The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation is recusing itself from further assessment and investigation of the corrections officers involved in the events preceding the death of Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy. Under New York County Law 701, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) filed a motion in Onondaga County Supreme Court requesting that the Court appoint a special prosecutor for the matter, and the Court has granted the motion, appointing Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick as special prosecutor.
Pursuant to New York Public Officers Law 17, the Attorney General represents state employees, including corrections officers, in legal matters related to conduct or activity performed as part of their official duties. Such matters are handled by OAG’s State Counsel Division. Under New York Executive Law Section 70-b, OSI conducts a preliminary assessment of every incident reported to it where a police officer or a peace officer, including a corrections officer, may have caused the death of a person by an act or omission.
As a routine part of these preliminary assessments, OSI checks for any internal conflicts that could challenge the integrity of a future investigation. When the corrections officers involved in the events preceding Nantwi’s death were identified, OSI confirmed that four of those corrections officers are defendants in other matters where they are or were represented by attorneys in OAG’s State Counsel Division.
The OSI is therefore recusing itself from further investigation of the events preceding Mr. Nantwi’s death and will hand over all records from its ongoing preliminary assessment of the matter to the District Attorney’s office immediately. The State Counsel Division will not be representing the Department of Corrections or any corrections officers in the District Attorney’s investigation.
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