Guards ‘systematically and casually’ beat New York inmate to death, lawsuit says

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The son of an inmate who died after a prolonged beating by New York prison guards said in a federal lawsuit Wednesday that his father’s attackers “systematically and casually beat him to death” in a correctional system that tolerates violence. They said the corrections officers never expected the video to come to light and called it evidence of “rampant abuse” at the upstate New York facility. “What troubles us the most is that this is the tip of the iceberg, we think,” attorney Steve Schwarz said, “and that’s why we’re very interested in digging deeper.” The family has yet to be told why Brooks had been transferred to Marcy from another facility earlier that day or what he was doing before the assault, Schwarz said. New York’s attorney general this month appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Brooks’ death.