Former Schenectady County corrections officer accused in jail beating pleads guilty; will serve 6 months in judge’s deal

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SCHENECTADY — A pair of former Schenectady County corrections officers, who were fired for their involvement in an unjustified beating of a detainee that resulted in the county paying out a more than $500,000 legal settlement last year, pleaded guilty to their role in the incident Tuesday.

But the pair will not serve any state prison time under a plea agreement reached with the judge overseeing the case — an arrangement prosecutors took issue with.  

Eugene Sellie will serve six months local jail time and five years of probation after Judge Gary Hobbs, a Glens Falls City Court judge overseeing the proceeding, agreed to impose the sentence in exchange for Sellie’s guilty plea to the four-count indictment. The indictment included two counts of felony assault and two counts of misdemeanor official misconduct.

If convicted after trial, Sellie would have faced up to seven years in prison for the Nov. 9, 2020 assault on John Mannarino at the county jail. The Niskayuna native suffered numerous broken bones, a collapsed lung and other internal injuries in the attack.

As part of the plea arrangement, Sellie admitted that his actions were not done in self defense, which his lawyer, Andrew Safranko, had contended was the case.

But Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney took issue with the plea agreement, which he noted his office had no part in. Prosecutors were instead offering Sellie a plea deal that would have included four years in state prison.

Carney said Hobbs was well within his rights to offer the agreement in exchange for Sellie’s guilty plea, but Carney noted that the sentence, in his view, was not nearly stiff enough considering the extent of Mannarino’s injuries, and the violation of the public’s trust associated with Sellie’s actions.

Carney called the assault one of the worst cases of police misconduct he has witnessed in his more than three decades as a prosecutor.

“A local sentence of six months in jail and five years probation just doesn’t reflect the gravity of harm Mr. Sellie caused,” Carney said. “This was an unprovoked assault on an inmate, which caused life-threatening injuries.”

Prosecutor Peter Willis requested that Sellie be sentenced to serve his six-month sentence in state custody, but Hobbs said he didn’t feel that would be necessary, noting that the former correction officer had no other complaints against him while working at the local jail.

“The disposition, I don’t believe is inconsistent with justice, especially considering the history of Mr. Sellie, which, as I see it, he has no prior convictions or any prior allegation of any abusive conduct, or complaints of abuse of inmates,” Hobbs said.

Also appearing in court was Timothy Bruce, Sellie’s supervising sergeant, who was charged with assault and official misconduct for his role in the assault. 

In exchange for his guilty plea to misdemeanor official misconduct, Bruce was sentenced to one year of conditional release, which will keep him out of jail unless he is convicted of a crime in the next 12 months. Bruce was also ordered to pay a $500 fine, $250 surcharge and will be required to forfeit any firearms in his possession, according to the plea deal.

Kevin Luibrand, an attorney for Mannarino, said Tuesday that he learned about the plea agreements this weekend. He said that if a non-corrections officer committed the same crime, a stiffer sentence would likely have been imposed.

“I realize, from my own experience, that that’s a different sentence than a non-police officer or non-correction officer would receive,” Luibrand said. “With that said, we’re not going to characterize it any further. It’s what the system produced and it’s for the public to decide if it’s right or not.”

Prosecutors said Sellie attacked Mannarino while he was detained at the county jail following a court proceeding in Niskayuna Town Court.

While at the jail, Mannarino was brought into an unsupervised room, where he was beaten by Sellie, an attack that resulted in multiple injuries. He was then released with no medical attention, and collapsed on the sidewalk outside the jail, where he was discovered by a probation officer and transported to Ellis Hospital.

Bruce heard the beating unfold but did not intervene, according to prosecutors. Both officers were terminated.

Last year, the county settled a federal lawsuit that had sought $2.5 million in damage, agreeing to payout $562,500.

Carney said the officer’s actions violated the public’s trust, adding Marrarino’s injuries would have resulted in death if he wasn’t discovered and brought to the hospital.

“If he hadn’t been found by a passing parole officer collapsed on the street at the corner of Albany [Street] and Veeder Avenue, he might have died,” he said.

Contact reporter Chad Arnold at: [email protected] or by calling 518-395-3120.

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