Lawsuit: Prison ignored warnings about inmate’s beating

CLEVELAND — Ohio prison officials ignored warnings ahead of a stabbing and beating of an inmate, according to a federal lawsuit.

Darryl Smith, 72, of Cleveland suffered two attacks in Mansfield Correctional Institution, including one that happened shortly after he warned prison officials that his cellmate threatened to stab him.

Prison guards stood by and cheered on Smith’s attackers during the stabbing, the lawsuit said.

Smith’s attorney, Larry Shenise, filed the lawsuit last week in federal court in Cleveland against Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Director Annette Chambers-Smith, prison warden Timothy McConahay and others.

Prison spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said the department does not comment on pending litigation.

Darryl Smith is serving an eight-year, six-month prison sentence for attempted arson, leading police on a high-speed chase and parole violations from prior convictions.

Smith had been held in protective custody in Trumbull Correctional Institution, but Mansfield prison officials ignored the prison system’s order for protection when he was moved there in December 2021, according to the lawsuit.

Two months after he arrived, he notified prison officials that his cellmate had alcohol and a homemade knife in their cell and had threatened to stab Smith, according to court records.

Later that day, his cellmate stabbed him several times with the makeshift knife, including in the arm. Several officers cheered on the attack, calling Smith a “snitch,” the lawsuit said.

Officials initially disciplined Smith, throwing him into disciplinary isolation for 11 days before he was found not guilty of any wrongdoing. He was released back into an area of the prison for “troublemakers,” according to the lawsuit.

Another inmate attacked Smith on Sept. 1, 2023, while he was in line getting food. The other inmate punched him in the head from behind in an “unprovoked” beating, the lawsuit said.

Prison medical staff never checked him for a concussion and released him back into the general population. Smith suffered headaches for several weeks. His attacker was never disciplined, according to the lawsuit.

Prison officials never reported either attack to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which is in charge of investigating crimes in the state’s prisons, the lawsuit said.

Smith’s lawsuit also accused prison investigators of threatening him after he reported the incidents.