Clarion County has engaged the services of a Harrisburg attorney to represent the county in two lawsuits.
“When we have a lawsuit it is turned over to our insurance carrier, the County Commissioner Association of Pennsylvania, and they assign lawyers to defend us. In these two particular cases, the insurance carrier denied coverage so now we must pay,” county Commissioner Ted Tharan said at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting.
Commissioner Wayne Brosius said attorney Marie Jones is working on the cases
Commissioners declined to comment further on pending litigation, but a recently published story in The Clarion News indicates one of those cases involves the treatment of an inmate at the jail.
The Clarion News story said inmate Terrell D. Fields alleged that his Eighth, Fifth and 14th Amendment rights were violated. Fields filed the lawsuit in federal court in Pittsburgh.
In April, Fields was in the jail awaiting trial of charges of defiant trespass and public drunkenness. He was later acquitted of the charges but remains in jail in Westmoreland County, where he faces a rape charge.
While incarcerated in Clarion, Fields alleges he was served a meal with a human hair in it. He said he notified the jail staff but received no satisfaction to his complaint.
He also alleges a corrections officer denied him access to a shower on the day of jury selection for his trial. He said this violated his right to personal hygiene.
Fields also said his mail was opened by jail staff, and he alleges in his suit that jail staff retaliated against him for protesting the alleged violations.
He is seeking $25,000 in damages.