THE ROBERT BROOKS FILES PART 3: DID STATE PRISON OFFICIALS HIDE EVIDENCE FROM INVESTIGATORS?
THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND COMMUNITY SUPERVISION TOLD STATE POLICE INVESTIGATORS IT 'PURGED' DISCIPLINARY RECORDS OF PRISON GUARDS BEFORE 2013, BUT ON MONDAY THE AGENCY BACKTRACKED AND SAID IT STILL HAS SOME RECORDS
The body cameras that secretly captured New York State prison guards beating and torturing Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility Dec. 9, 2024. Photo credit:: New York State Police.
MALONE, NEW YORK Mar. 11, 2026
EXCLUSIVE—Part 3 of The Robert Brooks Files, a multi-part investigation into the murder of Robert Brooks
High-ranking New York State Prison Officials in Albany may have lied to State Troopers investigating the murder of Robert L. Brooks Sr. by guards, State Police investigation reports exclusively obtained by The Free Lance News show.
The same officials also appear to have concealed evidence—which may have helped two of the guards indicted for killing Brooks win a shocking acquittal at their 2025 murder trial.
Brooks, a 43-year-old black American from Rochester, was sent to the medium-security Marcy Correctional Facility outside Utica on Dec. 9, 2024. He was tortured, beaten and choked to death by an all-white gang of guards 31 minutes after his arrival.
The murder was unknowingly caught on video by body-worn cameras four of the guards were wearing.
13 guards were charged with either killing Brooks, failing to stop it or covering it up. 11 were convicted or pleaded guilty.
In January 2025, State Police investigators asked the agency which manages New York's prisons, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS, to hand over the employee disciplinary records of guards suspected of involvement in Brooks' murder.
DOCCS handed over some records, but told the State Police investigator who made the request that disciplinary records before 2013 had been "purged," according to a State Police report authored by Sen. Inv. Dennis Dougherty.
Dougherty led Troopers' investigation into Brooks' murder.
He was investigating Marcy guard Shea Schoff when he made the request.
"Schoff is listed as being 'involved' in a substantiated investigation into Employee Misconduct on an investigation dated February 9, 2005," Dougherty wrote. But "No further records pertaining to this investigation were provided."
The report explains why: "NYSDOCCS has advised that files regarding investigations prior to 2013 have been purged."
It wasn't just Schoff's records that were allegedly "purged."
Records of at least 28 additional documented pre-2013 complaints against Brooks' killers were erased, according to State Police reports. Counting one of the guards who was acquitted, who had three pre-2013 complaints purged, the number rises to 31, according to additional obtained State Police reports.
14 of Sgt. Glenn J. Trombly's 25 prior cases vanished, along with 9 of Anthony R. Farina's 24 prior cases, according to the reports.
Sgt. Trombly was the leader of the beat-up squad that killed Brooks, and Anthony R. Farina, a senior member of the squad infamously caught on body-camera video stomping on Brooks' genitals before stuffing a rag down the helpless, handcuffed man's throat.
Farina's disciplinary history dates back to 2002 at the Fishkill Correctional Facility, according to a database published by the New York Civil Liberties Union.
The database is based on records disclosed by DOCCS as part of the 2024 settlement of a lawsuit against it by the NYUCLU for the records. The database is said to include records from 2000 to 2020. It is not complete.
It appears not even this documented misconduct report for Farina from 2002 in the NYCLU database was disclosed to State Police investigators because it is not detailed in their reports.
A law enforcement source close to the investigation into Brooks' murder confirmed to The Free Lance News that no disciplinary records older than 2013 were provided to the State Police by DOCCS.
In addition to the 31 pre-2013 documented complaints allegedly erased, DOCCS did not turn over case files for at least nine documented misconduct complaints filed after 2012, according to the State Police reports obtained.
The State Police declined to comment.
"I don't think it would be appropriate," State Police spokesman William Duffy wrote in an email to The Free Lance News.
Depending on how bad the misconduct in the missing complaints was, it may have deprived prosecutors of a common tool they use to convict defendants: prior "bad acts."
The rules of evidence prevent juries from considering prior bad acts of criminal defendants if that evidence is shown just to prove the defendant had a propensity to commit crimes. But evidence of prior bad acts like documented misconduct is admissible to show the crime charged was not an accident.
In rape cases, for example, evidence a defendant raped other people is typically admissible to prove the defendant knew "no" meant no. In cases with multiple defendants, evidence of prior bad acts is admissible to show they shared the same intent or took part in a common scheme—which was exactly the situation with Brooks' murder by the beat-up squad.
Four guards charged with killing Brooks declined to plead guilty and exercised their constitutional right to a jury trial.
David J. Kingsley III was convicted of second degree murder but Nicholas Kieffer and Mathew J. Galliher were were acquitted of murder, manslaughter and gang assault at a joint trial in October 2025. Kieffer was also acquitted of contributing to the attempted cover-up.
A fourth guard, Michael D. Fisher, went to trial for manslaughter but pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor during it when the jury deadlocked to avoid being re-tried.
The Special Prosecutor in the Brooks case, Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick, did not use prior "bad acts" evidence against any of the defendants in those trials.
Fitzpatrick told The Free Lance News that DOCCS failure to turn over all the disciplinary records made his job harder. He also said it could also have resulted in the dismissal of charges 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.”
The State Police reports do not name who in DOCCS told them that disciplinary records before 2013 had been purged. However, the reports list "OSI" as the source of the "lead" documented by the reports.
OSI stands for Office of Special Investigation, DOCCS' equivalent of a police internal affairs bureau. OSI is tasked with investigating crimes and other serious alleged misconduct by DOCCS' guards.
On Monday, DOCCS offered conflicting accounts of what happened to the disciplinary records of the guards charged with killing Brooks in response to an invitation to comment from The Free Lance News.
Monday morning, Thomas Mailey, DOCCS' Director of Public Information, said in an email that "The Department did not purge disciplinary records in 2013. The disciplinary database goes back to the late 1970s."
When confronted with the State Police reports explicitly stating guards' disciplinary records before 2013 had been "purged," Mailey changed DOCCS' answer.
Monday afternoon, Mailey claimed "The records were destroyed per the retention policy."
However, in the very same email, Mailey also said "As noted in our previous response, the Department’s Bureau of Labor Relations maintains a database that dates back to the late 1970s."
When asked what kind of records DOCCS' Bureau of Labor Relations does keep past seven years, Mailey answered "BLR has a database of the basic numbers."
Mailey described DOCCS' retention policy:
"OSI and other departments within DOCCS follow Department Directive 2011, citing the retention and disposition which is governed by Section 57.05 of the Arts & Cultural Affairs Law, that, absent a litigation hold or other retention requirement, paper records for investigations are destroyed after seven years. This policy has been in place for many years."
"The Department fully cooperates with all law enforcement, prosecutors, and Special Prosecutor’s, including those involved in the Brooks murder investigation," the statement stressed. "In the case of Brooks, cooperation began with our internal discovery, and proactive production of, the relevant passive body-worn camera footage to law enforcement."
"Regarding retention of documents," the statement concluded, "the Commissioner similarly has played no role in determining DOCCS retention periods."
Send tips or corrections to jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me