Less than a month ago, I received a letter from an inmate who was detained alongside Luke Wenke at the Monroe County Jail in Rochester, New York amid their pending criminal cases. In it, the detainee claimed that Wenke had recently been beaten up by a fellow inmate. More specifically, the letter stated that Wenke had been overheard yelling for help and screaming “WHY ME?” during the assault, which was allegedly carried out by a defendant in a high-profile racially motivated attempted murder case.

I initially did not know whether the letter’s claims are true but have since been able to verify that Luke Wenke was, in fact, assaulted in his jail cell on May 1st of this year. In addition to confirming this information through reliable sources via word-of-mouth, I obtained the following incident report detailing the assault.

The heavily redacted document confirms several of the claims put forth by the letter’s author, including that Wenke could be heard yelling “WHY ME?” during the attack. Furthermore, the report states that six corrections officers responded to the incident and that Wenke was subsequently taken to the hospital for treatment to injuries. While the nature of the injuries is NOT detailed in the report, the letter I received from Wenke’s fellow inmate states that “there was blood and teeth left in the cell” (this claim remains unconfirmed).

According to the report, Wenke denied instigating the assault despite witness claims that he had previously made disrespectful comments about/toward his adversary. He pleaded guilty to fighting and was punished with restrictions, but no criminal charges were filed against either party.

To learn more about the incident, read the document below. In the meantime, I’m awaiting more information from the inmate who wrote to me about the assault, who transferred out of the Monroe County Jail shortly after the letter was sent and is currently serving time in state prison for violating parole in a car theft case.