BEATING INMATES, LYING COVER UPS, ALL IN REGULAR DAY’S WORK BEFORE ROBERT BROOKS KILLED, GUARDS TESTIFY
PRISONERS WERE REGULARLY 'BEATEN LIKE ' ROBERT BROOKS WAS AND GUARDS REGULARLY LIED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS TO COVER UP THE BEATINGS, GLENN TROMBLY AND ROBERT KESSLER TESTIFIED AT TRIAL OF MICHAEL FISHER, LAST OF THE GUARDS CHARGED WITH BROOKS’ KILLING.
Former New York State prison guard Robert Kessler arrives at Oneida County Court in Utica to testify against his former co-workers. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
UTICA, NEW YORK Jan. 14, 2025
A former New York state prison guard dropped a courtroom bombshell on Wednesday during the trial of the last guard charged with killing Robert Brooks.
Robert Kessler testified he witnessed several additional inmates beaten like Brooks was at the Marcy Correctional Facility during the years he worked there—before he helped kill Brooks Dec. 9, 2024.
Kessler did not disclose whether the other prisoners he saw "beaten like that" were also killed like Brooks was.
Another former guard, Sgt. Glenn Trombly, admitted he orchestrated the failed attempt to cover-up Brooks’ killing.
“I knew if I told the truth I would get everyone in trouble,” he testified. “I told the officers that they need to get their story straight.”
Trombly also revealed he regularly falsified official reports covering-up unjustified beatings before they killed Brooks.
The dual testimony seemingly confirms prisoners' claims that "beat-up squads" of guards have long operated with close to immunity in the state prison system—thanks to lax oversight and a toothless administrative disciplinary system.
Not only was Brooks beaten and his testes crushed, he was choked to death by a gang of Marcy guards including Kessler that Trombly lead. Brooks was black. Trombly, Kessler and the rest of the guards that killed him are white.
9 have been convicted for the killing or the failed attempted cover-up. Most received substantial prison sentences. Two were sentenced to 22 years , one was sentenced to 25-years-to-life and another was sentenced to 15 years. Two were acquitted.
The testimony of Kessler and Trombly on Wednesday came on the second day of the manslaughter trial of the last state prison guard charged in connection with Brooks' murder, Michael D. Fisher.
Fisher is charged with second degree manslaughter for being present in the room where Brooks was killed and failing to stop it. He faces up to 15 years in state prison. Fisher's trial started in earnest on Tuesday.
Former state prison guard Michael Fisher is charged with manslaughter for failing to stop the killing of Robert Brooks, which happened in front of him. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Trombly was Special Prosecutor William F. Fitzpatrick’s first witness on the second day of Fisher’s trial Wednesday morning.
Trombly admitted directing the guards who killed Brooks to get their stories straight. He admitted lying in the official report he filed about the incident, which failed to include that guards repeatedly beat, choked and stomped Brooks. And he admitted he repeatedly ordered the guards to amend their reports to include false allegations that justified what they did to Brooks.
“I don’t believe what I did that night was correct,” Trombly testified.
Trombly also admitted, for the first time, that Brooks’ beating was not an isolated case. He admitted he’d filed and helped other guards file fake reports that covered up unjustifiable or excessive uses of force in many other cases before Brooks.
In exchange for his testimony, Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, promised Trombly a sentence of no greater than 4 years in prison for his plea of guilty to attempted gang assault. He has yet to be sentenced.
Fitzpatrick closed his case against Fisher with testimony from the medical examiner. She detailed her determination that Brooks' death was a homicide. She testified Brooks could have been saved “until his heart stopped beating” near the end of the assault.
Sgt. Glenn Trombly arriving at Oneida County Court to testify against his worker co-workers. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Scott Iseman, Fisher's attorney, asked Oneida County judge Robert L. Bauer to dismiss the case. Iseman argued the prosecution failed to prove how exactly Brooks would have been saved had Fisher intervened. Judge Bauer denied Iseman's request. He ruled the prosecution had submitted enough evidence that, if believed by the jury, proved Fisher was guilty of recklessly causing Brooks’ death.
That's when Iseman announced the defense would present evidence and called Kessler as its first witness.
Iseman spent an hour questioning Kessler in an attempt to justify the killing by showing the jury Brooks allegedly failed to follow orders as swiftly or as thoroughly as guards wanted. Iseman called it "passive resistance." Kessler, however, testified Brooks was complying enough with his orders and that, even if he wasn't, it didn't justify the deadly assault the group unleashed on the non-aggressive, slight Brooks.
“I’m not proud of it,” Kessler admitted.
When Iseman was done questioning Kessler, Fitzpatrick cross-examined him. He asked Kessler four questions. One of them was whether he'd ever beaten any other prisoners like they'd beat Brooks.
Silence fell on the courtroom when he admitted he'd had "seen" several prisoners "beaten like that" at Marcy while he was there.
When it came to Fisher, the former guard on trial, FIsher did nothing to help Brooks, Kessler testified.
Kessler also revealed—for the first time—that Anthony Farina was a member of a special unit: the Crisis Intervention Unit or CIU. The primary task of Marcy's CIU was to obtain and maintain intelligence on gang leaders and drug trafficking.
Farina and the rest of Marcy's CIU reported only to the prison's acting superintendent, Danielle Medbury, according to Kessler. Because she was the only supervisor Farina and the CIU had to report to, that made her responsible for their actions.
Before Medbury became Marcy’s acting superintendent, she was First Deputy Superintendent. Mike Damore was Marcy’s Superintendent then, before he was promoted to Deputy Commissioner for Correctional Facilities in DOCCS’ Central Office in Albany in October 2024—about two months before Brooks’ Dec. 9 killing.
Anthony Farina pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter for killing Robert Brooks and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Guards at Marcy considered Farina a father figure and called him “Dad,” sources say.
Farina was captured on video choking Brooks with a rag, stomping on his genitals and punching him in the face and body repeatedly. Farina pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Kessler pleaded guilty to second degree gang assault. Fitzpatrick promised him a sentence of between 5-7 years to become a prosecution witness and testify against his former co-workers. He has not yet been sentenced.
Before Wednesday, Kessler testified for the prosecution in the October trial of three other guards who refused to plead guilty. David J. Kingsley II was convicted of second degree murder, while Mathew Galliher and Nicholas Kieffer were acquitted.
Kieffer—who admitted pepperspraying Brooks—was also part of Marcy’s CIU, Kessler revealed for the first time.
No evidence of the CIU or Kieffer’s membership in it was presented by the special prosecutor at Kieffer’s October trial.
While Farina, Kieffer and most of the guards involved in Brooks' killing or its cover-up have been fired (with the notable exception of Sherri Abreu), Medbury and Damore still work for the state agency that manages the state's prison and parole system, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS.
Medbury was relieved of her post as acting superintendent of Marcy by order of Gov. Kathy Hochul after Brooks was killed. DOCCS' press office did not immediately respond to a request to state Medbury's current assignment.
Fisher's trial continues on Thursday. The defense is expected to call former Sgt. Michael Mashaw as a witness. Mashaw pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 3-to-9 years by judge Bauer. He is presently in DOCCS' custody serving that sentence.
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