Inmate files suit over jail conditions

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A Trumbull County Jail inmate has filed a federal lawsuit against Sheriff Thomas Altiere, a jail nurse and the jail physician because of conditions he says he and other inmates are subjected to at the facility.

Charles Lemmons III, 51, formerly of Karl Avenue, Warren Township, has been in the jail since late 2007 after his indictment on two counts of rape, one of attempted rape, one of kidnapping and one of felonious assault related to a reported attack on a 21-year-old woman.

Lemmons also was convicted of rape, kidnapping and abduction in 1978, making him a registered sex offender at the time of the alleged 2007 offenses and subject to a possible additional penalty for being a repeat violent offender.

In his complaint, which he filed himself with the federal court in Youngstown, Lemmons says inmates sleep on the floor, the jail’s fourth floor is always cold, and prisoners are being shot with Tasers — an electronic shock weapon — “for no reason.” He seeks $300,000 in damages.

Altiere said there are times when parts of the jail are difficult to keep warm.

The suit was assigned to Judge Peter C. Economus. No hearing date was set.