NEW YORK (AP) — An administrative law judge has proposed that six New York City jail guards be fired for the brutal 2012 beating of a handcuffed Rikers Island inmate.
The recommendation in Robert Hinton’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings case was released Monday. Under city law, Commissioner Joseph Ponte (PAHNT) will ultimately decide the guards’ fate.
Photos of Hinton’s beating in a now-shuttered solitary confinement dorm for mentally ill inmates show his badly swollen and bloodied face.
The Department of Correction argued Hinton was beaten after being carried hogtied into a cell for refusing to be escorted. It said guards fabricated a story that Hinton put one of them in a chokehold to justify the use-of-force.
Union leader Norman Seabrook says the incident was unfortunate. He says correction officers are inadequately supervised.
