SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Corrections Officers at Marcy Correctional left 43-year-old Robert Brooks bloodied and battered in a brutal assault; some prison staff members chose to watch and allow it to happen. That includes Kyle Dashna, a nurse at Marcy, who is seen smiling as his coworkers punched, kicked and otherwise attacked a handcuffed man, a man who died the next day.
He’s not the only one failing to intervene; he’s not the only one who appears to treat the situation like it’s a daily occurrence. That’s the biggest concern for Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley.
“For those sergeants at Marcy to be that unconcerned, that tells me it goes up the chain further. Those are the things that have to be looked at,” Shelley said.
Fourteen Marcy staff members were in the room; eleven corrections officers, two sergeants, and nurse Dashna. Thirteen are suspended; officer Anthony Farina resigned. Farina and two others implicated in Brooks’ death – Sgt. Glenn Trombly and Officer Nicholas Anzalone – are named in lawsuits describing other alleged assaults on inmates from 2020.
“If these people are deciding the law, if these people are the judge and jury, I mean they could do that to anybody,” Shelley said.
For Shelley, the brutal attack made him think of his son, Joel Shelley, who was sentenced to four years in state prison in Franklin County due to a menacing police charge. The sheriff said that while he does not agree with the actions of “criminals,” it is up to jail or prison staff to ensure they are treated fairly under the law.
Brooks’ death and the graphic video of the beating he sustained set off demonstrations across the state this week. At a vigil outside the Monroe County Jail in Rochester on Monday, Brooks’ father described the actions of the Marcy staff as pure evil.
Gov. Kathy Hochul visited Marcy on Monday, implementing immediate changes in the state prison system. This included the removal of Marcy’s acting superintendent, Danielle Medbury; Shawangunk Correctional Facility Superintendent Bennie Thorpe is replacing her in the role in Marcy.
The sheriff says changes are coming to the Onondaga County jail system as well, changes that have been in the works for months and are independent of Brooks’ death. According to Shelley, about $136,000 will be used to outfit certain downtown jail deputies with body cameras, a heel turn from his belief on the campaign trail in 2022 that body cameras would not serve a cost efficient purpose in the jail.
“I sit in a different chair today, with a different perspective. My experience in the jail before becoming sheriff was taking bad guys down there and dropping them off, now I’m managing from the top,” Shelley said.
