by peter e. bortner
Awaiting trial for allegedly killing a man in June 2013 in Pottsville, Anthony Ballard sued Schuylkill County Prison and several of its officials Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Scranton for what he says are unconstitutionally poor conditions.
Ballard, 27, of Philadelphia, said in the four-page lawsuit that he continues to suffer back and neck pain from being forced to sleep on a mattress on the floor, and he said race might have motivated the prison's actions.
"I felt very degrading being I am Afro-American, and I was forced to sleep on the floor of two Caucasian inmates. I still think about being treated like a dog. It isn't right," Ballard wrote in the lawsuit that he filed against Warden Eugene Berdanier, Deputy Warden Dave Wapinsky, Capt. William Flannery and other employees.
He asked for $550,000 in damages for his pain and suffering.
Additionally, he asked the court to relieve Flannery of all duties, demote and retrain all others involved in his alleged mistreatment and force the prison to fix all windows and provide cots or other sleeping arrangements for inmates who are now on mattresses on the floor.
In the lawsuit, Ballard said when he complained about sleeping on the floor, Flannery told him it was where he belonged.
Furthermore, he alleged that in February, he caught the flu because the window in his cell would not close.
"I wrote out to maintenance and filed a grievance to no avail or answer," Ballard alleged.
He said his temperature rose to 103 degrees, resulting in a quarantine. However, medical personnel did not treat him properly, according to Ballard.
The conditions violate his constitutional rights and caused him pain, suffering and mental anguish, Ballard wrote.
U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann will preside over Ballard's federal case.
Ballard is being held in the county prison without bail while awaiting trial for allegedly killing Elijah T. Carraway, 19, of Pottsville.
Pottsville police alleged Ballard shot and killed Carraway about 8:30 p.m. June 11, 2013, near West Laurel Boulevard and Sanderson Street in the city.
Ballard is charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy, aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person, and is being held in prison without bail.
If convicted of the most serious charge, first-degree murder, Ballard faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole.
His co-defendant, Jaimee J. Watson, 20, of Pottsville, also is charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy, aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person, and also is being held in prison without bail.