Inmates at Luzerne County prison charged with rioting

Multiple inmates at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility have been charged with initiating a riot to protest being housed in a unit experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19.

The hour-long uprising took place early the morning of Dec. 5, when inmates began fighting, throwing boiling water and overturning furniture and exercise equipment as a phalanx of correctional officers sprayed them with pepper spray in an attempt to quell the unrest.

According to a complaint filed by Luzerne County detectives, the riot took place in the Minimal Offenders Unit and began after several inmates on the upper tier tested positive for COVID. Inmates on the lower tier, including 28-year-old Pittston resident Anthony Joseph Nieves, objected to being housed in the same unit as the infected prisoners, police said.

Nieves was denied access to a Tylenol pill for “personal reasons relating to COVID-19 and initiated the protest around 5:50 a.m. by placing a plastic chair in the center of the day room, according to the complaint.

Nieves was soon joined at the center of the room by his brother, Wilfredo D. Nieves, 31, of Schenectady, New York, and two other inmates: Jose Calva, 20, and Austin Kochanski, 24, both of Wilkes-Barre, police said.

As the inmates sat in the center of the room, Wilfredo Nieves arose, stood on the chair and “began displaying what appeared to be street gang hand signs in a disrespectful act toward facility staff,” the complaint alleges.

At that point, another inmate, 25-year-old Wilkes-Barre resident Elio Osorio-Soto, brought a stack of plastic chairs to the center of the room and joined the protest, police allege.

Inmates on the upper tier — including Anthony Fazio, 44, of Hazleton, and Gerald Hotchkiss, 41, of Wilkes-Barre — “began to take note” of the developing protest below and started coming downstairs, at which point one prisoner implored the group to begin riot, police said.

“Now is the time to riot,” the complaint quotes an inmate as calling out.

“They are trying to kill us in here with COVID in here.”

Fazio then began inviting other prisoners to “join him in the bathroom to fight,” the complaint alleges.

Meanwhile, a brawl erupted between the Nieves brothers, Hotchkiss and Osorio-Soto, prompting three correctional officers to blast them with pepper spray in an effort to break it up, police said.

Despite being sprayed, Hotchkiss and Wilfredo Nieves remained entangled until Anthony Nieves bashed Hotchkiss on the back with a chair, according to the complaint.

As correctional officers called for backup, the inmates spent the next hour trashing the facility, throwing tables and chairs and overturning exercise equipment, police allege.

Surveillance video recorded Osorio-Soto pouring water on the floor and throwing boiling water used for coffee in an effort to injure inmates housed in the top right tier of the facility, according to the charges.

At one point a correctional officer entered the block and ordered the inmates to stop. When the officer left, OsorioSoto began throwing chairs as he tried to break the glass windows, police said.

When officers finally subdued the riot, the inmates were separated and placed into the main jail complex.

Police charged Osorio-Soto, Anthony Nieves, Wilfredo Nieves and Hotchkiss with felony counts of rioting and assault by a prisoner, as well as a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.

Fazio was charged with a felony count of rioting and a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. Calva and Kochanski were each charged with a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.

District Judge David A. Barilla arraigned all except Anthony Nieves and Hotchkiss on Friday morning and released them on unsecured bail.

Anthony Nieves and Hotchkiss had not yet been arraigned on the charges.