The inmate who was left with brain damage and permanent injuries after an assault in the county detention center is suing former Sheriff Jody Greene and the county.
Joshua Cornelius Johnson, 34, listed a Chadbourn address when he was arrested for assault on a female and failure to appear on July 29, 2022. Several days later, he was in intensive care with life threatening injuries.
Michael Lance, Darius Washington, Kwamaine Bellamy, and Timothy Cain II all faces charges of attempted murder in the assault.
Johnson is suing Jody Greene, current Sheriff Bill Roger, Detention Staff Benetta Crawford and Trina Worley, and the county’s insurance carrier for damages in excess of $25,000.
Johnson had been housed in the so-called “Gang Unit”, HA-143, at Columbus County Detention Center, according to his lawsuit. HA-143 is a two-story unit generally used for long-term housing of inmates awaiting trial, including violent offenders.
He said he repeatedly asked detention officers to move him to another cell, because he feared for his safety after recognizing one of the other inmates. He claims the unit was not supervised or monitored properly detention staff.
The lawsuit says that Johnson told Crawford of his concerns, but she “ignored” his request and “told him to ‘deal with it’.”
Johnson says in the suit that inmates began harassing and threatening him on Aug. 3, the day he was put in the long-term housing pod, but detention officers ignored the behavior.
At 2:08 p.m., surveillance video shows Johnson moving his mattress and belongings from his cell on the second floor, and placing them near the door. Johnson reportedly hoped the infraction of the rules would get him moved.
“Correction officers disregarded these very visible efforts to seek protection from the threat he now faced in HA-143,” the lawsuit said. Johnson repeatedly pressed the emergency alarm call button, the lawsuit said, but officers did not respond.
The lawsuit says Johnson continued calling for help while inmates were observed taking off their socks, “which inmates often do before they are about to fight someone on a slippery floor.”
The four suspects grabbed Johnson at 2:16 p.m., according to the video and the lawsuit, and beat him unconscious in a cell out of view of the cameras.
“His pants were pulled down in the course of the assault and he defecated,” the lawsuit stated. Johnson tried to crawl out of the cell, was pushed back inside by the assailants. He finally exited the cell at 2:28 p.m., and collapsed. The four suspects then moved him back into the cell, and took him to the shower at 2:34 p.m.
Other inmates were pressing the emergency call button during the assault, the lawsuit said, but no officers responded.
The lawsuit said that at 2:41, Johnson “walked out of the shower, clearly in medical distress,” and collapsed in the common area. Several other inmates then ran to their cells.
Johnson “managed to stand back up and briefly lean against the stairwell before falling” again, the lawsuit said.
At 2:45 p.m., Detention Officer Brandon Gore returned from lunch break and saw Johnson on the floor, and one minute later, officers entered the pod to assist him.
“Except for the activity inside the cells and behind the shower curtain,” the lawsuit said, “video of all the foregoing was broadcast live to correction officers through the jail’s surveillance system.”
The lawsuit said that the officers’ actions were “consistent with the jail’s longstanding customs and practices, and with the training provided to employees by defendants Crawford, Worley and Gore.”
Greene was sheriff at the time of the assault. District Attorney Jon David delayed filing charges against Lance, Washington, Bellamy and Cain because Johnson was expected to die while in the hospital. The four were eventually charged with attempted murder.
Just after the assault, David filed a petition with the courts to have Greene removed from office, pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of corruption and racism. David later amended the petition to include Johnson’s assault as part of the charges of willfully neglect to discharge duties. Greene stepped down from the office in October, and was replaced by Interim Sheriff Bill Rogers. Green was reelected in November 2022, then resigned a second time Jan. 4, and was permanently replaced by Bill Rogers.
Darius Rashad Washington is awaiting trial for killing a father, mother and child in September 2019.
Washington has been in custody since he was arrested for the first degree murders of Alexis Ciprian Trujillo, age 5; the child’s mother, Nancy Trujillo Espinoza; and Leonel Ciprian Noyola; and the attempted first degree murder of Rafaela Noyola Jaramillo.
The family was gunned down in their home Sept. 7, 2019. Washington was found in the family’s Ford Fusion near an alleged drug house on Twin Pines Road. He was originally arrested on drug and firearms charges the day after the murders.
Bellamy was arrested in 2020 for robbery, then fought with Whiteville Police while he was being processed. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault on an officer, property damage, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Cain was arrested in February 2021 for the death of Jacqueline Elaine Landreth. The Clarkton woman’s body was found near Chadbourn weeks after she was reported missing from her home near Clarkton.
Lance faces multiple drug trafficking charges as well as assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and possession of a firearm by a felon from April 2022.
