Ex-TCI guard sues over firing

WARREN — A former corrections officer at the Trumbull County Correctional Institution in Warren has sued the prison, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, and her union to force the state to reconsider her firing.

Jennifer Cameron of Youngstown filed the mandamus action in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

In the suit, Cameron said she was fired from her job after informing her superiors of the improper actions of a fellow employee. “Thereafter, Jennifer had been subject to coercion and harassment for her actions,” the suit said.

The suit added that she was denied the opportunity to speak before the five-member mediation panel that heard the appeal of her firing and was denied other rights under her union contract.

The Notice of Disciplinary Action in Cameron’s personnel file says she was fired effective Sept. 25, 2005, for three separate incidents dating from July 8, 2005, through Sept. 25, 2005.

The notice says she participated in horseplay by chasing an inmate and throwing water on him, showed inattention to her duties by putting her head on her arm and closing her eyes while seated at an officer’s desk, and violated other rules by telling an inmate that another inmate had written an anonymous letter accusing him of wrongdoing.

Robbyn Ware, warden’s assistant at TCI, said she would not comment on the lawsuit because such matters are handled by the attorney general’s office.