Lawsuit alleges Colmbiana County prisoner beaten by inmates

By D.a. Wilkinson

LISBON — Prisoners at the Columbiana County Jail were able to get into the control room, open another prisoner’s cell and beat him for not smuggling in contraband, a lawsuit alleges.

The claims were made in the lawsuit filed late Tuesday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.

In the lawsuit, the prisoner, Jeffrey B. Woodburn, 39, of Wellsville, said he had to go to the Salem Community Hospital for treatment after the beating.

The lawsuit was filed against Community Education Centers Inc., New Jersey — the parent company of Civigenics Texas Inc. of Columbus — the county commissioners and three jail inmates: Aaron Holt, 37, of East Liverpool; David Crow, 28, of Wellsville; and Derrick Howard, 24, of Youngstown.

The CEC recently absorbed Civigenics. Both are private firms that run corrections operations. The county owns the jail but leases it to Civigenics.

In the lawsuit, Woodburn said that he was in the county jail in July 2008 when he was threatened by other inmates after he refused to smuggle in tobacco and drugs. Woodburn was on a work-release program.

In the evening of July 23, three defendants in the lawsuit who were prisoners were able to get into the jail’s control center and unlock Woodburn’s cell, the suit says, and the three men and possibly a fourth, unidentified person, entered Woodburn’s cell and beat him “so severely that he had to be admitted to the hospital.”

Woodburn’s suit seeks punitive damages of more than $25,000 and compensatory damages exceeding $25,000.

Woodburn was in jail on a misdemeanor count of domestic violence.

Holt was in jail on a felony charge of possession of drugs.

Crow was in jail on a felony charge of trafficking in cocaine.

Howard was jailed in a misdemeanor assault case.

Court records show that Woodburn was released from the jail to seek treatment at the hospital.

Peter Argeropulos, chief operating officer of CiviGenics Inc., said he was unaware of the lawsuit.

He said that if he is served, the case will be turned over to the company’s insurance company.

The commissioners announced new security measures at the jail last year after four men escaped by making dummy bodies, climbing through ducts and jumping off the front of the jail. They were quickly caught.

wilkinson@vindy.com