From the archives: Nassau jail inmates beat up Ferguson

This story was originally published in Newsday on March 23, 1994.

Accused LIRR gunman Colin Ferguson suffered a broken nose and a black eye when he was beaten by at least four inmates at the Nassau County jail yesterday afternoon, in an attack his attorneys say they had warned jail officials was possible.

Ferguson was on the telephone when he was surrounded and beaten by the inmates, said jail officials. An emergency room doctor at Nassau County Medical Center, where Ferguson was taken after the attack, said that he had been treated for a broken nose. Sheriff Joseph Jablonsky said the attack occurred sometime between 1:45 and 2 p.m. and that Ferguson received at least one black eye.

According to Ferguson's lawyers, William Kunstler and Ronald Kuby, jail officials were warned by them and by Ferguson that he had been threatened. And in several telephone calls to Kunstler's office yesterday, Ferguson said that he had told guards he wanted to be kept locked in his cell, but they ignored him. The last call came about 20 minutes before the attack, Kunstler said.

"He could actually see the men lining up with gauze on their hands," said Kunstler, who charged that the attack was racially motivated. Jail officials said three white inmates and one Hispanic inmate were involved in the assault. They declined to name them.

Jablonsky said that jail officials received two letters by fax from Kunstler, one regarding allegations of harassment by a guard and another warning of a possible assault. He said that an officer called Kunstler's office to get more details but was told no one was available.

"The letter was faxed to me at 1:16. At 1:35 my people make a phone call . . . There's nobody there to respond," Jablonsky said. "I'm wondering - if someone's client was in that much trouble . . . Why wouldn't you call?"

Jablonsky said that as guards were preparing to go to Ferguson's cell, an officer called about the attack. Nassau detectives are investigating.

Kunstler said that he will ask Nassau County Court Judge Donald Belfi today to move Ferguson to the Metropolitan Correction Center in New York City. Ferguson, 36, is charged with killing six people and wounding 19 others in a shooting rampage on the Long Island Rail Road Dec. 7.

In a letter to Deval Patrick, chief of the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Kunstler requested that the federal government investigate. "It is sadly apparent that this attempted lynching was done with the full knowledge and approval of the jail staff and the Sheriff," Kunstler wrote.

An unidentified inmate called Kunstler's office and Newsday to warn about the attack. He called Newsday again late yesterday afternoon and gave the following account:

About eight inmates with their fists wrapped in sheets to keep their knuckles from bruising beat Ferguson for six or seven minutes. Though a guard should be present at all times, no one was there. The guards were in a nearby hallway watching TV.

By the time the assault was stopped, "there was blood all over the floor, all out of his mouth," the inmate said.

Jablonsky said that he did not know that Ferguson had requested to be locked in his cell. There was a guard on duty when the attack occurred, Jablonsky said, but by the time he got to the scene, the assault was over, he said.

"These allegations will be addressed by our internal affairs," Jablonsky said.

Kunstler said an inmate called his office yesterday afternoon and said that the attack had been planned two days ago and that inmates had been trying to provoke Ferguson into a fight since his arrest. Guards watched the assault through a window for several minutes before breaking it up, Kunstler said the inmate told him.