{"id":331974,"date":"2026-01-16T17:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/prison-guard-accused-of-failing-to-step-in-during-fatal-inmate-beating-pleads-to-reduced-charge"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:18:10","slug":"prison-guard-accused-of-failing-to-step-in-during-fatal-inmate-beating-pleads-to-reduced-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/prison-guard-accused-of-failing-to-step-in-during-fatal-inmate-beating-pleads-to-reduced-charge","title":{"rendered":"Jail guard accused of failing to step in throughout deadly inmate beating pleads to lowered cost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB \">UTICA, N.Y. &#8212; <\/span>A New York prison guard accused of failing to intervene as fellow officers beat <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/robert-brooks-death-new-york-jail-video-9d3ecf26888dde32859497f3d6c36db0\">an inmate to death<\/a> pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment Friday after jurors deliberating over a more serious manslaughter charge said they were deadlocked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The surprise plea ends the weeklong trial of former guard Michael Fisher, one of 10 correctional officers charged in February in the death of Robert Brooks. The brutal beating of the 43-year-old Black man immediately after his arrival at Marcy Correctional Facility on the night of Dec. 9, 2024, was captured on guards\u2019 body cameras, prompting calls for prison reform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Fisher is expected to be sentenced on Jan. 30 to six months in county jail on a misdemeanor charge of second-degree reckless endangerment as part of a plea agreement. The sentence will be deferred while Fisher appeals the prosecution\u2019s theory of his criminal liability, according to local media reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">He was on trial for second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI can\u2019t tell you the amount of stress someone goes through when they\u2019re facing five to 15 years in state prison, and so this resolution helps alleviate a lot of that, provides certainty to him and his family,\u201d said Fisher&#8217;s attorney, Scott Iseman, <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/spectrumlocalnews.com\/nys\/buffalo\/news\/2026\/01\/09\/trial-to-start-monday-for-former-marcy-correction-officer?cid=id-app15_m-share_s-web_cmp-app_launch_august2020_c-producer_posts_po-organic\">according to Spectrum News.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Of the 10 guards indicted in February, seven have now <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/new-york-inmate-death-robert-brooks-921abd5d236913a381c8bae6ec78dbbb\">pleaded guilty<\/a> to manslaughter or lesser charges. One was convicted of murder, and two were acquitted in a trial last fall. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Three more guards have agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for cooperating with prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Prosecutors who charged Fisher with manslaughter said he failed to intervene as other guards beat Brooks in a prison infirmary room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cFor seven minutes \u2014 seven gut-churning, nauseating, disgusting minutes \u2014 he stood in that room close enough to touch him and he did nothing,\u201d special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick said in his closing argument Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Iseman argued the prosecution failed to prove Fisher\u2019s actions led to Brooks\u2019 death and that his client entered the infirmary after the beating began and could not have known the extent of Brooks\u2019 injuries. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/wireStory\/prison-guard-accused-failing-step-fatal-inmate-beating-129295975\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UTICA, N.Y. &#8212; A New York prison guard accused of failing to intervene as fellow officers beat an inmate to death pleaded guilty to reckless [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3322,10088,9810,10086,419,9711,10085,9814,10087,9811,10089],"class_list":["post-331974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-guard","tag-jail-guard","tag-michael-fisher","tag-native-media-reviews","tag-new-york","tag-particular-prosecutor","tag-robert-brooks","tag-scott-iseman","tag-utica","tag-william-fitzpatrick","tag-york-jail-guard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331974"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331976,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331974\/revisions\/331976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}