On December 28, 2024, The New York Times reported that at least three of the New York prison guards implicated in the savage beating death of Robert Brooks last month at Marcy Correctional Facility had been previously accused of participating in similar attacks on prisoners across the state.

One of the corrections officers, Nicholas Anzalone, is currently a defendant in a pending federal lawsuit brought by ECBAWM on behalf of client Adam Bauer.

In February 2020, Mr. Bauer was brutally beaten in a bathroom by several guards while he was incarcerated at the Marcy prison, and then falsely accused of attacking them. Nicholas Anzalone, one of the officers accused in the assault of Mr. Brooks, joined with other officers in the attack on Mr. Bauer, Mr. Bauer’s lawsuit alleges.  Mr. Bauer was severely injured in the assault, and none of the officers were ever disciplined.

“You’re in their world when you get there,” Mr. Bauer told the Times. “They do what they want.”

The Times quoted ECBAWM partner Katie Rosenfeld: “The fact that they failed to rein in these officers that they knew had beaten someone else is a direct contributor to Mr. Brooks’s death.”

Adam Bauer is represented by ECBAWM attorneys Katie Rosenfeld and Eric Abrams.