Lancaster County Prison has denied allegations in a lawsuit filed by a former inmate who claims he was beaten by prison guards as part of a "routine" beating of prisoners.
The prison's attorney, Christine Munion, claims that the prison and individual defendants, including Warden Vincent Guarini, have done nothing wrong.
Further, the prison's reply to the lawsuit claims that Charles Anton's complaint is barred by the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996.
That law requires prisoners to exhaust internal grievance procedures and allege a physical injury before they sue in court. It was designed to limit frivolous lawsuits.
Anton was arrested and imprisoned on a charge of identity theft in July 2007, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in June by Anton and his Lancaster lawyer, Leonard Brown III.
Correctional officer James Zimmerman strip-searched Anton, according to the lawsuit's complaint, and, without provocation, "grabbed Mr. Anton's head and slammed Mr. Anton against the wall face-first."
When Anton screamed for help, other guards responded and joined in the beating, according to the complaint.
Zimmerman "sadistically twisted Mr. Anton's big toe, causing it to fracture," the complaint notes.
The officers then sent Anton to the disciplinary unit. Along the way, three other guards repeatedly punched the inmate, the suit claims.
The lawsuit alleges that Guarini and Major Edward Klinovski "acquiesced" in the "well-settled practice" of abusing inmates.
Guards "routinely" beat prisoners, the suit alleges, and guards who speak up against such abuse "are even subjected to physical abuse themselves at the hands of fellow guards."
The prison's Oct. 7 reply denies every allegation of the lawsuit and says the suit itself is barred not only by the Prison Litigation Reform Act, but by the statute of limitations.
The reply concoludes that "the actions and conduct of the defendants … were objectively reasonable under the circumstances of which defendants were then and there aware, and they enjoy qualified immunity from all liability."