Amid the sordid details of this August New York Times story of a “campaign of retribution” against inmates after the escape of two prisoners from Clinton Correctional Facility was an evocative description of one particular perpetrator:

Victor Aponte, who worked in the prison tailor shop where Mr. Matt also had a job, said a guard with an American flag tattoo, known at the prison as Captain America, tied a plastic bag around Mr. Aponte’s neck in an interrogation and tightened it until he passed out.

Today, nearly two months later, the Times is reporting the identity of this flag-enthusiast guard. He is identified as Chad Stickney, reportedly a gang intelligence officer and one-time chief steward of a corrections officer union, who has a bit of a history of bad behavior. Specifically, he’s been sued three times for assault or harassment.

Let the Times tell it:

One of the lawsuits was terminated after the inmate who filed it died. Two others are still active, including a suit filed in September by Terry Daum, an inmate who claimed that Officer Stickney punched him several times in the head and grabbed his genitals during a search. The lawsuit also said “Stickney utilized his hand to aggressively rub plaintiff’s rectum like a credit card swipe and then attempted to jam his fingertips into plaintiff’s rectum.”

Inmates reportedly felt compelled to aid the Times investigation due to the glacial pace and apparent lack of progress in the corrections agency’s own investigation. And while that investigation lags, instances of retribution continue: inmates who spoke to the Times for the August report told of being placed on 23-hour lockdown for fabricated infractions, or for no stated reason whatsoever.

Asked about reports of prisoner abuse at the hands of corrections officers, Governor Cuomo explained things thusly: “It is a very, very difficult job. They have to make sure they get a certain amount of respect in the job, otherwise they get hurt.”

[New York Times]

Photo via AP