By C1 Staff
NEW YORK — Surveillance footage outside a cell where a handcuffed inmate was beaten by six corrections officers in 2012 should be made public, according to a state committee.
CBS News reports that the New York state Committee on Open Government released their decision this week. The video in question was played publicly during the administrative hearing of a captain involved in Robert Hinton’s beating in a now-shuttered unit for mentally ill inmates.
Hinton was beaten after being carried hogtied into the cell for refusing to be escorted, according to the Department of Corrections. The department also said that, to justify the use of force, officers involved fabricated a story that Hinton put one of them into a chokehold.
In September, a judge recommended that the captain and five officers involved should be fired.
The DOC has denied the AP’s public records request for the footage, as well as the AP’s appeal of that denial.
Committee on Open Government Executive Director Robert Freeman said in a Nov. 7 opinion that since the footage was played publicly, it should be disclosed.