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Corrections Officers Charged In Erie County Prison Beating

Two Erie county corrections officers are facing charges, after investigators say they planned the beating of an inmate.
It's a story we first brought you last week.

After a nearly month-long investigation, the DA's office charged two corrections officers, and five inmates.
Erie county prison inmate, Thor Perry, was beat up by five other inmates at the jail, back on January 29th.
Investigators found that corrections officer, 36 year old Jason Worcester, conspired with an inmate and arranged the beating.
Perry was in prison for allegedly attacking Worcester's niece.

The other officer, 42 year old Clifford Palmer, is also facing charges of conspiracy and assault.
District Attorney Jack Daneri says while Worcester arraigned the assault, Palmer did nothing to stop it.
Daneri says these charges come after a thorough investigation, involving surveillance video of the assault, several witness interviews and telephone records.

"We treat it essentially like any other case, but of course we can't ignore the elephant in the room, which is that these individuals are law enforcement, and these individuals are charged with protecting us, but also protecting the people inside from other individuals. And to the extent that we have an investigation and wound up filing charges against the corrections officers, it's disturbing." Said Daneri.

The inmates facing charges of conspiracy and simple assault are identified as Nicholas Cornman, Dennis Nelson, Eli Malinowski, John Maas, and Dennis Doggett.

The corrections officers are suspended without pay while an administrative investigation is underway.