By Harold McNeil
Buffalo News
ALBION, N.Y. — A corrections officer was severely beaten by an inmate Thursday inside the medium-security Orleans Correctional Facility in Albion, according to a union representative for state corrections officers at the facility.
Al Mothershed, western region vice president for the New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said the incident occurred at about 11 a.m. Thursday after the unidentified corrections officer questioned the inmate about a possible infraction of the rules at the facility. Mothershed said the 17-year-old inmate punched the officer in the face, then proceeded to “pile drive” him into the floor, after which the inmate jumped on him and repeatedly banged the officer’s head onto the floor.
“I’m still waiting to hear about the officer’s condition. When they got to him, he was pretty much found in a puddle of blood,” Mothershed said.
Mothershed declined to release the identity of the corrections officer. State police Friday confirmed that an assault did take place Thursday at the facility and that it is being investigated.
Mothershed said that, leading up the assault, the officer had been alone with the inmate. When the officer was struck, Mothershed said, the officer lost his radio and was unable to communicate with fellow officers on guard. The officer was transported to Medina Hospital, according to Mothershed.
Mothershed identified the inmate as Paul Cookhorne of Oneida County.
“There have been some issues [at the facility]. I reported some a couple of months ago,” Mothershed said. “The inmate [in Thursday’s alleged assault] is in jail for a gang-related shooting. He’s only 17 years old and has only been at the jail since June.”
“Anytime we have any gang-related activities, it’s always a concern. Often [inmates who are gang members] have to perform to be accepted into the gang, they have to perform certain rituals,” he said.
However, Mothershed acknowledged that he did not know whether or not the beating of the officer Thursday was part of such an initiation.
“Assaults on staff [and] inmate-on-inmate fights are becoming a bigger concern,” he said.
He said inmates at Orleans Correctional Facility live in a college dormitory setting.
“The [accused] inmate will go to a maximum-security facility if he gets an assault charge,” Mothershed said.
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