Lining Up To Sue
By Jack Brubaker
Lancaster New Era
Pa. putting the curb on frivolous prison lawsuits
Read full C1 News Report
LANCASTER, Pa. — Assaults by guards. Illegal strip searches. Denial of medical aid. Indifference to suicidal tendencies.
Those are complaints made in lawsuits against Lancaster County Prison and prison personnel that are currently working their way through the legal system.
At least eight suits are under way. Seven were filed in the federal court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. One was filed in the state’s Court of Common Pleas in Lancaster County.
These pending suits are in addition to three settled suits in which the county made monetary payments to inmates within the past 15 months, as detailed in stories in the New Era on Monday and Tuesday.
Prison critics say these suits and other complaints indicate a longstanding pattern of abuse.
Here are summaries of the suits, beginning with cases charging abuse by correctional officers.
Paul Barbacano claimed three correctional officers beat him up as part of a “culture of abuse’’ in the prison.
He cited two of the settled cases in which prisoners charged guard abuse as part of a “history of allowing prisoner abuse.’'
Barbacano filed his federal suit - the first against the prison this year - on Oct. 24.
Represented by Lancaster attorney Leonard Brown, Barbacano sued correctional officers Villerel, Riley and Wolfe, along with Warden Vincent Guarini. (The officers’ first names were not listed in the suit.)
Barbacano, then 34 and living in Quarryville, was jailed in September 2007 on separate charges of DUI and conspiracy to purchase goods with a stolen credit card.
On Nov. 12, 2007, Barbacano and his cellmate were engaged in a verbal argument when correctional officer Villerel opened the cell door and handcuffed Barbacano, according to the lawsuit’s complaint.
While Barbacano loudly said he was not resisting, Villerel accused the inmate of resisting and slammed his head onto the guard’s desk several times, according to the complaint.
Correctional officers Riley and Wolfe then took Barbacano to the cell block door and slammed his head into it at least four times, knocking off his shoes, the complaint says.
Riley and Wolfe continued to bang Barbacano’s head against the wall leading to an elevator, where they slammed his head against the elevator doors, according to the complaint.
Inside the elevator, the two guards “pummeled Mr. Barbacano with closed-fist punches to his head,’' the complaint states.
Barbacano was taken to solitary confinement, where he was stripped naked and punched 15 to 20 times in the face by Riley, according to the complaint.
The officers then removed Barbacano’s handcuffs. Riley tried to provoke Barbacano to hit him, saying, “This is the part I love, go ahead and hit me,’' according to the complaint.
After the incident, the complaint says, Villerel reported Barbacano for assaulting an inmate and creating a disturbance. A prison hearing found Barbacano guilty only of creating a disturbance.
The suit claims that the prison “has implemented policies and acquiesced to a culture of violence’’ and cites the lawsuits of former inmates Jon Eichelman and Felix Nieves, who also claimed guard abuse and obtained settlements in 2007.
It further claims that “a group of corrections officers, including defendants, have made abusing inmates ‘a well-settled’ practice at Lancaster County Prison’’ and that Guarini is a “deliberately indifferent’’ warden.
The defendants have not formally replied to the fresh lawsuit, but Guarini says, “The allegations are nowhere near correct.”
Traci M. Guynup sued Lancaster County Prison, Warden Guarini, a dozen correctional officers and other staff on Sept. 26, 2006, claiming guards and inmates assaulted her.
Guynup, then 40, of Lititz, went to prison in December 2005. Lititz Borough Police charged her with defiant trespass, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct after officers investigated an incident at the Gatehouse for Men, a drug and alcohol recovery center in Lititz.
Guynup claims that a correctional officer allowed an inmate to enter her cell and then closed the door after ordering the inmate to punch Guynup.
Several officers also physically assaulted Guynup, according to the complaint of her lawsuit.
Guynup complains that officers called her names, stepped on her toes, bruised her arm and in various other ways harassed her.
"(Guynup) was subjected to additional punishments of lockdowns several days a week; being placed in separation cell with solid door & no ventilation,’' and other punishments, the suit says.
Guynup’s complaint also says she lost 25 pounds due to an inadequate diet.
In answer, the county denies every allegation in Guynup’s suit, without commenting on any details.
Conshohocken attorney Christine E. Munion represents the defendants. Guynup is represented by Stephen S. Pennington, of Philadelphia.
A trial has been set for Dec. 2.
Guynup also sued the prison in the county’s Court of Common Pleas on a procedural issue in January 2007. The court ruled against Guynup in that case in August 2007.
James Hodapp Jr. used a sheet to hang himself from the bars of his cell in Lancaster County Prison on Dec. 14, 2003.
His widow, Amy DeMascolo, filed a federal suit against Lancaster County, Warden Guarini, Dr. Robert Doe and 10 correctional officers and medical staff members on July 26, 2004.
She asks for more than $150,000 in compensation on each of nine counts.
Kevin Allen represents DeMascolo. The lawsuit has been suspended three times while a principal defendant serves in Iraq.
Hodapp, a 31-year-old former cook, had been jailed for violating parole. He had been charged four months earlier with defiant trespass, theft and public drunkenness.
DeMascolo argues in her complaint that prison staff denied Hodapp the prescribed medication he used to control clinical depression from the time he entered the prison on Dec. 4, 2003.
On Dec. 10, correctional officer John Faulkner and other unknown officers assaulted Hodapp “and subjected him to excessive use of force causing him to sustain serious personal injuries,’' according to the complaint.
The defendants ignored Hodapp’s repeated threats to commit suicide, the complaint says.
Beyond Hodapp’s individual case, the lawsuit claims the prison staff had “permitted, encouraged, tolerated and ratified a pattern and practice of unjustified, unreasonable and illegal use of force as well as a pattern and practice of unjustified, unreasonable deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of inmates.’'
The defendants’ reply to these charges denies that Hodapp did not receive medication, that he was assaulted and that he repeatedly threatened to commit suicide.
Several nurses have been dismissed from the suit.
Philadelphia attorney David P. Karamessinis represents the defendants.
Joseph Keohane hanged himself with a sheet from the vent grate of his cell in Lancaster County Prison on Nov. 23, 2006.
His parents, Pequea residents Lawrence and Patricia Keohane, sued Lancaster County, Warden Vincent Guarini, Dr. Robert Doe and other medical personnel and prison staff on Aug. 3, 2007.
The Keohanes, represented by Lancaster attorney Kevin Allen, claim the defendants failed to prevent their 22-year-old son from killing himself.
The federal suit asks for more than $150,000 in compensation on each of eight counts.
State Police arrested Keohane on Nov. 20, 2006, and charged him with stealing a large amount of cash from a safe in his parents’ home.
Keohane was evaluated at Lancaster General Hospital prior to his incarceration on Nov. 21 because of his threats to commit suicide, according to the lawsuit’s complaint.
He remained in the prison’s medical housing unit for the first two days of his imprisonment. Then he was released to the general population and, within hours, committed suicide, according to the complaint.
Keohane “consistently threatened to commit suicide,’' but the prison’s personnel failed to provide “appropriate monitoring for a suicide watch,’' the suit claims.
Furthermore, the prison “provided an inadequate number of guards, doctors, nurses and counselors in relation to the number of prisoners,’' the complain contends.
The complaint claims the defendants “established a system which fails to identify, track or report instances of improper denial of medical or psychiatric care.’'
And it charges “both inaction and cover-up’’ in previous prison incidents.
In their reply, the defendants deny all accusations, claim Keohane had been determined “not to be suicidal’’ by medical staff at Lancaster General Hospital before he was admitted to prison and blame Keohane for his own death.
Philadelphia attorney David J. MacMain represents the defendants.
The case is scheduled to be tried April 20, 2009.
On Oct. 22, 2007, Sajan Kurian filed a class-action lawsuit against Lancaster County and the county’s Prison Board. He claimed the prison conducts illegal strip searches.
Michael Rhodes joined Kurian in filing an amended complaint in May. The federal suit asks for an unstated amount in punitive damages.
Attorneys with the Philadelphia law firm of Chimicles & Tikellis represent the plaintiffs.
Kurian, 42 at the time the suit was filed, was imprisoned on April 11, 2006, for violating parole on a DUI charge by once again driving under the influence.
At the time of his arrest, he lived in Philadelphia. The lawsuit lists his address as Forney, Texas.
Rhodes, 44 at the time the suit was filed, entered the prison twice, first in 2005 on a bench warrant because he missed a domestic relations hearing and again in 2006 on another bench warrant issued for the same reason, according to the suit.
The prison strip searches all entering prisoners, “regardless of the nature of their charged crime or violation and without the presence of reasonable suspicion to believe that the individual was concealing a weapon or contraband,’' according to the lawsuit’s complaint.
Kurian claims he was imprisoned on a “technical violation’’ of parole and was “patted down’’ by correctional officers and walked through a metal detector before he was strip searched.
The lawsuit says other inmates, who also were strip searched, were present when a correctional officer used a flashlight to inspect Kurian’s anal cavity.
Rhodes claims he and other detainees were ordered to strip and inspected with a flashlight.
Guards told the group “that if they did not comply they would be ‘thumped’ (i.e., physically hit),’' according to the suit.
The lawsuit says the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prohibits such searches of “individuals detained for misdemeanors, summary offenses, violations of probation and parole, traffic infractions, civil commitments, or other similar charges and/or crimes....’'
In their reply to the suit, the county and Prison Board deny that Kurian and Rhodes were strip searched.
They deny that the prison has a policy of strip searching all prisoners.
And they deny that the Constitution prohibits strip searches of individuals imprisoned for misdemeanors and other relatively minor offenses.
MacMain represents the defendants.
The law on strip searches is not settled in Pennsylvania. A Philadelphia Inquirer investigation last December found “wild disparities’’ in the way prisoners are strip-searched in the state.
Melody M. Martinez, of Lebanon, independently sued the county and the county Prison Board for strip searching her.
Martinez, then 25, also sued Lebanon County, Lebanon City and a dozen individuals in Lancaster and Lebanon counties on August 6, 2007.
Represented by Lancaster attorney Sharon Lopez, Martinez asks for an unstated amount in compensatory and punitive damages.
Martinez had been arrested on a misdemeanor charge of making an unsworn falsification to Lebanon County authorities in January 2005. She was placed on probation.
In the complaint of her federal suit Martinez says Lebanon City police improperly arrested her for violating that probation in August 2005. She spent a night in Lebanon County Prison before being transferred to Lancaster County Prison, where she was strip searched.
Four days later, she was released from prison
Shortly thereafter, Jamie Dishong, a Lebanon County probation officer, told Martinez she had been arrested by mistake, according to the complaint. The complaint includes a copy of a letter from Dishong verifying that Martinez was arrested in error.
Martinez charges that she lost her job and that an existing mental health condition deteriorated because of her incarceration.
Among multiple concerns in her complaint, Martinez says she suffered emotional distress because she was imprisoned and strip searched in Lancaster County.
In their reply, defense attorneys for Lancaster County, the county Prison Board, Warden Guarini and other county officials, deny many of the lawsuit’s allegations.
However, with regard to the strip search, the reply states, “because she had been sentenced for a crime and was a probation violator, upon admission to Lancaster County Prison (Martinez) was likely strip searched by a female correctional officer.’'
MacMain represents the defendants.
The trial has been set for next summer.
***
The other two suits against the prison involve injuries sustained while in prison.
Talmadge Johnson, of Sicklerville, N.J., claimed he fell on a wet floor in the prison kitchen and injured himself.
He is the only one of the eight plaintiffs who filed his suit in the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas. He sued the prison and Guarini on July 20, 2007.
In August of this year, Aramark Correctional Services, provider of food services in the prison, was added as a defendant.
Lancaster attorney Nina B. Shapiro represents Johnson, who had been jailed the previous month for selling cocaine to an undercover officer.
Johnson, then 45, was working in the prison kitchen as part of the trusty program on July 23, 2005, when he slipped and fell on a wet floor, according to the lawsuit’s complaint.
Johnson fell backwards and struck the back of his head on the floor, injuring his head, neck, back and elbow, according to the suit.
He was treated in the emergency room at Lancaster General Hospital.
The prison provided no floor mats or barriers, the suit says, and “failed to use ordinary care in maintaining the premises to prevent an unreasonable risk of harm....’'
The reply to the suit states that the county is “without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to whether or not (Johnson) slipped, and if so, on what.’'
Otherwise, the defense reply denies all of Johnson’s claims and says any injury he sustained “resulted from his own conduct.’'
Karamessinis represents the county.
Inmate Andrey Yudenko also sued the prison following an injury he allegedly suffered when a bunk bed in his cell fell on him.
Yudenko filed the federal suit against Guarini and other prison staff on Sept. 18, 2006,
Yudenko, then 33, of Ephrata, had been jailed that spring on charges of stealing a car, driving under the influence and other charges.
He wrote his complaint in long hand on a “form to be used by a prisoner filing’’ a civil rights complaint in federal court. He asked for compensation for his medical costs and pain and suffering.
He is represented by lawyers with the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project.
Yudenko had an injured ankle and fell on steps in the medical housing unit, injuring his back, on May 7, 2006, according to his lawsuit.
He was moved into a regular cell and on Aug. 4, 2006, he leaned on a bunk bed for support. The structure fell off the wall, according to the complaint, and Yudenko fell with it.
“My face hit the sharp edge of (the bunk bed) and I injured my head against the wall,’' Yudenko says in his complaint. “After I fell, I could not move my legs and there was severe pain in my lower back.’'
Yudenko complains that the bunk was not mounted properly on the wall. He also says that he did not receive physical therapy and “all my pain meds were stopped.’'
In answer to these charges, the defendants deny that Yudenko fell twice and deny that they are liable for any damages.
In August 2008, the court found in favor of Dr. Robert Doe, prison physician at the time of the mishap, and against Yudenko. The rest of the case is proceeding.
Munion represents the defendants.
Copyright 2008 Lancaster New Era