Jon Eichelman said he was beaten by prison inmates who had been goaded by their guards.

Felix Nieves said he was attacked by guards themselves.

James Wilson said he was denied medical aid.

Within the past 15 months, Lancaster County has paid to settle lawsuits brought by these former inmates of Lancaster County Prison.

Prison critics say these suits,  other suits currently making their way through the court system and other inmate complaints indicate a longstanding pattern of abuse.

The county paid Eichelman $500,000 to end his lawsuit in August 2007.

Nieves settled his suit for $7,500 in November 2007.

Wilson settled for $20,000 in June.

And these are not the only lawsuit settlements in inmates' favor in recent years.

In October 2001, the county agreed to a $250,000 settlement for the common-law wife of John Calep Sands-Reyes III and other members of his family.

Brenda Reed Sands-Reyes sued the prison, nine guards and a nurse, charging that they contributed to Sands-Reyes' death by using excessive force.

Sands-Reyes had been arrested in February 1999 on charges of heroin possession with intent to distribute. He spent time in Norristown State Hospital and Lancaster General Hospital's mental health unit before being transferred to Lancaster County Prison.

He died on June 30, 1999, when a straitjacket and other restraints that prison guards used to control him cut off his breathing.

Coroner Dr.  Barry Walp said Sands-Reyes died accidentally of "positional asphyxiation."

John Espenshade, county solicitor at the time, said the county admitted no wrongdoing on the part of the prison staff and the $250,000 payment was "a settlement to dispose of the matter."

But a county task force formed in response to Sands-Reyes' death made 17 recommendations concerning how the prison should deal with mentally ill inmates in  the future.

All of the settled suits were filed in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. A story in Monday's New Era outlined Eichelman's suit. Here are details of the Nieves and Wilson suits.


Beaten by two guards


Felix Nieves claimed he was attacked and beaten by two correctional officers in 2002.

Nieves, of South Queen Street, filed suit against the county, Warden Vincent Guarini and correctional officers John Nygard and Sean Hetrick on Sept. 21, 2004.

Nieves had been incarcerated on a felony count of intent to sell marijuana and related charges.

Nygard and Hetrick escorted Nieves, then 28, to his cell in Lancaster County Prison on Sept. 23, 2002, according to the lawsuit's complaint.

The correctional officers threatened the inmate, says the complaint.

Then, without provocation, according to the complaint, the officers "willfully, maliciously, and intentionally attacked (Nieves), pushing his face and head into the wall, throwing him to the floor and striking him with their fists and feet causing (Nieves) to suffer contusions and lacerations."

The officers then handcuffed Nieves and continued to beat him, causing further injuries, including to his back and neck, according to the complaint.

"The punishment administered was grossly disproportionate to whatever (Nieves') acts may have been," the complaint states.

In addition, the suit claims all correctional officers receive "grossly inadequate training pertaining to the law of permissible use of force" and the prison system designs investigative reports "to vindicate the use of force."

The suit asked for a sum in excess of $150,000, plus punitive damages, on one count.

In their reply to the complaint, the defendants flatly denied all of Nieves' accusations, admitting only that Nieves was an inmate at the prison and Nygard and Hetrick escorted him to his cell on Sept. 23, 2002.

Guarini says now that the prison conducted its own investigation because Nygard and Hetrick were relatively new correctional officers.

"We wanted to make sure they were not heavy-handed. They were clean," he says. "Basically, (Nieves) had a disciplinary write-up and the two officers escorted him and they all went down in a hump. They did not use unnecessary force."

The two parties settled and the court dismissed the case Nov. 20, 2007. Lancaster attorney Kevin Allen represented Nieves. Conshohocken attorney Christine Munion represented the county.

"Clearly, a $7,500 settlement is to some extent a nuisance settlement," comments Lancaster County solicitor Donald LeFever. "It was wiser to settle than to throw good money after bad."

But Allen disagrees.

"I didn't file the case to be a nuisance suit," he says. "We thought the case had merit."

Nieves left the county prison for the State Correctional Institute at Dallas. He is no longer a prisoner there.


Necessary medical aid withheld


On April 13, 2007, James Wilson filed suit against Lancaster County Prison and employees, claiming he was denied adequate medical treatment when he suffered a case of appendicitis.

Wilson was imprisoned in early April 2005 on a charge of possessing a small amount of marijuana for personal use. He was 31 and lived on Lancaster Avenue at the time of his arrest.

According to his lawsuit's complaint, Wilson began feeling a stabbing pain in his stomach on his second day in jail.

He requested medical aid and nurse Stephanie Brodt saw him the next day, according to the complaint. "There is nothing wrong," Brodt told Wilson, according to the complaint.

After Wilson again requested medical aid and "cried himself to sleep," the complaint says, Brodt gave him Mylanta. But the pain persisted.

Guards took Wilson to Brodt's office, but when Brodt saw the inmate she screamed that he was not supposed to be there because he needed no medication, according to the complaint.

Wilson returned to his cell and his pain got worse. When he complained to guards, they told him they could do nothing if the nurse said there was nothing wrong, the complaint states.

The next day Wilson began throwing up blood, according to the complaint. Brodt came to Wilson's cell and gave him two injections of medication.

The next day various inmates told correctional officers that Wilson had to go to the hospital, according to the complaint.

Two guards took Wilson to the infirmary where another nurse saw him and agreed he should go to the hospital, the complaint says.

Wilson was taken to Lancaster General Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for a perforated appendix with multiple abscesses, according to the complaint.

As a result of medical mistreatment at the prison, according to the complaint, Wilson "received a severe shock to his nervous system and other serious and permanent injuries to his body and nerves, all to his expense and detriment."

The lawsuit named as defendants Warden Guarini, correctional officers Plummer, Rockland, Rockefeller and Steberger, and nurse Brodt. (The officers' first names were not listed in the suit.)

The suit charged that the defendants showed a "reckless indifference" to Wilson's rights and life and demanded an amount not in excess of $150,000 in compensatory and punitive damages on one count.

In their reply to the lawsuit, the county, Guarini and the correctional officers denied all of these accusations, as did Brodt, who admitted only that she examined Wilson and gave him Mylanta and two injections of medicine.

Lancaster attorney Jeffrey Paul represented Wilson. Christine Munion represented most of the defendants. Philadelphia attorney Louis Issacsohn represented Brodt.

The parties settled and the court dismissed the case June 4.

ABOUT THIS 4-DAY SERIES

Monday: A life in ruins.  Warden decries inmate lawsuits.
TUESDAY: Prison overcrowding.  Settled lawsuits. Who pays settlements?  Health in private hands.
Wednesday: The contested lawsuits.
Thursday: Guards have their say.


Staff writer Jack Brubaker can be reached at jbrubaker@LNPnews.com or 291-8781.