By C1 Staff
NEW YORK – The corrections officers involved in the alleged beating death of a Riker’s Inmate will not be charged.
According to the Huffington Post, the family of inmate Ronald Spear has decided to not press charges.
Spear was arrested on burglary charges and died on December 19, 2012, after a confrontation with COs that turned violent.
He had previously complained that COs and medical staff were withholding medical treatment for a kidney ailment.
Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said he would not prosecute the COs involved in the incident, feeling that he could not prove a case “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
An attorney representing Spear’s family referred to the coroner’s report, which deemed Spear’s death a homicide caused in part by “blunt force trauma to the head,” as well as “consistent” witness statements from inmates who say they saw the confrontation.
Spear had filed a lawsuit against medical and nursing staff at the jail in the weeks before he died. He claimed he had been denied medication by jail staff and also stated that he had corrections officers retaliating against him.
The union president said in a statement that “corrections officers did everything they were supposed to do.”
Spear’s family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, but say that it is not a substitute for criminal accountability.
An internal investigation into the incident is still ongoing.