SOMERSET, Pa. - Police charged seven current and former Somerset County Jail inmates - and say more arrests are likely - after an investigation found gangs of prisoners routinely beat, terrorized and hazed other prisoners.
"When we talked to inmates and staff, the description we kept hearing was that the inmates are running the jail," Somerset Borough police Chief Randy Cox told The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown for Saturday's editions. "The seven people who are being arrested are just the beginning. We know there are more charges out there."
Warden Tim Mapes declined comment, but county Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes said Sheriff Carl Brown and District Attorney Jerry Spangler - who are on the county's prison board - were advised of problems by Mapes and those problems were apparently referred to the police.
Charges filed Friday paint a picture of inmates being severely beaten with rubber shower shoes, and of ambushes in dark cells and other assaults.
The investigation began when inmate Darren McChesney suffered a broken nose, jaw and other facial fractures, allegedly at the hands of three of the inmates arrested Friday: Shawn Hadix, 27, of Friedens; Elvis Germone Brown, 22, and Ralph Carter Jr., 23, both of Somerset.
Police said Hadix and others beat another inmate in the lower back with shower shoes, and that Brown wielded a pipe and warned the inmate that he'd be beaten more if he didn't submit to a hazing ritual.
"It's the shoe or the pipe," Brown allegedly said.
Brown and Carter were already in another jail in neighboring Cambria County. Hadix and two other inmates charged, Randy Shipley Jr., 19, of Johnstown, and Jared Richard Levadnik, 21, of Richland Township, were taken from the Somerset jail in shackles to be arraigned, and were to be held in another jails also. The names of two other inmates charged weren't immediately released.
It wasn't immediately clear if those charged had attorneys. But Hadix told officers at his arraignment that he was innocent.
"You've got the wrong guy, I'll tell you that," Hadix said. "They're trying to make an example out of somebody - and I'm the one to make an example of."
Cox said police are still investigating reports that inmates smuggled cigarettes and other contraband into the jail. Despite the allegations of widespread disorder, Cox said he doesn't think guards or their supervisors did anything criminal.
"There are a lot of administrative issues facing the COs. But this isn't 'Shawshank Redemption,' where you have corrupt COs," said Cox, referring to the book and movie about prison life.
