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Bedford asks judge to toss lawsuit

County, warden charged with failing to protect inmate from injury

The legal sparring between a former Bedford County Correctional Facility inmate and Bedford County officials over conditions in the jail continued last week with the filing of a new civil complaint and the county’s response.

Jeffrey S. Miller, 54, through Altoona attorney Christopher R. Jancula, filed an amended lawsuit that adds more detail to the initial filing this year in the U.S. District Court, Johnstown.

Miller, who is serving a minimum three years in the State Correctional Institu­tion at Benner Township, Centre County, is charging Bedford County, its warden and others with negligence and a federal civil rights violation of failing to protect him from injury.

He stated in his lawsuit that prison officials placed him in a cell with another inmate who suffered from severe mental health problems and who had been ordered transferred to the Torrance State Hospital for mental health treatment.

The order had been issued by Bedford County Judge Travis Livengood several months prior to Jan. 16, 2016, when Miller’s cellmate began beating him.

The attack continued for more than half an hour before a correctional officer appeared and stopped it, the lawsuit said.

The amended lawsuit lists a plethora of injuries suffered by Miller including traumatic brain injury, bleeding within the brain, a stab wound in the area of the left eye, facial fractures, vision loss, a rib fracture and “severe emotional distress.”

The lawsuit is asking for monetary damages, including punitive damages.

Attorney Mary Lou Maierhofer of Hollidays­burg, representing Bedford County, the correctional facility, its warden, Troy Nelson, and several other jail employees, has asked that the new lawsuit be dismissed.

Maierhofer contended Miller failed to address his problems with the cellmate by filing a grievance, which, she stated, is a first step in resolving prison issues as outlined in the federal Litigation Reform Act.

“The failure to ‘exhaust’ his administrative remedies bar this litigation,” Maier­hofer stated.

The Miller lawsuit fails to show that prison officials demonstrated “deliberate indifference” to possible risk that Miller experienced when placed in the cell with an individual that allegedly had mental health problems, Maierhofer argued.

The county’s answer to the lawsuit stated that Miller “apparently” reviewed jail video of the attack and in his lawsuit, he named one correctional officer, Gary Wayne Habinyak, but has also sued “unknown agents/employees of the Bedford County facility.”

Maierhofer wrote that Miller, despite viewing a video of the incident “still has not identified individually any other employees.”

She asks that these “unknown” individuals be stricken from the lawsuit.

She is also contending that the defendants have immunity from the negligence claims because of the lack of facts in the Miller complaint.

Finally, the county’s answer asks that punitive damages be barred.

The initial review of the lawsuit has been assigned to U.S. Magistrate Keith Pesto, who will make a recommendation to U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson whether Miller has stated enough facts to allow the lawsuit to move forward.

Miller’s cellmate, James Howard Dively Jr., 34, was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and attempted criminal homicide.

His case has been continued numerous times during the past two years, the latest status conference being held on March 20.

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