Charges Dismissed Against Connecticut Guards Who Assaulted Prisoner
Misdemeanor assault charges were tentatively dismissed in November 2024 against three Connecticut Department of Corrections (DOC) guards accused of assaulting Garner Correctional Institution prisoner Elijah Hamlin, 26, in a 2023 incident captured on leaked cellphone video.
Danbury Superior Court Judge Charles M. Stango allowed the guards to enter a pretrial diversion program, meaning their charges will be fully dismissed upon successful completion of terms they were ordered to serve on probation and performing community service.
Judge Stango called one of the three, Anthony Marlak, 44, the “instigator” and “the one that actually threw punches.” He was ordered to serve two years on probation and perform 100 hours of community service. Marlak is no longer employed by the DOC; though as PLN reported, he won reinstatement to his job in 2023—not quite two years after being fired for posting an anti-Muslim meme on his Facebook account. [See: PLN, June 2023, p.63.]
The other two guards, Joshua Johnson and Patrick McGoldrick, were given six months of probation and 25 hours of community service for punching and kicking the prisoner. McGoldrick also no longer works for the DOC, but Johnson returned to his job at the prison in June 2024. Hamlin, the prisoner, is set for release by the end of 2025 from a sentence for assaulting an unnamed guard at Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center during an escape attempt in 2021.
Source: Connecticut Post, Connecticut Public Radio
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