Allegheny County is set to pay $85,000 to a man stabbed more than three dozen times last year while incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail, according to documents obtained Thursday by TribLive.
Shawn Daniels, 43, of Cheswick last month sued the county and two corrections officers who he said let his attackers into his cell on June 5, 2024.
He sought damages in excess of $75,000 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. The case was moved to federal court a month later.
The case was settled in November, but the county initially declined to release the settlement amount, claiming the agreement had not been finalized.
Daniels’ lawyer, Anthony J. Giannetti, said he could not divulge the amount because he was bound by a confidentiality agreement.
TribLive filed a request under the state’s Right-to-Know Law to learn the amount.
Daniels, who was jailed last year while awaiting trial on DUI charges, alleged civil rights violations and a failure to protect.
Giannetti on Thursday called the agreement “a fair settlement.” He declined further comment.
Representatives for the jail and the county declined comment. Warden Trevor Wingard didn’t respond Thursday to a phone call.
The lawsuit asserted that Daniels’ assault was not an isolated incident.
“It looks like the jail has a real problem … where corrections officers are having a free-for-all, in terms of letting inmates into other people’s cells,” Giannetti told TribLive after filing the lawsuit in November.
According to the filing, another person incarcerated in the same area, Pod 3D, was attacked by three other men in a similar fashion later that month.
Daniels, a father of five, had just attended Mass at the jail when he returned to his cell. He said that was when two other inmates entered his cell and attacked him.
Police said Daniels was stabbed 37 times with an orange spork that had been fashioned into a shank using a nail. He was hospitalized for nearly a week.
Keyjuan King and Kesean Proctor, the two men accused in the attack, were charged by police with aggravated assault and related counts and are scheduled for trial in January.
Their attorneys have declined comment.
‘You gonna die’
According to the lawsuit, about 6:15 p.m. Proctor and King motioned to two corrections officers, Joseph Parker and Juan Donato, to open Daniels’ cell door.
Daniels told police he was in his cell getting ready to shower when two men he didn’t know rushed in. Police identified them as King and Proctor.
They immediately placed a towel over the cell window to block the view and attacked Daniels, according to the lawsuit.
Proctor and King bound Daniels’ hands and legs behind his back and assaulted him for 39 minutes, the lawsuit said, including stabbing him with the shank, punching and kicking him.
“ ‘You gonna die,’ ” the men told him repeatedly, police said.
According to the lawsuit, the motive for the attack was to extort money from Daniels.
Near the end of the assault, the lawsuit said, King and Proctor called Daniels’ daughter from his jail-issued tablet, demanding she send them $1,000 through Cash App, police said.
According to the criminal complaint, Proctor and King left the cell at 6:54 p.m. The lawsuit alleges Daniels remained in his cell for another 30 minutes until two other officers discovered him.
He was taken to Allegheny General Hospital.
Daniels’ lawsuit in U.S. District Court included claims for civil rights violations, including failure to protect, and failure to properly classify inmates and train officers.
It also alleged jail policy precludes corrections officers from allowing others access to someone’s cell, and that Parker and Donato should have immediately investigated when the window was covered.
Daniels pleaded guilty to DUI on Nov. 18 — it was his fifth drunken-driving arrest — and was sentenced to time served and probation. He was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation.