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$450K Settlement For Rikers Inmate Beaten & Hogtied By Correction Officers
By
Emma Whitford
Published Sep 2, 2015
Modified Sep 2, 2015
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By
Emma Whitford
Published Sep 2, 2015
Modified Sep 2, 2015
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Robert Hinton, a 28-year-old inmate who was hogtied and viciously beaten by a Rikers captain and five correction officers in the spring of 2012 —while in solitary confinement designated for the mentally ill—has won a $450,000 settlement from the city.
An early investigation into the April 3rd, 2012 incident revealed that Hinton had refused to leave his cellblock without first getting the baloney sandwich he was due for lunch. Captain Budnarine Behari and Officers Geronimo Almanzar, Vincent Siederman, Paul Bunton, Ramon Cabrera, and Raul Marquez then hogtied him, beat him and choked him. Hinton came away from the beating with a broken nose and vertebrae, a bleeding mouth, and eyes swollen shut.
Surveillance video, viewed in court but withheld from the public, shows him being dragged into a cell, hogtied, and then removed with brutal injuries.
According to Hinton's Manhattan federal-court lawsuit, excerpted in the Post, Captain Behari responded harshly to Hinton's refusal to move: “You don’t get what you want, you get what you deserve, which is an ass-whipping."
This January, almost three years after Hinton was beaten, Department of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte fired Behari and all five officers, stating that "there is no room for this type of behavior on Rikers." Ponte also cited "long overdue meaningful reform" at the DOC, including Mayor de Blasio's $130 million investment in prison reform last December.
Judge Tynia Richard added that firing the officers might help to break the "silence and collusion" surrounding guard brutality—an issue that is pervasive and continues to manifest in myriad horrific ways at Rikers.
Hinton's attorney, Nicole Bellina, is not convinced that Ponte's firings were evidence of a sea change. "What made Robert's case so compelling, and what allowed the DOC to act on it, was the video surveillance," she said. "I think in the end the DOC and the city took this case seriously because the video evidence substantiated what Robert had to say."
Still, she's hoping that this settlement might have a powerful impact. "What we're hoping is that this incident will get the DOC to believe what an inmate is saying, even if he doesn't have video to back it up," she said.
"A judge heard evidence from inmates and officers and from Robert himself," Bellina added. "That was extremely unusual. If the DOC took inmate assault cases seriously from the beginning, they would be able to quickly gather inmate and officer witness statements and video surveillance."
Recent analysis conducted by the NY Times found that, over the last 10 years, an average of 30 months have lapsed between an episode of correction officer brutality, and a judge's ruling. During that window of time, officers and guards continue to report to work.
Hinton has been out of prison for about six months now. He served out the remainder of his sentence—for a parole violation related to an attempted murder conviction—at Attica Correctional Facility upstate.
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Emma Whitford
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