STORMVILLE – Four corrections officers were treated at local hospitals for injuries they sustained in two separate inmate attacks at Fishkill and Green Haven correctional facilities earlier this month, the union representing the officers said.
On Sunday, April 9 at about 4:35 a.m., an officer was making routine rounds in a cell block at Green Haven when an inmate in his cell called for the officer to come closer. He told the officer he had something to tell her and did not want other inmates to her.
As the officer got closer to the cell, the inmate, identified by the union as Dennis Mosley, reached out through the bars, grabbed her right arm and pulled her into the cell bars. He struck her head and arm on the cell bars, but she managed to break free and fell backwards striking her head and arm on a table behind her.
Another officer on duty witnessed the assault and called for a response.
Moseley had a broken broom handle in his hand and a weighted cloth weapon in the other. He was given orders to drop both weapons, which he did. Officers had to cut shoestrings from the cell door that Moseley had tied to prevent it from opening.
He was placed in a special housing unit.
The injured officer sustained abrasions and bruises to her face, arm and back of her head. She was treated and released at a nearby hospital and did not return to duty.
Moseley, 32, is serving a 22-year- to-life sentence on a murder conviction in Oneida County.
A second assault occurred on Friday, April 14 at 1:35 p.m. at Fishkill Correctional. Two officers were making routine rounds in a housing unit. Both o0fficers entered an inmate bathroom and smelled smoke coming from a bathroom stall. The officers ordered the inmate, who they identified as Luigi Bermeotoral, to leave the stall and face the wall. He initially did so, but reached into his pocket, spun around and punched one officer in the face and grabbed his shirt as he continued to throw several more punches.
The second officer grabbed the inmate around the waist and brought him to the floor as he continued to fight with Bermeotoral punching the second officer in the neck and below the right eye.
Three additional officers responded. One female officer attempted to gain control of the inmate’s legs, but she was kicked in the neck and shoulder.
The inmate was eventually restrained.
The three officers were treated at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. Two other officers were treated at the prison for minor injuries.
Bermeotoral, 22, is serving a seven-year sentenced for two counts of assault and attempted robbery in Westchester County. He was transferred to Green Haven and placed in a special housing unit.
Mid-Hudson Regional Vice President Michael Mazzella of the New York State Corrections Officers Police Benevolent Association said the state “continues to sit idly by without making any significant changes that will reduce the violence. Until they accept that the current violence, both inmate on inmate and inmate on staff, is a consistent problem, these attacks will continue.”
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