special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick said Fisher stood close enough to touch Brooks and did nothing for minutes as the beating continued.
“For seven minutes — seven gut-churning, nauseating, disgusting minutes — he stood in that room close enough to touch him and he did nothing,” Fitzpatrick said, according to AP’s account of the closing arguments.
Defense argument: entry during the beating and causation dispute
Iseman argued the prosecution failed to prove Fisher’s actions led to Brooks’ death. He also contended that Fisher entered the infirmary after the beating began and could not have known the extent of Brooks’ injuries, AP reported.
AP said the indictment of 10 guards in February has produced multiple outcomes. Seven of the guards have now pleaded guilty to manslaughter or lesser charges, one has been convicted of murder, and two were acquitted in a trial last fall.
The AP report also said three additional guards agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for cooperating with prosecutors.