Excerpt:
A court hearing Wednesday on whether a television reporter must turn over notes of an interview with accused killer Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan instead became a forum for Hassan to accuse his jailers of torturing and plotting to kill him.
Hassan asked a judge to "fire" Sheriff Timothy B. Howard because of the alleged actions of sheriff's deputies in the Erie County Holding Center, claims that a Sheriff's Office spokesman called "preposterous."
Hassan, 45, who is awaiting trial on charges he murdered his wife in Orchard Park last year, told Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk he was attacked and beaten by 16 jail guards -- whom he referred to as "white Nazis" Ñ Nov. 10 and last Thursday. He also claimed he had been "waterboarded" in the jail.