Youngstown inmates charged in prison assaults, harassment

By Peter H. Milliken

The harassment charges allege inmates at the Ohio Penitentiary threw bodily fluids at guards and others.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County grand jury has indicted seven Ohio State Penitentiary inmates on felony charges that they either assaulted corrections officers or others or possessed deadly weapons under detention over the past two years.

Dajuan Burns, 23, was indicted on charges of possessing a sharp metal object, felonious assault on a corrections officer, assault on another corrections officer and six counts of harassing people with his bodily substances.

The victims of the bodily-substance harassment are listed as two corrections lieutenants, three corrections officers and a civilian.

The harassment with bodily substance charges allege Burns expelled blood, semen, urine, feces or other bodily substances on the victims.

Steven W. Culp Jr., 31, is charged with possessing a knife and using it to assault three corrections officers.

David A. McComb Jr., 24, is charged with assault on one corrections officer and intimidation of another.

Robert Wilson, 36, is charged with harassing a corrections officer with a bodily substance; and Samuel Fields, 25, is charged with harassing a civilian employee with a bodily substance.

Christopher Rowe, 36, is charged with possessing a home-made shank.

In the only case dating back to 2007, Donald McDonald, 63, is charged with harassing a corrections officer with a bodily substance on Sept. 19, 2007.

“When it comes to assaulting a law enforcement officer inside a facility, we take that very seriously,” Paul J. Gains, county prosecutor, said of assaults on jail or prison officers.

Gains added that there’s “a very strong likelihood” that assistant prosecutors on his staff will ask judges to make prison time for inmates convicted of such assaults consecutive to prison terms imposed on them for other crimes.

The cases were investigated by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which probes allegations of criminal conduct in state prisons.

Attacks in Ohio’s prisons have increased from about 500 in 2006 to more than 1,000 in 2008, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections officials.

They have attributed the increase to overcrowded conditions and disputes between rival gangs.

milliken@vindy.com