Family sues after man dies from brutal beating inside N.J. jail

The family of an Atlantic County man who died in August, years after he was viciously beaten by another inmate at the Atlantic County Jail, filed a lawsuit against local and county agencies it says are responsible, court documents show.

Bettina Robinson, the mother of Hassan Robinson, 44, claimed in legal filings that county officials failed to protect her son against another inmate who brutally beat him in 2022 and left him incapacitated in a medically-induced coma until August, when he eventually died.

"The complaint makes it clear that after Hassan was falsely arrested and awaiting his first court appearance, the defendants allowed a violent inmate to have access to him and beat him into a coma from which he never recovered, even though the defendants knew that inmate had a 'No Contact' order in place to protect Hassan," Robinson's attorney Samuel D. Jackson said in a press release.

"Hassan should have never even been in custody, but no incarcerated person, guilty or innocent, should ever have to fear for their life while in the hands of law enforcement."

Robinson claimed her son was erroneously held at the jail for failing to register as a sex offender, an offense she claims should have never been enforced because her son's juvenile record had been expunged of those charges, the lawsuit states.

Court records show Hassan Robinson was detained on Aug. 22, 2022 for failing to register as a sex offender and was ordered to be held at a pre-trial detention hearing.

Robinson said she received a call on Sept. 13, 2022 from an employee of the Atlantic County Jail stating her son had suffered a "medical issue" and was in the hospital, according to the legal complaint.

She received a second call the next day from the jail's warden explaining her son had been beaten by another inmate in an "unprovoked attack" and was unconscious and in a coma, according to the lawsuit.

"Hassan Robinson had been so viciously beaten, kicked and stomped about his head that he suffered massive trauma to his brain and was not expected to ever regain consciousness and was expected to die," attorneys for Robinson's mother stated in the complaint.

Robinson and a second inmate, Shakur Aabid had been placed in a holding cell together awaiting court appearances, the complaint states.

Aabid was charged in the attack by the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office about a week after the incident.

Attorneys for Robinson also alleged in the complaint that Aabid was under a "no contact court order," meaning he should not have been unsupervised while in the presence of Robinson.

The suit also accused Atlantic City's chief of police and the unnamed officers that arrested Robinson of negligence and malfeasance, adding the officers "refused to listen to Mr. Hassan Robinson when he explained that his record was expunged and the requirement to register had likewise been extinguished two years prior."

A spokesperson for Atlantic City declined to comment on the allegations because of pending litigation. Atlantic County officials did not immediately return a request for comment.

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