Utica, New York — A New York prison guard has been charged with failing to intervene during the beating of fellow officers Prisoner to death He pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment Friday after jurors deliberating on the more serious manslaughter charge said they were deadlocked.
The surprise plea ends a weeklong trial for 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 upon his arrival at Marcy Correctional Facility on the night of December 9, 2024, was caught on guard cameras, sparking calls for prison reform.
Fisher is expected to be sentenced 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 postponed while Fischer appeals the prosecution’s theory of his criminal responsibility, according to local media reports.
He was on trial for second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
“I can’t tell you the amount of stress that someone goes through when they’re facing five to 15 years in state prison, and so this decision helps alleviate a lot of that and provides certainty for him and his family,” said Scott Eisman, Fisher’s attorney. According to the Spectrum News website.
Of the ten guards charged in February, seven have now been charged plead guilty Manslaughter or lesser charges. One was convicted of murder, and two were acquitted in a trial last fall.
Three other guards agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in exchange for cooperation with prosecutors.
Prosecutors, who charged Fisher with manslaughter, said he failed to intervene when other guards beat Brooks in the prison infirmary room.
“For seven minutes — seven nauseating, disgusting minutes — he stood in that room close enough to touch him and did nothing,” special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick said in his closing argument Thursday.
Eisman argued that the prosecution failed to prove that Fisher’s actions led to Brooks’ death and that his client entered the infirmary after the beating began and could not have known the extent of Brooks’ injuries.