114 RED FLAGS STATE PRISON OFFICIALS BURIED BEFORE ROBERT BROOKS WAS KILLED BY GUARDS
THE 13 STATE PRISON GUARDS CHARGED WITH CRIMES AND MISCONDUCT RELATED TO ROBERT BROOKS' KILLING HAD 114 DOCUMENTED MISCONDUCT COMPLAINTS AGAINST THEM
Former Marcy Correctional Facility guards being arraigned on murder and manslaughter charges for killing Robert Brooks Dec. 9, 2024. (L-r) Nicholas J. Anzalone, Anthony R. Farina, Mathew J. Galliher, David J. Kingsley III, Sgt. Michael L. Mashaw. Galliher was acquitted. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
MALONE, NEW YORK Mar. 10, 2026 EXCLUSIVE
The 9 New York State prison guards convicted of killing Robert L. Brooks Sr. had a total of 96 documented misconduct complaints against them, according to State Police investigation reports exclusively obtained by The Free Lance News.
Two guards who were acquitted of killing Brooks had a combined 15 additional documented misconduct complaints against them.
Two more guards who pleaded guilty to attempting to cover up Brooks' murder had three more complaints against them.
It adds up to a staggering 114 documented complaints against 13 former guards. At least 68 of those complaints and likely the vast majority of the remaining 46 alleged assault and excessive force.
Sgt. Glenn J. Trombly had the most: 25. Trombly led the "beat-up squad" of guards that killed Brooks.
Anthony R. Farina, a senior member of the squad captured on body camera video punching Brooks repeatedly, stomping on his genitals and stuffing a rag down his throat, had the second-most: 24.
The remaining 9 members of the beat-up squad who were charged with killing Brooks had a combined total of 62 documented misconduct complaints filed against them in the years leading up to Brooks' killing.
Nicholas J. Kieffer and Robert T. Kessler each had 11 complaints against them; Nicholas J. Anzalone had eight; Christopher R. Walwrath and Michael D. Fisher each had seven; Sgt. Michael L. Mashaw had six; David J. Kingsley III, Mathew J. Galliher and David K. Walters each had four.
Kieffer and Galliher were acquitted of killing Brooks.
Nicholas Gentile and Shea Schoff pleaded guilty to attempting to cover-up Brooks' murder. They also had documented misconduct complaints against them, according to the State Police reports. Gentile had three; Schoff had one.
Even two of the three nurses who treated Brooks after the fatal beating had documented complaints filed against them: 5.
Nurse Patrica Matos had four documented charges, while Nurse Kyle Dashnaw had one, the reports say. They were not charged with crimes but fired, according to a news release by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Gov. Hochul's hand-picked state prison chief, Daniel F. Martuscello III, did not turn over at least 37 of the total 114 documented complaints when State Police investigators asked for them after Brooks' murder.
Despite the ongoing secrecy, today's revelations add to the growing challenges Martuscello is facing after a Feb. 27 Albany Times Union editorial called on Gov. Hochul to fire him.
"The higher management in the jail should have had their fingers on the pulse of that," said Marc Bullaro, an Assistant Deputy Warden at Rikers Island for 28 years and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice since 2017.
"The warden or superintendent should look at these stats."
"The leadership from Albany has failed," Bullaro concluded, considering the complaints. "That's where it starts. It has to start from the top, meaning in Albany, for problems to be solved."
71 of the 114 documented misconduct complaints against Brooks' are detailed in the obtained State Police reports. 68 of those 71 complaints alleged assault and excessive force. The 71 complaints foretell Brooks' killing inside the infirmary at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, 2024.
In 2019, Cecil Seabrooks warned Marcy "was the most violent medium security prison" he'd ever been in when it came to excessive force, according to the report. Seabrooks knew what he was talking about—he'd been in numerous New York prisons for 24 years at the time, since 1995.
Another complaint from 2019, filed by Anthony Romero, alleged "he was punched, slapped and kicked by the 'beat up squad.'”
Although Romero reportedly did not name him, investigators determined one of them was Anzalone—who plead guilty to first degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 22-to-life for killing Brooks.
Anzalone was named again in the Fall of 2024—weeks before he and the squad killed Brooks.
"Anzalone was a 'killer,'" was Dejuan Savage's stark warning to internal affairs investigators working for the state prison system, according to one of the State Police reports. Savage alleged Anzalone and other guards handcuffed him and held him upside down on his head while choking him for "5 to 10 minutes."
Savage's complaint and at least 9 more allege abuse by guards inside Marcy's infirmary, where Brooks was tortured and killed.
For example, Keno Ramsey reported being "tortured for several hours" by guards inside Marcy's infirmary in 2022, a State Police report says.
In 2020, Isaiah Jordan reported Farina and three other guards "punched him in the head, face and mouth." During the assault, a State Police report says, one of them "attempted to shove something into ... Jordan's mouth with Farina assisting"—just like Farina did to Brooks four years later.
Farina also pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 22-to-life.
Tyrone Gates reported "Kingsley choked him with both hands" in 2019, according to yet another State Police report.
The same body camera video that caught Farina stuffing a rag down Brooks' throat, caught Kingsley choking Brooks with both hands. Kingsley was convicted of second degree murder, and sentenced to 25-to-life.
Records of at least 34 additional documented complaints against Brooks' killers were erased, according to State Police reports.
The name of the state agency that manages New York's prison system is the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS. Martuscello is DOCCS' Commissioner.
"NYSDOCCS has advised that files regarding investigations prior to 2013 have been purged," another State Police report says.
The 34 missing complaints cover Anzalone, Farina, Fisher, Galliher, Mashaw, Schoff and Trombly—who all worked for DOCCS before 2013.
Additionally, not all complaints against Brooks' killers were documented by DOCCS' internal affairs bureau, called the Office of Special Investigations, or OSI. OSI is tasked with investigating reports of misconduct and crimes by state prison employees, among other things.
During their investigation, State Troopers discovered additional complaints of excessive force against Sgt. Trombly and Farina that were not given a case number and documented by OSI.
"On January 28, 2025, Shawn D. Mousseau, DOCCS OSI Deputy Chief, emailed Inv Jeremy Nash several additional files relative to complaints made against Sgt. Trombly ... C.O. Farina which were not included in the prior personnel files turned over," one of the reports revealed.
"Upon reviewing same," the report added, "it appeared" the additional complaints "were never officially investigated by OSI."
Troopers gleaned three additional excessive force complaints by three different prisoners from these files.
Finally, while DOCCS acknowledged they existed, they did not turn over case files for at least nine documented misconduct complaints filed after 2012, according to the reports.
William J. Fitzpatrick, the Special Prosecutor in the Brooks case, told The Free Lance News that DOCCS failure to turn over all the disciplinary records for the defendants made his job harder and could have resulted in the dismissal of charges against them because of New York's strict criminal case discovery rules.
“Speaking in general," Fitzpatrick said, "it is crucial that I or any other prosecutor have complete unredacted copies of all disciplinary records to conform with our NY Discovery obligations.”
There may still be yet more misconduct reports against the guards that killed Brooks contained in grievance complaints—an entirely separate complaint system run by local officials at the prison where the conduct complained of occurred, instead of OSI.
For example, Farina's grievance record dates all the way back to 2003. That's when a prisoner filed a grievance alleging Farina threatened him at the Fishkill Correctional Facility.
Trombly's grievance record dates back to 2008 at the Greenhaven Correctional Facility. There he was accused of harassment and assault in two different prisoner grievance complaints.
The Free Lance News did not count these three grievances among the 114 documented complaints filed with OSI.
Other than these grievance complaints, no other grievances are mentioned in the State Police investigation reports obtained.
There are likely to be more because federal law requires prisoners to file grievances before they can sue in federal court—even when they sue for excessive force.
All but one of the State Police reports documenting the disciplinary histories of Brooks' killers fail to state what the results of the investigations were.
Only the report documenting Farina's record states what the results of the more than two dozen OSI investigations into him were. All but one was deemed "unsubstantiated." That means they were not deemed credible or proveable. Charges that are deemed credible are “substantiated,” in DOCCS’ language.
DOCCS refused to disclose the disciplinary records of Brooks' killers in response to a 2025 public records request by The Free Lance News. The legality of that denial is now before New York's highest court to decide.
Still, the fact that all of Brooks' killers remained on DOCCS' payroll strongly suggests that the allegations were dismissed—like all but one of the excessive force complaints against Farina were.
Stanley Howard filed an excessive force complaint with OSI against Walrath, Mashaw and a third guard Royal S. Keech alleging they attacked him on the way back from Marcy's yard on Aug. 29, 2024—three months before Brooks was killed.
According to a State Police report, even though Howard's complaint was included in Mashaw's file "Mashaw did not appear to be involved."
Ditto for Walrath: "There appeared to be no allegations made against C.O. Walrath regarding this incident."
"They never substantiate our complaints," Howard said on Saturday. "Never, ever."
"My situation," Howard explained, "they covered it up."
He blamed OSI.
"I always provide witnesses," Howard said. "And they never"—OSI investigators—"spoke with them."
Howard alleged "OSI never even spoke to the officers that did it. They [the guards] write a to/from [memo] denying it and that's it."
Howard was transferred to Sing Sing after being beaten at Marcy, but he's back at Marcy now. He said on Monday officials there were making him re-take a six month-long rehabilitation program he needs to earn parole in full although he completed five months of the program at Sing Sing.
"They can't beat us anymore," Howard charged, "so they do this."
The fact that the guards who killed Brooks were cleared of excessive force complaints should not have prevented supervisors from taking action.
Bullaro, John Jay's jail and prison expert, said they should've called "those guys in saying 'You had 20 complaints. That's a problem for the prison. What can we do to solve this?'"
To stop it from continuing, he said "send the Correction Officers to retraining in the use of force and de-escalation."
Another option is "corrective counseling. You could call somebody into your office, and just simply have an unofficial talk."
"Is there anything you want to talk about?," was one hypothetical question Bullaro said should have been asked. Another, "Is the tour not working for you? Is there something the department can do for you?"
Bullaro said something else to consider was "Change the post. Maybe temporarily. Give them a post that has less direct contact with the incarcerated population."
Thomas Mailey, Director of Public Information for DOCCS, was given a chance to respond to this report before publication and said: "The fact that there are documented misconducts shows that the Department did take action."
"The lack of a termination does not mean that discipline was not sought," he added. "The department reviews each substantiated outcome to reach an individualized assessment of each investigation."
Mailey explained when it comes to unsubstantiated charges, DOCCS is handcuffed by its contract with the Correction Officers union and cannot take action.
"The Commissioner does not currently have authority under the collective bargaining agreement to terminate an employee unilaterally," Mailey explained. "He must follow the collective bargaining process."
"When the evidence supports a finding of misconduct, the Department seeks to discipline the employee under the terms of the applicable collective bargaining agreement," Mailey added.
"Furthermore,” he wrote, “when there is evidence that a crime may have been committed, a referral to the district attorney, federal prosecutors, or other law enforcement agencies is made and supported by the Department.”
Still, the new revelations come at a difficult time for the state prison system and Martuscello, its embattled Commissioner.
DOCCS is limping through a slow-burning crisis. It's so bad the National Guard will be needed for the foreseeable future.
Commissioner Martuscello's leadership was denounced by the Albany Times Union in a scathing Feb. 27 editorial that called for Gov. Kathy Hochul to fire him. He “is not the person who is going to clean up a brutal, corrupt system,” the editorial said.
The broadsheet's broadside was unleashed days after a federal judge allowed a civil rights lawsuit filed by Brooks' sons to proceed against Martuscello for allegedly being deliberately indifferent to the threat beat-up squads posed to prisoners' safety.
Last week, The Free Lance News reported Martuscello should have known guard discipline at Marcy had broken down by September 2024. By then, his office had been receiving reports for months that Marcy's officers were consistently refusing to use newly-issued body cameras to record uses of force—at all.
"If a warden can't get the guards he's responsible for to "enforce DOCCS policy," John Jay's Bullaro said, "that warden should not be there."
He added: "The Commissioner should've fired that superintendent."
Instead, Martuscello gave Marcy's superintendent, Michael D'Amore, a promotion. He made him a Deputy Commissioner in Martuscello's Albany office.
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