SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) - A jail guard has been fired and arrested for allegedly beating a detainee at Schenectady County jail.
Eugene Sellie, 28, surrendered Tuesday to Schenectady police and was arraigned for felony assault and official misconduct, the Times Union reported.
Sellie’s lawyer, Andrew Safranko, says that his client acted in self-defense and that he plans to fight to get his job back.
“This was 100 percent a response to an inmate that aggressively came out and attempted to attack Officer Sellie,” Safranko said. “He exercised an appropriate and reasonable amount of force and was completely justified in his use of force.”
The assault charge is expected to be presented to a grand jury this week and Sellie pleaded not guilty to misconduct.
The man Sellie is accused of assaulting suffered three broken ribs on each side of his chest, a collapsed lung and a broken collar bone.
Schenectady County Sheriff Dominic Dagostino vowed on Tuesday that his office would “make every effort to make sure a situation like this does not occur again.”
Dagostino fired Sellie and his supervising sergeant, Timothy Bruce, at the time of the alleged attack. Bruce does not currently face criminal charges.
Dagostino said that Sellie led the victim into a changing area that does not have surveillance on Nov. 9 and assaulted him after the victim complained that the department was taking too long to process and release him.
According to the Sherriff, the victim’s injuries were so severe it caught the attention of a parole officer outside the jail.
Dagostino said that an internal probe is ongoing.
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