Henrietta, N.Y. (WHAM) \u2014 More than a year and a half after Greece native Robert Brooks was fatally beaten while incarcerated at Marcy Correctional Facility, his family says a record settlement with New York state will not end their push for prison reform.<\/p>\n
The state has agreed to pay Brooks’ family $24 million following his death. Brooks was beaten by several officers after arriving at Marcy in December 2024, with the assault captured on body-worn camera video. He died the following day.<\/p>\n
BACKGROUND: Robert Brooks’ family reaches $24M settlement with NYS after fatal prison beating<\/a> | AG releases video showing inmate from Rochester beaten before death at NY state prison<\/a><\/p>\n Attorneys said negotiations with the state began about six months ago, and the settlement is believed to be the largest in the nation in a prison death case.<\/p>\n Robert Brooks Jr., Brooks’ son, said his father’s name will live on forever.<\/p>\n \u201cWe love you, Dad, and we’re going to keep fighting to honor your name, forever Robert Brooks,\u201d Brooks Jr. said. \u201cAnd the message goes, you can’t beat and kill incarcerated individuals, but no amount of money will ever bring my father back. I will have to live with this memory for the rest of my life.”<\/p>\n Elizabeth Mazur of Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd., said the size of the settlement reflected the suffering Brooks endured.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s a very large amount of money, and candidly it had to be,” Mazur said. “As we worked up this case, it became evident that Robert endured extraordinary pain and suffering in the last 24 hours of his life.”<\/p>\n Ten officers were charged in connection with Brooks’ death. David Kingsley was convicted of murder, while five others pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Two pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and two were acquitted.<\/p>\n MORE: Former Marcy prison guard sentenced for role in inmate’s beating death<\/a> | Former Marcy correctional officer gets maximum sentence for murder of inmate Robert Brooks<\/a> | Jury delivers split verdict in Marcy prison death case, sparking mixed reactions<\/a><\/p>\n “But for them, I do hope that they make it home to their families, unlike my brother did,” Jared Ricks, Brooks’ brother, said. “But for everyone else who are stuck behind those walls, help is on the way.”<\/p>\n Gov. Kathy Hochul released a statement Friday saying, in part, that she is committed to continuing to do everything in her power to ensure correctional facilities are fully reformed and safe for all.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Brooks family and its legal team are committed to making sure those words are turned into action by the governor, DOCCS, and the legislature,” Stephen Schwarz of Faraci Lange LLP said. “Our fight does not end with this settlement.”<\/p>\n The family said they will continue turning their grief into action.<\/p>\n \u201cThat means we’re going to continue working with organizations, we’re going to continue lobbying, going with legislators, meeting with people that continue to try to make prison a safer place,\u201d Brooks Jr. said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo my brother, I love you. I miss you, and I wish you were still here. Forever Robert Brooks,\u201d Ricks said.<\/p>\n When asked what he plans to do with the settlement money, Brooks Jr. said he plans to use it to build a foundation for his family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Henrietta, N.Y. (WHAM) \u2014 More than a year and a half after Greece native Robert Brooks was fatally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-353046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}