August 26, 2021
“Do what you’re told, N-word”. That’s what two Broome County Correctional Officers told a local teenager, as spelled out in yet another lawsuit against the jail and its officers.
The facts, as laid out in the lawsuit, are straightforward. On February 10th last year, Black/Latin teenager Taej’on Vega was in Broome County Jail. Mr. Vega had attended Johnson City High School, with an officially recognized disability. He hadn’t graduated, but he had regularly held a job. At the jail he was refused, as is often the case, the multiple medications he had been receiving for his disability needs.
As part of a shakedown search of his housing unit, Mr. Vega was ordered to lay down flat on the floor—and he did, on his stomach. As officers passed by, he asked how their day was going. For that Sergeant Daniel Weir ordered two officers, Richard Hrebin and Corey Fowler, to take Mr. Vega to his cell. They handcuffed him, dragged him to his cell by his outstretched arms, and proceeded to beat and slap him on the head, body and back—all while steadily and repeatedly calling him the n-word. They then uncuffed him and told him to “Strip n-word,” and proceeded to perform a search of his genitals and anus to humiliate him. Court papers with these details recount that he was held so tight he could not breathe, was shaken twice, and told “Do what you’re told n-word.” After all this, they destroyed his few personal items in the cell, including family pictures, and flushed his sheets in the cell’s toilet repeatedly. Mr. Vega was then left naked in his cell, traumatized and in pain, and coughing up blood. Other officers had heard Mr. Vega being pounced on, dragged to his cell and the noise of the beating, but did not intervene.
On February 12th Mr. Vega filed grievances at the urging of his mother, who could not visit but obtained pictures of his bruised and swollen face and body from a video call.
Members of Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier also visited and spoke to Mr. Vega in the jail immediately after the beatings, and witnessed his injuries.
On February 14th his grievance was found to have “no merit” and denied. Retaliation by officers ensued. The lawsuit filed by Legal Services of Central New York for compensatory and punitive damages against the County and the three officers is underway.
This is not an isolated case. In 2014 the NY State Attorney general investigated, reprimanded, and fined the County jail’s private medical provider—yet their contract was renewed repeatedly by the County. In 2018 the County and the Sheriff lost a major lawsuit over abuse of youth in the jail. The County and the medical provider have also lost a series of wrongful death suits, brought in the rare instances when families can mount a long and expensive legal case. These include the death of Alvin Rios and Salladin Barton, with another case by the parents of Thomas Hussar underway. A recent survey of jail deaths in NY State by USA today, published in the local newspaper, featured the Broome County Jail prominently, highlighting the Hussar case.
Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier has steadily reported a long list of abuses and deaths to state authorities, and presented these in testimony before the state legislature. We have written legislative leaders in Albany again regarding the brutalities meted out to Taej’on Vega. Local community organizations have called upon the Governor to fire the Sheriff. It is far past time for our elected officials to act.
For further information: William Martin wgmartin1@gmail.com for JUST
A longer essay on the case is here