NYC Rikers officer cleared of wrongdoing in reaction to violent assault

NNew York City Corrections Officer Charlie Bracey was cleared from wrongdoing after nearly losing his job due to allegedly failing quickly to stop a near fatal assault between two prison inmates. Rikers Island.

Bracey tried to take Jorge Gutierrez, a detainee, off of Sean McDermott. Gutierrez is alleged to have blasted the victim’s head on a metal railing for one minute and 17 seconds before the corrections officer intervened. The victim spent three weeks in intensive medical care at the hospital.

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McDermott received $9 million from the city as part of a settlement. McDermott claimed that McDermott did not stop the attack until the officer was unconscious.

David Kirsch, Bracey’s attorney, blamed staffing shortfalls for the insufficient response time during the incident.

“We had a staffing shortage and I don’t think anyone realized how bad it was. People were resigning or retiring and there was a period where no classes went into the academy to replace them,” Bracey reportedly At the trial. “It was becoming a regular situation… The supervisors, at this point, were playing the odds.”