PITTSBURGH – An inmate worker at Fayette County Prison who was injured during a scheduled assignment says prison officials hid the extent of his injuries and subjected him to inhumane living conditions during his time of incarceration.
Joseph Evans filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on May 4 versus Fayette County, Fayette County Prison Board, Wardens Jeffrey N. Myers and John Lenkey, plus Corrections Officers Bruce McCombie and Henry Cumberland, all of Uniontown.
“Plaintiff was an inmate in the Fayette County Prison during multiple months from prior to May 4, 2020 through September of 2020, the exact dates of which are unknown at this time. During plaintiff’s incarceration at the Fayette County Prison, he served as an inmate worker. On May 5, 2020, plaintiff was working on a maintenance project with defendants McCombie and Cumberland,” the suit says.
“While working with defendants McCombie and Cumberland, defendant McCombie attempted to drive a county vehicle up a road between the annex and the main building of the Fayette County Prison despite the fact that the road had been posted as ‘closed.’ When defendant McCombie tried to bypass the road closed sign, he damaged the vehicle by colliding with broken railing. When the plaintiff attempted to remove the broken railing, as he was instructed by defendant McCombie to do, he fell from a retaining wall approximately eight to 10 feet to the ground below, causing injuries including but not limited to lacerations to his nose and eye, damage to his teeth and further injury to plaintiff’s head.”
The suit adds that rather than taking Evans to the medical unit to be examined, defendants McCombie and Cumberland took him to the maintenance area of the prison, where he attempted to clean his wounds.
The suit says that defendants McCombie and Cumberland by their actions and words discouraged the plaintiff from seeking treatment in the medical unit, and that Evans did not demand to be seen at the medical unit at that time or further report how his injuries were sustained because to do so would “put his inmate worker status at risk.”
Furthermore, the plaintiff claims that McCombie later made false statements about the incident to prison officials to hide the injuries that the plaintiff sustained and that the defendants did nothing to remedy inhumane conditions at the prison.
“As a result of defendant Fayette County, Fayette County Prison Board, defendant Myers and defendant Lenkey’s failures to remedy inadequate conditions, the plaintiff was forced to live in deplorable conditions, where he was exposed to pervasive mold and mildew and infestations of rats, cockroaches and insects. He was refused access to basic necessities, like adequate drinking water, fresh and uncontaminated food, properly functioning heat and ventilation, properly functioning toilets, sinks and showers,” the suit says.
“The conditions also included severe overcrowding; inadequate clothing, linens and/or blankets; insufficient yard and recreation; inadequate basic hygiene necessities, including, but not limited to, adequate toilet paper and clean underwear. The prison conditions were inhumane and deprived the plaintiff of his basic human needs.”
Despite having actual knowledge of these conditions and the serious risks they pose, defendant Fayette County, defendant Fayette County Prison Board, defendant Myers and defendant Lenkey were “deliberately indifferent to the inhumane conditions to which the plaintiff was exposed.”
For counts of Eighth Amendment violations through conditions of confinement and cruel and unusual punishment plus municipal liability, the plaintiff is seeking, jointly and severally, a judgment against Fayette County and Fayette County Prison Board, compensatory, economic and non-economic damages, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, such further legal, equitable and other relief as this Court deems just and proper and a jury trial to each Defendant and as to each count.
The plaintiff is represented by Charity Grimm Krupa, in Smithfield.
The defendants are represented by Maria N. Pipak, Marie Milie Jones and Michael R. Lettrich of Jones Passodelis, in Pittsburgh.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case 2:22-cv-00679
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com