A special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate the death of a Harlem man during an apparent altercation with correction officers in an upstate prison as it emerged that as many as nine officers could face criminal charges, officials said Thursday.
State Attorney General Letitia James, whose office normally investigates deaths in custody, recused herself from the probe of the death on Saturday of Messiah Nantwi, 22, at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, N.Y., about 200 miles north of the city. A judge Thursday named Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick special prosecutor in James’ stead.
“Based upon a preliminary investigation, there is probable cause to believe that as many as nine corrections officers caused the death of Messiah Nantwi or committed acts that contributed thereto, and thereby committed a crime,” wrote Gregory Oakes, an assistant attorney general, in the request for recusal.
Fitzpatrick is also handling the case against 10 correction officers indicted for the caught-on-video Dec. 9 murder of inmate Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility, located just across the road from Mid-State.
In the Brooks case, James was able to open an investigation on Dec. 21, just 12 days after his death, and release the body-cam video six days after that.
But there does not appear to be body-camera video of the incident that led to Nantwi’s death, sources familiar with the case said. Inmates have alleged he was beaten by a team of officers as members of the National Guard, on hand as a result of the prison guard strike, looked on.
On Tuesday, Gov. Hochul said a total of 15 officers have been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation into Nantwi’s death. Of those, five are already being represented by James’ office in civil lawsuits related to their roles as correction officers, which is why the attorney general recused herself.
“When the corrections officers involved in the events preceding Mr. Nantwi’s death were identified, OSI [Office of Special Investigations] confirmed that four of those corrections officers are defendants in other matters where they are or were represented by attorneys in [the] State Counsel Division,” James’ office said.
Meanwhile, the wildcat prison guard strike affecting up to 32 prisons continued into its 17th day, the same length of the last extended strike in 1979. It’s unclear exactly how many of the roughly 12,500 officers who joined the walkout have gone back to work at those facilities.
The Albany Times Union reported Thursday that the state was offering to renegotiate its contract with the union that represents corrections officers, including a review of the HALT Act, which limits the use of solitary confinement and has been a target of the strikers.
A vote among striking officers was supposed to take place Thursday on whether to return to work. But the corrections officers union, which has not sanctioned the strike and has been urging officers to go back to work, disavowed the vote.
James Miller, a union spokesman, said in a statement, the “vote” would amount to a choice by individual officers to return to work. “There were outside parties attempting to interject themselves into negotiations on behalf of some officers,” he said. “To be clear, NYSCOPBA is the only organization that legally can negotiate on its members’ behalf.”
The union for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has a three-year contract with the state through April 2026.
“In the wake of guards lynching Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi, it’s unconscionable that DOCCS would even consider renegotiating its contract with NYSCOPBA to give them greater power to torture people in their custody,” said Anisah Sabur, a survivor of solitary confinement and Organizer with the HALT Solitary Campaign.
Spokespeople with the state Department of Corrections and Community Services did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Nantwi was serving a five year sentence for a gun possession case in the Bronx connected to a 2021 encounter with police that left him shot multiple times. He was also facing pending charges in two Harlem murders in April 2023.