BEFORE A BEAT-UP SQUAD OF PRISON GUARDS MURDERED ROBERT BROOKS AT THE MARCY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY IN 2024, IT ATTACKED WILLIAM ALVAREZ IN 2020. LAWSUIT ALVAREZ FILED IN 2022 EXPOSED SQUAD BUT STATE OFFICIALS DID NOTHING
L-R: casket of Robert Brooks jr., murdered by beat-up squad of prison guards at the Marcy Correctional Facility; State Attorney General Letitia James was warned about Marcy’s beat-up squad before it tortured and killed Brooks, but defended it instead of dismantling it; Gov. Kathy Hochul and her hand-picked state prison chief Daniel F. Martuscello III leaving Marcy after visiting after Brooks’ Dec. 9, 2024 murder. Photo credits: unknown, via (1) via family of Robert Brooks, (2) the Internet and (3) Office of the Governor, Kathy Hochul.
MALONE, NEW YORK Nov. 9, 2026
New York has agreed to pay more than half-a-million dollars to settle a bombshell lawsuit showing that high-ranking state officials knew a "beat-up squad" of guards was routinely abusing prisoners at the Marcy Correctional Facility—at least two years before the same squad tortured and killed Robert Brooks.
These high-ranking state officials include Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul's hand-picked prison chief Daniel F. Martuscello III. They could have stopped Brooks' Dec. 9, 2024 murder at Marcy if they'd taken corrective action after a federal civil rights lawsuit exposing Marcy's beat-up squad was filed on Feb. 28, 2022, but they didn’t.
"Beat-up squads" of guards operated largely with impunity in New York's prisons for decades. They were responsible for the death of Benjamin Van Zant at the Fishkill Correctional Facility in 2014 and the killing of Samuel Harrell, also at Fishkill, in 2015.
Less than three months after Brooks was murdered by Marcy's beat-up squad on Dec. 9, 2024, Messiah Nantwi was murdered by the beat-up squad at another state prison literally across the road from Marcy, the Mid-State Correctional Facility, on Mar. 1, 2025.
In the lawsuit he filed in 2022, William Alvarez alleged he was beaten and choked by Marcy's beat-up squad in 2020. Two of the officers Alvarez alleged abused him were guard Anthony Farina and Sgt. Glenn Trombly. Both Farina and Trombly were convicted of crimes for killing Brooks.
Infamously, Farina was captured by body-camera video stomping on Brooks' genitals and stuffing a rag down his throat. Sgt. Trombly stood by and watched it. Afterward, he admitted to police he was the "primary coordinator" of a failed attempt to cover it up.
Farina pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 22 years in state prison. Trombly agreed to testify for prosecutors and was sentenced to 24 months in the Oneida County jail.
But in 2022 when Alvarez filed the suit first exposing Trombly and Farina, state Attorney General James and Martuscello, then a Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, did not take Alvarez's allegations seriously.
Even after Alvarez testified, under oath, in support of his suit at a pre-trial deposition in 2023 that Trombly was "the sergeant in charge of the beat-up squad" and Farina was a member, James and Martuscello continued to ignore Marcy’s beat-up squad.
The Free Lance News first-reported Alvarez's lawsuit when news of Brooks' murder broke in late December 2024.
Then, and now, James' press office declined to comment and referred questions to DOCCS.
Alvarez claimed he was peppersprayed, beaten, kicked and choked by Farina along with guards Caleb Bause, Skylar Tuttle and Michael Babicz. In the back of a van on the way to the infirmary after the 2020 beating, Farina and Tuttle choked him "to see if they can stop my breathing," Alvarez testified.
"I couldn't breathe," Alvarez recalled.
Farina and Tuttle also threatened to kill Alvarez and told him "there was nothing anybody can do about it."
Sgt. Trombly was riding shotgun in the front of the van. He witnessed everything and allowed it to happen, Alvarez said.
Referring to Sgt. Trombly, Alvarez testified "I kept telling him, 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe.' And he just looked at me and pay me no mind."
It wasn't until the van arrived at the infirmary that Sgt. Trombly "looked back and he told them, 'Enough.' And they stopped."
But, even as he was being taken to a hospital in Utica for treatment of the wounds they gave him, Alvarez said Tuttle threatened him one last time: "Let's see if you learned your lesson now."
While Trombly, Farina and the other 9 guards who killed Brooks or tried to cover it up were convicted and sentenced to a combined total of 96 years in prison, none of the guards who allegedly abused Alvarez in 2020 were ever charged with any crimes—not even employee misconduct.
Alvarez filed an administrative internal affairs complaint, but investigators from DOCCS' internal affairs bureau, called the Office of Special Investigations, decided it was "unsubstantiated," according to court records.
Before Gov. Hochul nominated Martuscello to be DOCCS' commissioner in 2023, and before the Democrat-controlled state senate confirmed him, Martuscello was the previous commissioner's right-hand man.
Part of Martuscello's job as Deputy Commissioner was to supervise DOCCS' employee disciplinary system. That included the Office of Special Investigations, or OSI. OSI is tasked with investigating employee misconduct and recommending whether DOCCS' workers should be charged with crimes or administrative violations of employee rules.
In other words, Martuscello was and remains responsible for taking affirmative action to ensure beat-up squads never exist.
Alvarez did not sue Martuscello but Brooks' sons did. Before New York settled the sons' suit in September, federal judge Anne M. Nardacci ruled there was enough evidence that a jury could find Martuscello enforced a "well-settled and widespread de facto policy" that allowed guards to routinely use excessive force—not just at Marcy but at every prison across the state.
New York taxpayers forked over $24 million to settle that case—and keep Martuscello off the witness stand, where he could be cross-examined about what, exactly, he knew, and when did he know it?
Instead of firing Martuscello after Brooks' 2024 murder, Gov. Hochul stood by her man—and she continues to. He remains DOCCS' commissioner—despite the multiple ongoing crises engulfing DOCCS, including a rise in "mysterious" deaths with known and unknown causes.
"2026 has seen the most in-custody deaths of any year since at least 2020, including during the COVID-19 pandemic," prison watch-dog group Correctional Association of New York reported in May.
Former (L) New York State Correction Sgt. Glenn Trombly and former Correction Office Anthony Farina being handcuffed and led to prison for their roles in the Dec. 9, 2024 murder of Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility and their attempted cover-up. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Now, evidence Alvarez dug up to prove his case shows the years' long cover-up of Marcy's beat-up squad was facilitated not just by other high-ranking officers at Marcy in addition to Sgt. Trombly, it was also made possible by even higher-ranking supervisors among Commissioner Martuscello's team in Albany.
The evidence includes detailed admissions Sgt. Trombly made to police investigating Brooks' murder.
"This is right from Albany command center," Trombly told police.
The cover-ups were so routine guards developed a four-step formula to conceal their crimes. They had it down to a science.
During 13 1/2 hours of interviews over three days in January 2025, Sgt. Trombly revealed exactly how, at supervisors' orders, he routinely covered-up the abuse of prisoners at Marcy since at least 2020—when the beat-up squad attacked Alvarez.
Alvarez's lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial in Utica on Monday, Nov. 9. Alvarez's lawyers, Glenn D. Miller and Lissa Green-Stark of Sivin, Miller & Roche, negotiated a last-minute $650,000 deal on Friday, court records show.
By settling Alvarez's lawsuit, Gov. Hochul, Attorney General James and DOCCS' Commissioner Martuscello undoubtedly hoped to continue hiding from the public proof that the state prison system routinely tolerates excessive force by guards.
Since Alvarez's civil trial has been cancelled because of the settlement, that evidence might never have been made public. However, The Free Lance News has obtained a video recording of Trombly's blockbuster 13 1/2-hour confession in its entirety.
The first rule of a successful cover-up, according to Trombly, is beat-downs must be documented the "simplest" way possible in official reports.
"I was taught," Trombly revealed, "to make it short and simple."
Referring to Marcy's beat-up squad, and how it escaped scrutiny for years, Trombly explained "These guys, that time of night, they kept a short story. That's how they did it."
Trombly said the second rule of succussful cover-ups is to name only a few of the guards who used force.
"Less people the better," Trombly explained. "The more people you add in there, the more paperwork."
Third, prisoners are Peppersprayed just to make beat-downs appear justified.
"Like there's a reason to spray him," Trombly revealed. "It makes it look like he's being more combative, or struggling, or whatever, you know what I'm saying?"
Finally, injuries to prisoners' faces are attributed to inadvertent "falls."
"Usually they always say, 'Hey you know the guy lands on his face,' it'll justify facial injuries," Trombly said.
Trombly admitted he was the "primary coordinator" of the attempted cover-up of Brooks' murder, but said it was directed by Lt. Jarad Brown. Lt. Brown ordered him, he said, to help guards craft a narrative that was believable.
In Trombly's words, Lt. Brown told him to "make sure their story fucking somewhat sounds plausible."
Trombly explained that meant “I had to find some way to take this shit sandwich and make it taste good.”
Lt. Brown was never charged with a crime or employee misconduct and remains employed by DOCCS. Reached by telephone late Monday afternoon, he hung up when asked to comment on Sgt. Trombly’s allegation he ordered Trombly to cover-up Brooks’ murder.
DOCCS did not respond to a question asking whether Trombly, Farina, Bause, Babicz or Tuttle were ever disciplined for abusing Alvarez—but it is known all five resigned from DOCCS after Brooks’ murder. Their lawyers did not respond to invitations to comment.
Reports documenting uses of force are sent to DOCCS' central office in Albany. If officials in Commissioner Martuscello's office don't like the way a report is written, they send it back with specific instructions to write it the way they want it written.
"I have to report my stuff to the lieutenant," Trombly explained. "The lieutenant wants it in a certain way, then you got to send it to the command center. The command centers want certain words. They want certain jargon."
When a use of force report is sent to Albany, "the command center makes corrections right there on the spot calls the lieutenant back and says you gotta fix these words."
Quoting typical corrections, Trombly said the command center would say a report "'Has to be this way. Has to be said this.'"
Nicole Whitaker, a DOCCS spokesperson, denied command center personel command what officers write in use of force reports. She told The Free Lance News in an emailed statement “the Command Center does not direct employees on what to include in their official reports.”
Invited to comment on the settlement of Alvarez’s lawsuit, Whitaker replied “The Department does not involve itself in personal legal matters involving individual employees, nor can we comment on them.”
Whitaker did say: “The allegation that the Department allows for violence is completely untrue.”
“Commissioner Martuscello's top priority,” she added, “is the safety, security, and well-being of everyone in DOCCS facilities and the Department maintains a zero-tolerance policy for violence. Anyone engaged in misconduct will be disciplined; and if warranted, incidents will be referred for outside prosecution.”
Oneida County District Attorney Todd Carville did not respond to an email asking whether, in light of the settlement of Alvarez's lawsuit, he would open a criminal investigation into Alvarez’s allegations—and if not why not.
Tuttle works for the Lowville School District as a school safety officer.
The district superintendent did not respond to an invitation left with her secretary by telephone to comment on whether it will continue to employ Tuttle as a school safety officer.
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