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ATTICA, N.Y. — Three guards accused in the brutal beating
of an inmate at the state prison here in 2011 each pleaded guilty on
Monday to a single misdemeanor charge and agreed to quit their jobs in a
last-minute deal that will avert a trial but spare them any jail time.
The
case was the first time that any state corrections officers had been
criminally charged with a nonsexual assault of an inmate, officials
said.
The
plea arrangement was announced in State Supreme Court in Wyoming County
just as the guards were to have gone on trial on charges of gang
assault, filing false reports and evidence tampering.
Instead,
the three guards, Sgt. Sean Warner, 39, and Officers Keith Swack, 39,
and Matthew
Rademacher, 31, pleaded guilty to official misconduct, a
misdemeanor. As part of the agreement, according to Norman Effman, one
of the defense lawyers, the guards agreed to resign from their jobs to
avoid jail time. The agreement was accepted by Judge Michael M. Mohun
after he dismissed the unusually large pool of jurors who had been
summoned for the case.
A news conference was scheduled for Monday afternoon by the Wyoming County district attorney, Donald G. O’Geen.
The
announcement of the settlement stunned George Williams, 32, the victim
of a beating on Aug. 11, 2011, that left him with two broken legs, a
broken shoulder and a severe eye fracture, among other injuries.
“This
is crazy,” said Mr. Williams, who was preparing to travel from his home
in New Brunswick, N.J., to the village of Warsaw, 50 miles east of
Buffalo, to testify in the case. “But that means they understood what
they did was wrong,” he said, adding: “I want to wish them a nice life.
I’ll send them a postcard.”
From The Archive | Sept. 11, 1971
Inmates Hold Guards Hostage
Groups of angry prisoners held 33 guards as
hostages at the Attica State Correctional Facility as negotiations
continued into the morning with State Correction Commissioner Russell G.
Oswald.
The New York Times
In a statement, the defense lawyers said, “This outcome allows us to avoid a felony conviction and put this case behind us.”
Mr.
Williams was finishing a prison sentence of two to four years for
robbing two Manhattan jewelry stores when he was removed from his cell
by three guards for what he was told was a urine test for drugs and was
taken into a darkened day room used for inmate classes and meetings. The
attack came shortly after an unknown inmate had cursed at a guard who
was delivering mail in one of the vast cell blocks of the 2,240-inmate
prison.
Once
inside the day room, Mr. Williams said, he was kicked and beaten with
fists and batons. Inmates in nearby cells later described a savage
beating, with one telling state police investigators he saw Mr. Williams
receive at least 50 kicks and a dozen strikes by the long batons that
corrections officers carry. Inmates two floors below said they heard Mr.
Williams pleading for his life.
Inmates
also told the investigators that if the guards were looking to punish
whomever had shouted the curses, they had picked the wrong man.
Unlike
in other episodes of brutality alleged by Attica inmates, Mr.
Williams’s injuries were not covered up with a typical transfer of the
inmate into solitary confinement. A sergeant in the solitary unit
ordered him to the infirmary, where a nurse insisted that he be taken to
an outside hospital. Doctors at Erie County Medical Center operated on
Mr. Williams that night, inserting a plate and six screws in one of his
legs.
At
Attica, an investigation began, and the state corrections commissioner
at the time, Brian Fischer, referred the case to the State Police.
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