By Dan Herbeck
The Buffalo News, N.Y.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — On Monday, former Attica prison employees Sean Warner, Matthew Rademacher and Keith Swack walked away from criminal prisoner brutality charges in Wyoming County Court without having to testify or spend a day in jail, but the three men still face legal challenges in federal court.
All three men are still defendants in a civil rights lawsuit filed by former Attica Correctional Facility prisoner George Williams, who claims he was brutally beaten and thrown down a flight of stairs with his hands cuffed behind his back in August 2011.
And Swack and Rademacher each have another federal civil rights case pending against them, based on brutality claims brought by other former Attica prisoners.
The legal issues are far from over for Warner, a former sergeant in the state Corrections Department, and the two former corrections officers, all of whom pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct on Monday, just as jury selection was about to begin in a criminal trial on felony gang assault charges.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy will meet with attorneys March 31 regarding the civil rights lawsuit filed by Williams. Williams claims he was beaten so severely by Warner, Rademacher and Swack that both his ankles were broken, his shoulder was broken and his eye socket was broken.
When Williams – whose hands had been cuffed behind his back – told the officers he was unable to walk because his ankles were so badly injured, they hurled him down a flight of stairs, Williams alleges in his federal suit.
Although Williams is gratified that the former officers “took some responsibility” for their actions with the misdemeanor plea deal, the former prisoner fully intends to continue pressing his federal lawsuit and would like to see justice done, Williams’ attorney told The Buffalo News.
“Given the brutality of what happened and in terms of the injuries suffered by George Williams, this is one of the most serious cases we’ve ever handled,” said Edward Sivin, Williams’ New York City-based attorney. “The conduct was malicious and sadistic.”
“We’re certainly preparing to take this case to trial. If they make us an exorbitant settlement offer, we’d have to take a look at it in conjunction with our client.”
Sivin said he hopes McCarthy will schedule pretrial depositions for the case sometime in the next few months. At the depositions, Sivin said, he would question Warner, Rademacher and Swack about the events of August 2011. A man who still works as a state corrections officer, Eric Hibsch, is also a defendant in the federal civil rights lawsuit, and he too would be questioned in a pretrial deposition.
But Norman P. Effman, Joseph M. LaTona, Cheryl Meyers Buth and Joel L. Daniels – the Buffalo attorneys who represent the defendants – say most of Williams’ allegations are false.
“I look forward to trying this case in federal court, because I believe that a lot of the statements made by Mr. Williams’ attorneys will not hold up in court,” Effman said. “I do not believe this case will withstand the rigors of a trial.”
When they pleaded guilty to misdemeanors of official misconduct in the criminal case, Rademacher and Swack admitted that they used excessive force during an encounter with Williams. Under the terms of their plea deal, they will serve no prison time.
Warner admitted that he violated Corrections Department rules by taking home a police baton from the prison.
A Wyoming County prosecutor said authorities believe Warner took the baton home to clean Williams’ blood off of it. Warner’s attorney – Buth – said that is not true. Warner also will serve no time in prison.
“But our clients did not plead guilty to any alleged assault. They did not plead guilty to gang assault. They did not plead guilty to inflicting intentional injuries,” Effman said. “They did not throw this man down a flight of stairs and they did not plant evidence on him.”
And Effman said that another key allegation of the federal civil rights case – that Williams was beaten because of a crude insult that an inmate had made against a corrections officer earlier in the day – is also untrue. Sivin alleges that corrections officers wrongly blamed Williams for the crude remark, took him out of his cell and viciously attacked him for that reason.
“It’s not true,” Effman said. “Officers had information that Williams was keeping weapons in his cell for one of the prison gangs.”
A razor that was found on Williams “was not planted” by any officers, and officers also found a second weapon – “an ice pick-type weapon” – hidden in Williams’ cell, Effman said.
According to court papers filed by Sivin, many of the allegations in the federal lawsuit are based on extensive interviews by State Police and investigators from the Inspector General’s Office of the state prison system.
Investigators interviewed many inmates, but also interviewed corrections employees, including nurses and doctors who treated Williams, then 29, and were concerned about the severity of his injuries, Sivin said.
One inmate quoted in court papers said he could hear Williams “begging for his life” while several officers kicked and beat him.
Effman said Williams, who was serving time for nonviolent thefts of jewelry, had a disciplinary record for two cases of misbehavior in the prison system.
He said one incident involved a threat made against a prison counselor, and the other involved an effort to smuggle drugs.
“I think it is also important to note that the time when this happened, Attica was absolutely a war zone,” Effman said. “A huge number of weapons were confiscated from prisoners that summer. There was gang violence, and there was also a lockdown in the prison that summer.”
Jack Beck, a longtime investigator of prison abuse allegations for the not-for-profit Correctional Association of New York, said he is much more inclined to believe Williams’s allegations of brutality than the claims of officers that he was not beaten at Attica.
Are state taxpayers paying the legal fees for the former corrections officers in the federal case? Will the state pay the damages if the cases are settled, or a verdict goes against the former officers?
A spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office declined to answer, even after a reporter pointed out that expenditures of public money are involved.
Effman said the legal expenses of Rademacher, Swack and Warner have been covered by the state for the federal case.
“Normally, the state attorney general would represent them, but in this case, the attorney general has a conflict of interest, because the attorney general has been representing state agencies in connection with the criminal case,” Effman said.
State taxpayers did not pay for the criminal defense of Rademacher, Warner or Swack, Effman said. “We were privately retained in those cases,” he said.
A News examination of federal court records showed that – in addition to the Williams lawsuit – Warner, Swack and Rademacher have all been accused of brutality in other prisoner lawsuits over the past seven years.
Here is a look at the other federal court actions involving the three men.
•SETTLED: Joe Felder lawsuit
Former Attica prisoner filed federal lawsuit claiming that in February 2010, Rademacher put his forearm up against Felder’s throat, holding Felder against a wall while a second corrections officer repeatedly punched him. Felder claimed officers became upset with him because he turned his back to an officer who was cursing at him.
The state paid $9,000 to Felder and $4,000 for his legal fees to settle the case in April 2014. Rademacher and the other accused officer made no admission of wrongdoing but approved the settlement “for the convenience of all interested parties.”
•PENDING: Joseph McGowan lawsuit
Former Attica prisoner sued Rademacher and 14 other corrections employees, claiming he was assaulted by officers in May and July of 2011. He accused Rademacher and two other officers of beating him in a stairwell.
Officers deny all allegations and are seeking to have case dismissed.
•PENDING: Rufus Woods lawsuit
Former Attica prisoner filed lawsuit against Swack and five other corrections employees, claiming he was denied meals and mail privileges in January 2011 because officers were upset with him for filing a grievance. Also claimed racial discrimination and claimed officers planted a weapon in his cell so he could be put in “the box” – a special confinement unit.
Officers denied any wrongdoing and said a 9.5-inch sharpened metal rod was found in Woods’ cell.
•DISMISSED: Brent Jacoby lawsuit
Former Attica prisoner filed lawsuit accusing Warner, Swack, Rademacher and five other officers of brutality and racist remarks after series of alleged incidents in 2010.
Officers denied all the allegations and judge dismissed it in April 2013.
•DISMISSED: Vensel Hardy lawsuit
Former Attica prisoner sued Warner and eight other corrections officers, accusing them of using excessive force in November 2008 to punish him for writing a letter of complaint to the prison superintendent. He claimed he was beaten on three occasions. All officers denied the allegations.
Case was dismissed after an appeal in September 2013. Judge ruled that Hardy should have filed a grievance with the state prison system before filing a lawsuit in court.