GUARD WHO WATCHED FELLOW GUARDS KILL INMATE ROBERT BROOKS DUCKS MANSLAUGHTER, GETS 6 MONTHS—MAYBE
'THERE OUTTA BE A LAW': PROSECUTOR WILLIAM F. FITZPATRICK CALLS ON STATE LEGISLATURE TO PASS NEW LAW PUNISHING LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS WHO DON’T STOP OTHER OFFICERS FROM BEATING, KILLING PRISONERS IN FRONT OF THEM
Attorney Scott Iseman hugs former New York State Correction Officer Michael D. Fisher after a jury deadlocked on a manslaughter charge and Fisher pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor with a six month sentence which an appeals will decide whether he has to serve. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
UTICA, NEW YORK Jan. 16, 2025
The last New York state prison guard tried for the brutal murder of inmate Robert Brooks agreed to serve six months in jail after a jury considering a manslaughter charge against him deadlocked on Friday.
Michael D. Fisher stood by and watched an all-white gang of his fellow guards beat, stomp and choke Brooks—who was Black—to death in a treatment room inside the infirmary at the Marcy Correctional Facility outside Utica Dec. 9, 2024.
Fisher pleaded guilty to second degree reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of one year in a county jail. Had Fisher been convicted of manslaughter, he faced a maximum of 15 years in state prison.
The caught-on-camera killing horrified the Nation and spurred calls for prison reform.
Those calls continued after Friday's dramatic turn of events.
Onondaga County District Attorney William F. Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor in the Brooks case, told The Free Lance News the state legislature needs to pass a new law making it a felony for a law enforcement officer to stand by and watch a fellow officer seriously injure or kill a person in their custody.
"There has to be a statute," Fitzpatrick said, "making it assault and manslaughter if you watch your fellow officers beat someone so badly and so unnecessarily that it's reasonably foreseeable that serious physical injury or death will occur."
The new law should "not be just for correction officers," Fitzpatrick added. "It should be for all law enforcement officers."
Fisher is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 30. He won't have to actually start serving his six-month sentence until an appeals court decides whether Fitzpatrick correctly charged Fisher with manslaughter for failing to stop Brooks' killing in the first place.
Fisher's appeal will center on whether he had a legal duty to intervene to stop other guards from killing Brooks. If the appeals court, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department in Rochester, finds he did then he will begin serving the sentence, Fisher’s attorney Scott Iseman told The Free Lance.
Fisher's trial started Monday. The jury heard opening arguments on Tuesday. On Wednesday, two former Marcy guards also charged with killing Brooks testified that prisoners were regularly beaten "like" Brooks was and that guards just as regularly lied to cover-up their crimes.
Former Marcy nurse Kyle Dashnaw testified for Fisher in his defense Thursday morning. Dashnaw was working in Marcy's infirmary the night Brooks was killed and also failed to stop it. Video showed he was ordered outside the room where the killing took place by guard David Walters.
Dashnaw testified the extent of Brooks' internal injuries were not immediately apparent to him when he was finally allowed to treat Brooks after the beating. Dashnaw also said Brooks' vital signs were stable at that time.
Minutes later, however, Dashnaw said Brooks' heart stopped beating, emergency first-aid was started and an ambulance was called. Brooks was taken to Wynn hospital in Utica, where he was formally declared dead about five hours later.
Dashnaw lost his job at Marcy, but kept his state nursing license, Dashnaw revealed. Dashnaw was hired by Rome Health Hospital in Rome, New York. He started work there in August 2025.
Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, told jurors in his closing arguments Thursday afternoon Fisher was guilty of manslaughter because, “For seven minutes—seven gut-churning, nauseating, disgusting minutes—he stood in that room close enough to touch him, and he did nothing.”
Fitzpatrick also showed jurors an image of Fisher smiling his approval during the lethal attack.
Iseman, Fisher’s lawyer, countered that as a law enforcement officer Fisher was entitled to be excused even if he did something that, in hindsight, was wrong.
"You have to give this officer an allowance," Iseman argued.
The jury did not include a single Black person, although Black people live in Oneida County, where the trial was held.
The surprise deal came on the second day of jury deliberations after two jurors spoke to the judge presiding over Fisher's trial, Oneida County judge Robert Bauer, Friday morning.
Judge Bauer said Delano asked to speak with him "regarding issues you have with the case."
Delano asked for "the elements of a mistrial." When judge Bauer explained he could not provide instructions on the applicable law to only one juror outside the presence of the rest, Delano asked if "it's not possible at this time to submit a lesser charge?"
Judge Bauer repeated he could not explain the law to him alone and told him to resume deliberations. If there were further questions the jury must send out a joint note, judge Bauer instructed.
Laura Velez, the jury's foreperson, then sent out a note saying "I need to speak with the judge." She told judge Bauer she was worried "about another juror" who may have committed a "violation of the rules." When pressed by judge Bauer to explain, Velez told him "comments they're being made" that caused her to doubt whether "Mr. Fisher is going to get a fair decision."
Velez may have been referring to Delano, but it's not clear.
Oneida County Court judge Robert Bauer taking the guilty plea of former New York State prison guard Michael D. Fisher, standing beside his lawyer Scott Iseman. Fisher pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment for his role in the murder of Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, 2024. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Judge Bauer told Velez to resume deliberating, but about an hour later the jury sent out another note saying they were deadlocked. That’s when Fitzpatrick and Iseman, Fisher’s lawyer, held a spontaneous negotiating conference. The 10 or so journalists covering the trial, seated on the otherside of the courtroom, strained to overhear. “Six months” was plainly heard near the end.
Judge Bauer let Iseman and Fisher leave the courtroom to talk it over in a conference room. When they returned 15 minutes later, the details of the deal were disclosed in open court and Fisher pleaded guilty. Judge Bauer briefly recalled the jury, only to thank and dismiss them.
Outside the courthouse, The Free Lance News asked jurors whether they wanted to speak to the press. Only Velez agreed but she only said the obvious, which was "we were a hung jury."
Iseman, Fisher's attorney, told The Free Lance News Friday evening the split was 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal.
He said the case opened his eyes to the "incredible amount of pressure put on defendants in criminal cases." That pressure is difficult to understand until "you sit with their families and you know what they're facing. They're lives are right there."
Fisher was one of 14 guards charged with either killing Brooks, failing to stop it or covering it up. He was the last to go to trial. Including Fisher, 7 have been convicted. David J. Kingsley II was sentenced to 25-years-to-life. Anthony Farina and Nicholas Anzalone were sentenced to 22 years. Christopher Walrath was sentenced to 15 years.
Two, Nicholas Kieffer and Mathew J. Galliher, were acquitted.
Walters, the guard who ordered Dashnaw, the nurse, to stay out of the infirmary, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 2 1/3-to-7 years in prison. Sgt. Michael Mashaw, also in the room when Brooks was killed, also pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He was sentenced to 3-to-9 years.
Outside the courtroom after the deal with Fisher was made, Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, held an impromptu news conference. He said the long sentences the primary actors—Kingsley, Farina, Anzalone and Walrath—received were proof real justice was done.
Fitzpatrick added that the guilty pleas of Walters, Mashaw and Fisher were the first of their kind in New York. They set an important precedent, he explained, for holding law enforcement officers criminally accountable if they fail to stop the killing of a person in their custody.
“I think this sets a tremendous precedent, and I hope we build on it,” Fitzpatrick said, referring to the new law he was proposing the legislature enact to make clear officers have a duty to intervene and stop the beating, fatal or not, of prisoners in their custody by other officers.
Michael D. Fisher, then a state prison guard at New York’s Marcy Correctional Facility, smiling as other Marcy guards, beat, stomp and choke Robert Brooks to death. Special Prosecutor Onondaga County District Attorney William F. Fitzpatrick showed the jury considering a manslaughter charge against Fisher this image during his closing argument. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Two more guards who were witnesses for the prosecution, Robert Kessler and Glenn Trombly, will formally plead guilty and be sentenced in the coming weeks, a law enforcement source exclusively revealed to The Free Lance News.
A third guard-turned-cooperating-witness, who was never named, has already pleaded guilty and been sentenced, the source said.
Kessler will plead guilty to second degree gang assault and be sentenced to between 5 and 7 years in prison. Trombly will be sentenced to no greater than 4 years. The length of their sentences will depend on how satisfied Fitzpatrick is with their cooperation.
After Fisher pleaded guilty, Fitzpatrick thanked judge Bauer for being "eminently reasonable, fair, exactly what a prosecutor and defense lawyer asks for in a case of this magnitude."
Judge Bauer returned the compliment.
"I commend both attorneys in the manner in which you handled yourselves throughout this proceeding as well," Bauer answered.
Outside the courtroom after he pleaded guilty, Fisher declined to comment.
Outside the courthouse, Fisher was strolling to his pick-up truck surrounded by a small circle of joyous family and friends when a passerby yelled "Stay out of trouble Mike!"
"Always will," Fisher answered. Referring to the guards he worked with at Marcy, and got indicted with, Fisher added "I got caught up with the wrong people."
Iseman, Fisher's lawyer, declined to elaborate on his client's future plans.
Send tips or corrections to jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me