Sides dispute facts of prison beating

To hear prosecutors tell it, the five city corrections officers on trial in federal court yesterday were supposed to uphold the law but in the end became no better than those who break it. The guards at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center on State Road were indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2005 in the vicious beating of a handcuffed inmate on Flag Day in June 2004.

During opening arguments yesterday, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Sybil Murphy said the case was about respect for law and order. "The redress we are seeking is to the system," she said. "We can't have a breakdown like this." The feds allege that Anthony Morant, Milton Gibbs, Arnel Alanguilan, Joseph Murray and Troy Lindsey deprived Geraldo Rosario of his civil rights by "repeatedly" punching and kicking the inmate, who was nude at the time. But defense attorneys for the prison guards painted ...