Prison guard accused of failing to step in during fatal inmate beating pleads to reduced charge

UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York prison guard accused of failing to intervene as fellow officers beat an inmate to death pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment Friday after jurors deliberating over a more serious manslaughter charge said they were deadlocked.

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’ body cameras, prompting calls for prison reform.

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’s theory of his criminal liability, according to local media reports.

He was on trial for second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

“I can’t tell you the amount of stress someone goes through when they’re 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,” said Fisher’s attorney, Scott Iseman, according to Spectrum News.

Of the 10 guards indicted in February, seven have now pleaded guilty to manslaughter or lesser charges. One was convicted of murder, and two were acquitted in a trial last fall.

Three more guards have agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for cooperating with prosecutors.

Prosecutors who charged Fisher with manslaughter said he failed to intervene as other guards beat Brooks in a prison infirmary room.

“For seven minutes — seven gut-churning, nauseating, disgusting minutes — he stood in that room close enough to touch him and he did nothing,” special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick said in his closing argument Thursday.

Iseman argued the prosecution failed to prove 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.