Toilet demands lead inmate to allegedly assault prison guard
Uniontown police said an inmate grabbed a Fayette County Prison guard by the neck Sunday morning while the water was shut down at the facility.
Police said the water to whole prison was shut off for repairs when a prisoner, Tevin Harris, asked Corrections Officer Ronald Wadsworth to do something about the problem.
Police said Harris, 23, of Uniontown demanded that the water be turned back on so that another man could flush the toilet within the unit where the men were staying on the second floor of the prison.
Wadsworth said the water would not be restored until repairs were made, police said.
Harris then became very hostile and began harassing Wadsworth, police alleged.
“You think you’re a tough guy,” police said Harris told the guard.
When Wadsworth turned his back on Harris to call another corrections officer, Harris grabbed Wadworth’s neck and began choking him, before letting go of Wadsworth’s neck and retreating back into his prison cell, police said.
Police said there were scratches and redness to Wadsworth’s neck.
Police said Harris was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment.
Harris was in Fayette County Prison serving a total of six to 23 months on two simple assault cases from 2014.
In January 2014, he was arrested after wielding a large kitchen knife during a disturbance in South Union Township that spilled over into Uniontown
Police came into contact with Harris after a South Union Township woman called them to say he was threatening her, and broke a window at her home.
When troopers found Harris to question him, he was wielding a knife and initially refused to drop the weapon, according to court records.
He eventually dropped the knife but then continued to resist arrest and fight with officers who found him in possession of a second large kitchen knife. He was disarmed before police took him into custody.
In October, Harris was charged with assaulting a state police trooper.
He pleaded guilty in both cases and was sentenced in May.