Former inmate claims mistreatment in Westmoreland jail

A former Westmoreland County Prison inmate claims his mistreatment while he was at the jail led to health issues that have left him confined to a nursing home, according to lawsuit filed this week.

James Robert Frantz, formerly of Hempfield, contends he sustained injuries in a fight with another inmate on Jan. 3, 2022, and was left unmonitored in a solitary confinement cell for at least 12 hours, causing a delay in needed medical attention.

Court records indicate Frantz was originally arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and a summary count of dispersing rubbish into a stream. While in jail he was charged with the aggravated assault of another inmate.

According to the federal lawsuit, which named the Westmoreland County, Warden Bryan Kline and 10 unnamed guards as defendants, Frantz claimed internal jail policy violated his constitutional rights and served as cruel and unusual punishment when he was placed in solitary confinement and not given access to immediate medical attention.

“Those policies and procedures include the creation and promotion of an atmosphere where corrections officers ignore the reasonable complaints of inmates for adequate medical care and treatment,” the lawsuit states.

Frantz was eventually transferred to Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital on Jan. 20, 2022, where he was diagnosed with incoherent speech, altered mental status, hypothermia and later with septic shock, covid-19, a urinary tract infection and large bedsores, according to the lawsuit.

Frantz was released from custody on March 3, first to a rehabilitation facility and later to a nursing home in Latrobe where he remains bedridden and without the use of his lower body and legs, according to the lawsuit.

Westmoreland County solicitor Melissa Guiddy declined to comment on the lawsuit’s allegations.

Frantz is seeking damages in excess of $150,000 and additional punitive damages.