One of the former Mid-State COs implicated in the death of inmate Messiah Nantwi was arraigned on a felony indictment by the Herkimer County Supreme Court, according to a statement from state police.
Nantwi, an inmate at Mid-State Correctional Facility, was brutally beaten to death on March 1, 2025, by a Correction Emergency Response Team to the point of unresponsiveness and beaten twice more, with his hands cuffed behind his back. After the death, a grand jury alleged corrections officers got together to plant evidence and submit false testimony.
Joshua Bartlett, 50, of Utica, was one of the corrections officers originally charged in the Nantwi case and pleaded guilty to first-degree hindering prosecution and first-degree falsifying business records on Nov. 17, 2025.
On May 14, New York State Police arrested Bartlett following a felony indictment issued by Herkimer County Supreme Court. Bartlett was charged with two counts first-degree sexual abuse, one count of second-degree sexual abuse, one county of third-degree sexual abuse, and two counts of forcible touching.
New York State Police said in a statement the charges stem from an ongoing investigation involving two female victims.
“The investigation determined Bartlett allegedly subjected the first victim to repeated sexual contact over a period of approximately six years beginning when the victim was 11 years old,” New York State Police officials said in a statement. “During the course of the investigation, a second victim came forward and reported Bartlett allegedly subjected her to unwanted sexual contact. The second victim was reported to be 14 years old at the time of the incident.”
Bartlett was arraigned on May 15, in Herkimer County and released after posting $30,000 cash bail. He is scheduled to go back before Herkimer County Judge John Crandall on May 21.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Former Mid-State CO arraigned on sexual abuse charges
Reporting by Casey Pritchard, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
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