ALBANY — The state attorney general’s office is seeking to have corrections Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III and the state of New York removed as defendants in lawsuits filed by the family of a man who was beaten to death by correction officers in December.
Earlier this week, the attorney general’s office, which is representing Martuscello in the litigation, filed a motion seeking to have the claims against him dismissed, arguing that prison brutality cases that predated his time as commissioner do not establish that he was aware that Robert L. Brooks, who died after being beaten by multiple officers on Dec. 9, was in imminent danger.
They also note that Martuscello was not “personally involved” because he was not at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County when Brooks was beaten to death, and that there has been no evidence the commissioner “was deliberately indifferent to a serious risk that (Brooks) would be harmed by correction officers.”…