MAHONING COUNTY 2 former inmates sue in assault cases

One inmate says he needed 54 stitches to close up wounds after his beating.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Two former Mahoning County Jail inmates are suing the county and others over unrelated assaults they suffered while in the lockup.
Natalie Ice of Elm Street, Struthers, is seeking unspecified damages from the county and Deputy Mark Dixon in what she alleges was a sexual assault in the jail Nov. 11, 2002.
Ice's lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court, contends that Dixon promised to arrange for her release from jail if she performed oral sex on him, which she did.
Dixon has since been charged with sexual battery and is awaiting trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He is still employed by the sheriff's department but is not working or being paid while his case is pending.
Ice's lawsuit says the county was negligent in failing to protect her against Dixon.
Second lawsuit
In the other suit, filed in common pleas court, Daniel Farah is seeking $750,000 in damages from the county and from Jacob DiCarlo, another former inmate who beat up Farah while both were jail inmates.
Prosecutors said Farah, 43, required 54 stitches to close wounds he suffered on his face in the Nov. 8, 2002, assault. Farah and DiCarlo were among a group of inmates being transported through the jail when DiCarlo began punching Farah, the suit says.
A judge had previously ordered that the two be kept separate because Farah was to be a witness against DiCarlo in a criminal trial.
DiCarlo is serving 13 years in prison for robbing and slashing a Youngstown woman at an Austintown bank in 2002. He was given an additional two years for assaulting Farah.