By Brian Bowling
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH — A group of guards at the Woods Run state prison systematically intimidated, abused and raped inmates, one of the inmates claims in a federal lawsuit filed on Thursday.
The unidentified inmate says suspended guard Harry Nicoletti of Coraopolis was the ringleader of a group that targeted inmates who are homosexual or transgender, or those convicted of sex offenses.
The lawsuit also alleges that he abused other inmates to intimidate them into staying quiet.
Nicoletti, 59, said the lawsuit is baseless and typical of the frivolous charges inmates file against guards when they don’t get their way.
“It’s totally false and totally ridiculous,” he said.
Nicoletti has been suspended since January, and seven other guards have been suspended since April while the Department of Corrections conducts an internal investigation.
Corrections officials have refused to discuss the investigation or even confirm that it involves allegations of guards sexually assaulting inmates. The inmate is suing Nicoletti, former Superintendent Melvin Lockett, six other prison officials, the prison and the agency.
Corrections spokeswoman Susan Bensinger declined comment on the lawsuit. Lockett could not be reached.
Steven Barth, one of the attorneys representing the inmate, declined comment.
According to the lawsuit:
The inmate was in the prison from March 2009 through July 2010 on a parole violation. During that period he saw guards physically and sexually abuse other inmates and was abused himself.
If any inmates refused orders to submit, the guards would cite them for misconduct and, in some cases, physically attack them. The inmate filed a grievance, but the guards threatened more severe assaults, so he dropped the complaint.
The lawsuit refers to another inmate’s federal lawsuit, in which a transgender inmate claims Nicoletti sexually assaulted him over a nine-day period in April 2010.
David Mandella of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association said investigators have yet to talk to Nicoletti and half of the other guards who have been suspended without pay and benefits for months.
“As far as I’m concerned, they’re innocent until proven guilty, but it seems they’re guilty until proven innocent,” Mandella said.
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