By Peter E. Bortner
Republican & Herald
POTTSVILLE, Pa. — A state prison inmate did not throw urine on a guard in July 2013, a Schuylkill County jury decided on Friday.
Richard A. Hammonds Jr., 26, is not guilty of aggravated harassment by prisoner, the jury ruled after deliberating less than 30 minutes.
Judge John E. Domalakes, who presided over the one-day trial, also found Hammonds not guilty of harassment.
State police at Frackville alleged Hammonds squirted urine from a toothpaste tube onto Corrections Officer Jarid Berger on July 3, 2013, in the Restricted Housing Unit at State Correctional Institution/Frackville. Hammonds was confined in Cell EB24 at the time.
“It was fluid that came out of the cell. It hit me right in the face,” Berger testified. “The fluids were all dripping down my face.”
Berger said Hammonds yelled “Hey, c.o.!” at him before squirting the urine.
“It was the first time I was assaulted,” Berger said under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Kimm M. Montone.
Berger said he washed his arms and his face, and then took off his shirt.
Hammonds later asked him not to press charges against him, Berger said.
When cross-examined by Michael J. Fiorillo, Pottsville, the defendant’s lawyer, Berger said he had not identified Hammonds as the thrower in his incident report.
In his testimony, Hammonds denied throwing anything at Berger.
“Did you have a tube of something that day?” Fiorillo asked Hammonds.
“No,” Hammonds answered.
“Did you yell something at officer Berger that day?”
“No.”
Hammonds is serving his sentence for a robbery that occurred almost nine years ago in western Pennsylvania.
An Allegheny County jury found Hammonds guilty on May 13, 2009, of robbery, while acquitting him of two counts of aggravated assault. Allegheny County Judge Randal B. Todd sentenced him on Aug. 13, 2009, to serve five to 10 years in a state correctional institution, plus an additional two years on probation.
Pittsburgh police had charged Hammonds with committing the robbery on Oct. 21, 2006, in that city.
He also pleaded guilty in 2009 to carrying a firearm without a license and possession of marijuana in a separate case from Allegheny County.