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YOUNGSTOWN -- A federal judge has dismissed part of a wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from a fatal drug overdose at a private Youngstown prison.
In an Aug. 20 ruling, U.S. District Judge Benita Y. Pearson dismissed a federal claim alleging that CoreCivic and former Northeast Ohio Correctional Center Warden Douglas Fender failed to protect inmate Montel Williams from the overdose.
Pearson returned the remaining wrongful-death claim to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, where the lawsuit was originally filed.
Williams died at NEOCC on Oct. 31, 2023, after ingesting fentanyl or another dangerous drug. His mother, Bonnie Billings, sued CoreCivic, Fender and several unidentified employees in April 2025.
The defendants moved the case to federal court because Billings alleged that they violated Williams' Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Pearson found that Billings' amended complaint did not contain enough specific facts to support that allegation.
To sustain the federal failure-to-protect claim, Billings had to show that Williams faced an excessive risk of harm and that the defendants knew inmates had essentially unrestricted access to dangerous drugs but failed to respond reasonably.
Pearson wrote that a prison-overdose claim requires more than showing that an inmate was exposed to drugs.
Billings instead had to allege facts indicating that drugs were widespread at NEOCC, that other inmates had recently overdosed and that prison officials knew about but failed to investigate those overdoses.
Pearson relied on recent Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decisions distinguishing exceptional prison-overdose cases from those establishing only that drugs entered a correctional facility.
One case allowed to proceed involved detailed allegations that drugs were widespread, that two other inmates in the victim's small housing unit had overdosed during the previous two days and that officials failed to investigate those overdoses.
Pearson found that Billings' complaint contained no comparable allegations specific to NEOCC.
The complaint did not describe how widespread drugs were at the prison, identify any recent overdoses or allege that officials knew about previous overdoses but failed to investigate them.
It also did not explain how fentanyl entered the prison, who brought it inside or what CoreCivic or Fender could have done to prevent Williams' exposure and death. Nor did it provide information about NEOCC's staffing levels or its procedures for searching people and screening for contraband.
Pearson wrote that the presence of fentanyl inside a prison, by itself, does not establish an Eighth Amendment violation.
The complaint alleged that Williams "intentionally or accidentally ingested fentanyl, or some other dangerous drug." Pearson wrote that voluntarily taking the drug would not automatically defeat the claim, but Billings still had to connect the defendants' conduct to Williams' exposure and death.
Pearson also rejected Billings' argument involving NEOCC's reported "Wall of Shame," a display featuring former employees caught and fired for smuggling contraband.
Billings argued that the display showed staff members were involved in bringing drugs into the prison. Pearson found it could just as easily demonstrate that NEOCC identified and disciplined employees who attempted to smuggle contraband.
Even if prison officials knew smuggling occurred, Pearson wrote, that did not establish that inmates had unrestricted access to lethal drugs.
The complaint also cited Tennessee audits that reportedly linked staffing shortages at other CoreCivic prisons to inmate-safety concerns. Billings alleged that CoreCivic operated NEOCC under similar conditions.
Pearson found that the audits did not establish conditions at the Youngstown prison. The complaint provided no NEOCC staffing figures or information about its search and screening practices, she wrote.
Pearson characterized the federal claim as a "run-of-the-mill drug-overdose" case rather than one involving the exceptional circumstances needed to support an Eighth Amendment claim.
She dismissed that claim with prejudice, preventing Billings from amending or refiling it in the federal case.
WRONGFUL-DEATH CLAIM
Pearson did not decide whether CoreCivic or Fender was liable for Williams' death.
Instead, she returned that portion of the lawsuit to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court because wrongful death is a matter of Ohio law.
To prevail on that claim, Billings must establish that the defendants owed Williams a duty, breached that duty and caused his death.
The federal court had authority to consider the wrongful-death claim only because it accompanied the federal constitutional claim. Once Pearson dismissed the constitutional claim, federal case law favored allowing an Ohio court to decide the issue.
Pearson also found that the lawsuit raises an apparently unsettled question under Ohio law: whether a private prison operator has a duty to protect inmates from consuming illegal drugs.
She concluded that an Ohio court is the more appropriate place to answer that question.
The wrongful-death claim seeks compensation for Williams' pain and suffering, medical and burial expenses, lost potential earnings and his family's loss of companionship. Billings also seeks punitive damages based on alleged gross negligence.
Williams pleaded guilty to felonious assault in Stark County Common Pleas Court in 2022 and was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison. He was initially incarcerated at Lorain Correctional Institution before being transferred to NEOCC.
CoreCivic operates NEOCC under an agreement with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. It also has contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold federal inmates and detainees at its 2,000-bed facility on Hubbard Road on the East Side.