Four Nassau County guards – allegedly part of a jailhouse goon squad – were charged yesterday with the fatal beating of an inmate who wouldn’t quit demanding treatment for his heroin addiction.
The correction officers pleaded not guilty in the Jan. 13 death of Thomas Pizzuto, who died six days after starting a 90-day Nassau County Jail term for a traffic violation.
Pizzuto, 38, suffered a seizure three days after the alleged beating, and died.
“Someone asked me, am I happy about what happened today?” said Pizzuto’s mother, Carol, at the office of family lawyer Barry Scheck. “I don’t think I’ll ever be happy again. But I’m happy these officers will not be able to do this again.”
Scheck filed notice of an impending civil suit against the jail.
“The code of silence is not a myth,” Scheck said. “What happened to Mr. Pizzuto is really the culmination of documented abuses of prisoners.”
All four guards were released on $500,000 bond by federal Judge Jacob Mishler. Three could face the death penalty if the Justice Department decides to seek it.
“My client is relieved that the case is finally coming to a conclusion,” said defense lawyer Edward Jenks, representing Officer Ivano Bavaro. “He feels he will be vindicated.”
Bavaro, along with guards Edward Valazquez and Patrick Regnier, were charged with two counts of federal civil-rights violations in the fatal beating. One count specifically deals with guards’ violating an inmate’s civil rights; the other is more general.
According to the indictment, Bavaro served as lookout when Valazquez and Regnier went to the inmate’s cell and beat him repeatedly – on Pizzuto’s second day in custody.
A fourth guard, Joseph Bergen, was charged as an accessory after the fact for allegedly doctoring an inmate-incident form showing Pizzuto suffered his fatal injuries in a shower-room fall.
Bergen could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Regnier’s lawyer, Ernest Peace, said Pizzuto had signed that form himself.
“He said he fell in the shower. These guys didn’t do anything,” Peace said.
Bergen’s lawyer, Louis Agresta, added:
“When an inmate gets hurt, they always say they fell in the shower because … they’re afraid of reprisals.”
Pizzuto’s family said the deceased man, a recovering heroin user, was beaten into silence after he repeatedly asked for his methadone treatment.
“Tommy was not a jail person,” his father, Rosario, said.
After the alleged Jan. 8 beating, the family claimed Pizzuto was left in his jail cell over the weekend to let his injuries heal. On Jan. 11, the inmate suffered a seizure, and two days later he died of a ruptured spleen.