An upstate inmate, in a planned $25 million lawsuit, charges he was banished to solitary and jailed for an extra year after a vindictive guard planted a shank in his shoe.
Plaintiff Thomas Ozzborn, 28, of the Bronx, was released from prison just last month despite his innocence on a prison contraband charge, court papers indicated.
He was re-arrested on January 27, 2016 as he was about to walk free from the Cayuga County Correctional Facility, according to the Wednesday filing. Court papers said he took a guilty plea rather than face a possible 15-year prison term.
Eleven months later, prosecutors acknowledged Corrections Officer Matthew Cornell planted a contraband weapon on another inmate — and agreed to toss Ozzborn’s conviction.
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Ozzborn “sustained a violation of his civil rights… (and) was assaulted and battered,” said a notice of claim filed against New York State.
Attorney Scott Rynecki called for an investigation into Ozzborn’s case.
Cayuga District Attorney Jon Budelmann said a lawsuit from Ozzborn “would be based solely upon the word of a convicted felon.”
