ALLENTOWN – An inmate at the Lehigh County Jail contends that she was severely beaten and assaulted by her cellmate, who allegedly had mental health issues, violent tendencies and had been denied her regimen of medication to control those same issues.
Kristin Pantzar of Sweet Valley filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Aug. 7 versus the County of Lehigh, Warden Kyle A. Russell, Director of Corrections Janine Donate, Unidentified Agents and Employees of the County of Lehigh, John and Jane Does 1-10 and Unidentified Employees, Agents and Correction Officers of the Lehigh County Jail, John and Jane Does 11-20.
“On May 1, 2022, a 23 year old female, ‘CP’, was arrested by the City of Bethlehem Police Department and charged with the following offenses: Felony aggravated assault on a police officer, the disarming of a police officer; terroristic threats; simple assault on a police officer, and harassment. In a sworn affidavit to the criminal complaint filed by BPD, a BPD Officer set forth the following facts that occurred on May 1, 2022: a) Two BPD officers responded to a call regarding a ‘female experiencing a mental health crisis’; Upon their arrival they spoke with two civilian victims of an assault by CP; CP gabbed one civilian witness from behind and started hitting her multiple times and ripped her clothes; CP then struck the second civilian witness on the arm; When approached by the two BPD Officers, CP stated that she ‘felt like killing people today,” the suit says.
“One officer attempted to defuse the situation, but CP responded that she was going to take his firearm and shoot him. CP then reached for the officer’s weapon; During a struggle with CP while taking her into custody, CP struck and caused abrasions to the police officer; While in custody, CP attempted to bite the police officer and kicked him in his left leg; When another officer went to assist his fellow officer, CP attempted to bite him also and kicked him in his right leg; CP spit at EMS personnel when they arrived; and the officers then observed that CP had violently damaged a group home where she resided, causing structural damage to the interior wall of the residence; tore down window blinds, damaged a television and lamp, and threw a coffee table into the wall.”
The suit adds CP was incarcerated on the foregoing charges at the Northampton County Prison (NCP), and that the institution was “fully aware of the nature of CP’s charged offenses and her mental health issues and violent propensities.”
“In addition to being the healthcare provider at the Lehigh County Jail (LCJ), PrimeCare also served as the healthcare provider for inmates at NCP and was aware of CP’s mental health issues, her violent propensities and her medication needs, and was required to document that information, as well as information concerning their administration of necessary drugs to CP, while she was in NCP custody. When inmates, such as CP, are transferred from NCP to LCJ, information concerning the inmate, including the nature of pending charges and the dangerous propensities of the inmate, the inmate’s mental health status and other pertinent information is made available to the receiving prison facility (i.e. LCJ) (as well as PrimeCare). This is also required under regulations prescribed in Pennsylvania’s Administrative Code, and well-established national correctional standards and safeguards, including those adopted by the American Correctional Association, which require this information to be determined and documented upon an inmate’s admission into any County Correctional Facility,” the suit states.
“Lehigh County and LCJ employees, and the Warden and Director of Corrections had both actual and constructive knowledge of the dangerous propensities of CP and the need to keep her segregated from other inmates such as the plaintiff. PrimeCare, Lehigh County’s in-house, subordinate, contractual healthcare provider, was also aware of the mental health issues of CP and of her continued need to be administered drugs in an uninterrupted fashion in an attempt to moderate or eliminate her violent propensities, the danger she presented to others and the consequences which this has for CP’s classification and housing. In fact, PrimeCare provided medical services to inmates at both Northampton County Prison and the Lehigh County Jail and, interchangeably employed personnel at both correctional institutions who were obligated to share that critical information with the defendants.”
Despite the fact that CP should not have been housed in the jail’s general population, about three days after her transfer to LCJ, the defendants placed CP into the same locked cell as that occupied by the unsuspecting plaintiff – and furthermore, allegedly did not warn the plaintiff of CP’s violent propensities nor provide CP with her required regimen of medication.
“The following day, on or about June 10, 2022, while the plaintiff was asleep in her bed, she was suddenly and for no reason viciously assaulted by CP, who put a blanket over the plaintiff’s head, stating that she wanted ‘to kill somebody,’ and thereafter started to smash plaintiff’s head repeatedly into the cinder block wall of their cell, while otherwise also beating her about her person and scratching, and biting her. CP also tried to pull the plaintiff off of her top bunk onto the cement floor below. The plaintiff was beaten so badly that the cell was a bloody mess and she is believed to have lost consciousness for an unknown period of time,” the suit adds.
“Despite plaintiff’s screams for help and cries of pain, there was no correctional officer in the vicinity when she was so brutally beaten by CP. When correctional officers finally arrived after an inexcusably long delay, CP then also started to assault the officers. Within the first 10 minutes after the assault on the plaintiff, the seriously battered and injured plaintiff started losing sight in her right eye.”
For counts of due process violations under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 and Monell, plus negligence and vicarious liability, the plaintiff is seeking compensatory damages and punitive damages, jointly and severally, in excess of $150,000, exclusive of interest and costs; reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, an order enjoining defendants from engaging in the future in the conduct identified in the complaint as violative of 42 U.S.C. Sections 1983, 1988, the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and cognate sections of the Pennsylvania Constitution; policies that are calculated and intended to preclude the conduct alleged to have been engaged in by the defendants named herein and providing for the independent monitoring and reporting of same and such other and further relief, as this Court may deem appropriate.
The plaintiff is represented by Robert E. Goldman of the Law Office of Robert E. Goldman, in Allentown.
The defendants have not yet secured legal counsel.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 5:23-cv-03024
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com