The two former correction officers — the Baker administration said both men were fired for their alleged actions — are charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and assault and battery causing serious bodily injury.

Robert J. Grocki and Michael F. Savastano were indicted by a Norfolk County grand jury this week on two charges from the Sept. 16, 2014 alleged beating of Justin M. Sharples.

Two former Department of Correction officers are facing criminal charges for allegedly beating an inmate inside the state prison in Walpole so severely he suffered a fractured skull and has a metal plate in his face to keep his left eye in his head.


Sharples’ civil attorney, Robert M. Griffin, said the incident took place the night Sharples arrived at the Walpole prison.

“He was just waiting to get transported’’ to another cell block in Walpole, Griffin said. “They just started beating him, knocked him to the ground, kicked him in the face,’’ he said.

Griffin said Sharples was taken to Norwood Hospital, where doctors transferred him to Boston Medical Center because of his injuries. Sharples spent about two weeks at BMC and now has a plate in his face to keep his left eyeball in place because his orbital bone was shattered. He also needed surgery to repair his left eyelid, which became inverted.

“Even if he was the aggressor, their use of force was so over the top, that it could never be justified,’’ said Griffin.

Defense attorneys for Grocki and Savastano said that Sharples was the aggressor and that both men acted in response to the inmate’s actions.

Grocki’s attorney, Peter D. Pasciucco, faulted Sharples for igniting the conflict and the Department of Correction for siding with the inmate. “This situation was created by the inmate,’’ Pasciucco said. “And I think the DOC manufactured the allegations to fit the inmate’s alleged injuries.’’ He declined to elaborate.


Both men have challenged their firings by the Department of Correction to an arbitrator.

Christopher Fallon, Department of Correction spokesman, wrote in an e-mail that the department “determined that they lied about the incident and assaulted the inmate,’’ he wrote.

According to Griffin, , Sharples believed he was to be housed with sex offenders and had asked for a transfer.

The block sergeant told him the fastest way to be reassigned would be to refuse to go into his cell, which would lead to his removal by correction officers to Block 10 for violating prison rules. Prisoners who end up in Block 10 could be reclassified and moved into another cell block, according to Griffin.

Sharples refused to enter his cell and was ordered to enter a secure area and wait to be moved, Griffin said. He was standing with his hands behind his back waiting to be handcuffed when Grocki, Savastano, and other correction officers entered and violence erupted.

John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.