A civil rights lawsuit brought by a former prisoner who was badly beaten by his cellmate while in the Bedford County Correctional Facility has been settled out of court.

Attorneys for inmate Jeffrey Scott Miller and Bedford County officials earlier this week notified the federal court in Johnstown that the lawsuit, filed in 2018, was resolved.

Altoona attorney Christopher R. Jancula, representing Miller, and attorney Mary Lou Maierhofer, who represented Bedford County; the former warden of the correctional facility, Troy Nelson; and former Corrections Officer Wayne Habinyak, entered a stipulation of dismissal of the case.

That stipulation was “with prejudice,” which means that Miller can no longer pursue legal action involving the incident.

The stipulation however did not indicate details of the settlement and Jancula stated he could not comment further on the settlement.

Maierhofer could not be reached for comment.

Miller and cellmate James Howard Dively, 38, were both pretrial inmates on Jan. 15, 2016, when, it was charged, Dively attacked Miller, striking him in the head and face and allegedly stabbing him with a pen or a sharpened toothbrush through his left eye causing an orbital fracture.

After being found by officers on the floor of his cell, Miller was transported by air to Pittsburgh for medical treatment.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Miller stated he “incurred vast medical expenses as a result of injuries suffered during the attack.”

The injuries included traumatic brain injury, facial fractures, a rib fracture, loss of memory and emotional distress, among many other injuries, the lawsuit contended.

The lawsuit also noted that Dively, who himself suffered from mental health issues, was awaiting transfer to the Torrance State Hospital for treatment.

That order had been issued weeks before by Bedford County Judge Travis Livengood.

Also, the lawsuit complained that Miller was injured and on the floor of his cell for 35 minutes before being found.

The legal action brought by Jancula on behalf of Miller moved slowly through the U.S. District Court in Johnstown.

U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson referred the case to Magistrate Judge Keith A. Pesto for review.

In 2018, Bedford County and its corrections personnel asked that the civil charges be dismissed.

Pesto eventually recommended that Miller’s negligence claim and request for punitive damages be dismissed but that Miller’s civil rights action be permitted to move ahead.

Those recommendations were granted by the district judge.

In 2020, the defendants then requested that the civil rights action be dismissed.

Pesto recommended that the civil rights action against Bedford County be dismissed but that the two prison personnel be retained as defendants.

One of the issues that emerged was that inmates under the federal Prison Litigation Reform Act cannot bring a civil rights lawsuit concerning prison conditions until they have exhausted all administrative remedies available to them.

In Miller’s case, he never filed a grievance requesting protection from his cellmate, either by contacting a corrections officer or seeking emergency protection by contacting the warden directly.

Gibson dismissed this argument, noting that Miller, who was under attack, never had the opportunity to seek protection.

“MIller obviously could not have gone to the warden when he was facing substantial risk of personal injury because Dively was actively attacking him and because Miller could not extricate himself from the situation,” Gibson ruled.

The judge then returned the case to Pesto for trial, but in late June, the attorneys notified Pesto they were working on a resolution of the case.

The notification filed this week brought the case to an end.

State court records show that Dively was eventually sentenced to a prison term of 15 months to five years followed by 10 years’ probation on the charge of aggravated assault.

He is presently on parole.