Attica records: Inmates brutalized, denied medical treatment

Shortly after noon on Sept. 13, 1971, Dr. Robert Jenks, a staff physician at Batavia's Genesee Memorial Hospital, entered hell — the Attica prison grounds where a violent State Police assault hours before had left dozens of men dead and nearly 100 wounded.

Inside the grounds of the Wyoming County maximum-security prison, amid the carnage and bloodshed, Jenks found an inmate suffering severe brain damage. Jenks wanted to evacuate the prisoner to the hospital for treatment but was "refused permission" to take the inmate off prison grounds, according to newly released documents about the Attica riot — records that have been sealed for 40 years.

A day later, Jenks "saw people with fractures that had not yet been treated and people in need of transfusion who had not yet received it," according to the 1975 report from Bernard Meyer, who investigated whether an earlier state investigation into the Attica riot was a cover-up.

A National Guard soldier at Attica saw "guards beat inmates on medical carts with clubs, saw a prison doctor pull an inmate off a cart and kick him in the stomach" and heard a civilian "who appeared to be in charge" refuse to allow a National Guard physician to "set up a field hospital on prison ground."

These claims appear in documents released Thursday from the state Attorney General's Office, portions of the so-called Meyer report that have been sealed since 1975. The report consisted of three volumes; the first volume was released in 1975, and the other two were sealed.

Last year, a Buffalo-based state Supreme Court justice ordered the release of the remaining volumes, but directed the Attorney General's Office to redact grand jury information. What the Attorney General's Office released Thursday were only 46 pages — some partly redacted — while nearly 400 pages still remain closed to the public.

"Today, we are shining new light on one of the darkest chapters of our history," Marty Mack, the executive deputy attorney general for regional affairs, said in a released statement Thursday. "We hope that, with the release of the Meyer Report, we can bring the families of Attica uprising victims closer to closure and help future generations of Americans learn from this tragic event."

Others active with the fight to open all Attica-related records say the limited release of the Meyer report demonstrates the continuing difficulty in revealing what truly happened at the prison.

"Attica is not going to go away until the whole truth of it is told," said Jonathan Gradess, an Albany-based attorney who has assisted a group called the Forgotten Victims of Attica. "The whole truth is going to be every line on every piece of paper."

The Forgotten Victims of Attica, which includes riot survivors and the families of corrections officers killed in the prison retaking, has asked the state to open all records about the uprising. A union representing State Police last year opposed the unsealing of the entire Meyer report.

Still, the 46 pages do provide new insight into the prison riot, helping confirm tales of the post-retaking brutalization of inmates and also shedding light on FBI and U.S. Department of Justice actions in the aftermath of the retaking. The FBI investigation, which focused on the allegations of brutality against prisoners, appears to have ended quietly with no resolution.

According to one witness interviewed by Meyer's investigative team, "the (FBI) investigation just died, but no one wished to close it formally because of the publicity that would result."

Allegations of a cover-up

On Sept. 9, 1971, inmates at the Attica prison seized control of the facility, taking guards and civilian employees as hostages. One corrections officer, William Quinn, was beaten by inmates and died two days later from his injuries.

For four days, a tense standoff ensued, as civilian negotiators shuttled demands between inmates and state officials and tried to craft a peaceful resolution. On the morning of Sept. 13, helicopters dumped tear gas into the prison yard and State Police stormed the Attica grounds, firing wildly through the fog.

The retaking killed 39 men — 29 inmates and 10 hostages. In all, 43 people died at Attica, including Quinn and three prisoners killed by other inmates during the standoff.

Dozens of inmates were charged with crimes, and a state commission investigated the seeds of the riots, questions surrounding the retaking of the prison, and the allegations of brutality against inmates.

In 1973, Malcolm Bell, a former corporate lawyer, was tasked by state officials to investigate possible crimes by police who seized control of the prison. Bell began to build cases alleging murder, manslaughter and reckless endangerment against State Police and others whom he felt were responsible for some of the deaths at Attica.

However, Bell became convinced that state officials were stymieing his investigation. He was suspended for an unauthorized meeting with a confidential source and later resigned. Afterward, Bell went public with his allegations of a cover-up.

Gov. Hugh Carey appointed Meyer to investigate Bell's claims. Meyer, who died in 2005, and a team reviewed tens of thousands of pages of documents and interviewed key players from earlier Attica investigations.

Meyer found multiple shortcomings with the earlier investigations into the riot, including a failure to seriously look into the allegations of brutality against inmates. Despite those flaws in the investigations, Meyer concluded there was no cover-up.

"The charge that prosecution of law enforcement personnel for murder or other shooter crimes and for perjury was obstructed ... is not sustained by the record," Meyer wrote. "The deficiencies in evidence gathering immediately following the retaking left so little available to the investigation that determination of possible criminal liability in shooter cases became inordinately difficult in all but a few extraordinary cases."

The second and third volumes of the Meyer report were sealed because of the extensive grand jury information they contained, including allegations of crimes by specific State Police troopers and others who joined in the prison retaking. In September 2013, the state attorney general filed a motion in Erie County, asking permission to unseal the two volumes.

Last year, state Supreme Court Justice Patrick NeMoyer approved the release, but ordered that grand jury material be redacted.

More proof of brutality

In the mid-1970s, inmates who'd been at Attica filed a federal lawsuit, alleging multiple beatings and other cruelties after the riot. The lawsuit bounced about for years, and in 2000, the state settled it for $12 million — $4 million of that for the attorneys.

In 2000, U.S. District Judge Michael Telesca, who is based in Rochester, held hearings to decide how much should be awarded to individual inmates. Over months, dozens of inmates testified about the brutality.

The pages of the Meyer report released Thursday add new voices to the claims of brutality, and these are the voices of civilians who were at the prison. In particular:

Dr. Jenks told of the need for medical help that was ignored at the prison. He was expected to testify before the lead state investigation into Attica, the McKay Commission, but was unable to attend on the designated day and "no one else ever contacted him."

Kevin Burke, the National Guard soldier who said he saw inmates on medical carts beaten by corrections officers, did appear before the McKay Commission but the "files of the investigation contain no record of Burke."

Ray Morrow, a former Ontario County sheriff, "described acts of brutality but was no longer able to make identification of the perpetrator, though he believed he would have been able to earlier."

The records released Thursday also focus in part on an investigation by the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Concerned about the appearance of a conflict with investigators scrutinizing the acts of inmates, State Police and guards, state officials in 1971 asked federal authorities to intervene.

Nelson Rockefeller, who was governor in 1971, told the Meyer investigators that he thought a Justice Department inquiry would be a "good idea" and would help ensure public confidence. An agreement was struck that the FBI would investigate allegations of brutality and "any resultant prosecution would probably be done by the state."

In October 1971, the FBI began its investigation and interviewed defense lawyers, inmates and medical personnel who had been at the prison. That month, it "submitted a lengthy report to the Civil Rights Division" then followed up with more interviews.

Some inmates refused to talk to the FBI. Three inmates who had been confined in their cells during the riot identified three corrections officers as individuals who beat inmates after the retaking.

The federal investigation apparently quietly ended, with no recommendations from the Justice Department.

What's also clear from the records released Thursday is that Meyer thought his entire report would one day become public. He divided the report into multiple volumes so that the second and third volumes would not be released until criminal investigations and prosecutions were complete.

Gov. Carey, however, later halted prosecutions with a pardon for inmates and an end of disciplinary action against police facing criminal allegations stemming from the riot and the retaking.That meant that the Meyer report included names of State Police troopers, prison corrections officers and others who were being investigated after the riot for possible crimes. Carey's act ensured that no law enforcement officials would be prosecuted.

The decision as to when to release the full report, Meyer wrote in 1975, "must be predicated ... upon a balancing of the public interest in the working of the criminal justice system and the public interest in protecting individual rights to due process."

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's motion had asked that the names in grand jury records be redacted to protect privacy. Malcolm Bell, who now lives in Vermont, also recommended that the records be released with the names of criminal suspects redacted.

Bell said he hoped that the release of records from the two Meyer volumes would answer, for him, why Meyer determined there was no cover-up. Instead, Bell said, the records provide no more clarity for that question.

"This is such a teaser," Bell said. "This is like a preview to a movie.

" ... Attica should be over now and it's not going to be as long as this stuff keeps being suppressed."

GCRAIG@DemocratandChronicle.com