Fired guards charged with cuffing inmate to shower

PITTSBURGH - Two Pennsylvania county jail guards have been fired and charged with handcuffing an inmate to a shower stall for more than 30 minutes as they threw boxes, toilet paper rolls and rubber gloves filled with water at him.

Criminal complaints against Michael Antonio, 40, and Stephen Richard Smith, 49, indicate eight inmates and four other jail staff saw the inmate handcuffed to the shower on Oct. 19. The jail's security cameras also captured part of the encounter.

"This type of behavior for the jail guards is not something that will be tolerated," Lawrence County District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa told the New Castle News. "We have a responsibility to treat (inmates) humanely and with dignity. Anything less says more about our inhumanity than theirs."

Lamancusa told the paper jailhouse informants first provided information. He did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press on Thursday, but told the newspaper that he abstained from the county prison board vote to fire the guards because he knows things about the case he could not share with the board.

According to the complaints, Smith handcuffed inmate Steven Tedrow to a shower rail shortly after 2 p.m. that day and pelted him with water balloons made from rubber gloves, and other items, after the guards taunted the inmate.

"Aw, you're here again ... we got something for you today," the guards told Tedrow. After both guards put on rubber gloves, Antonio approached the inmate and said, "How's it feel Tedrow?"

The inmate assumed the guard was talking about his handcuffed wrist, according to the complaint.

Tedrow, 24, of Ellwood City, was in the jail awaiting trial on charges that he raped and imprisoned a woman at a hotel for several days in March. The woman told police that Tedrow choked her and hit her with a belt, and either tied her up or wouldn't let her out of his sight, and threatened to harm her family if she didn't submit to his demands.

Tedrow has since been moved to the jail in neighboring Mercer County.

Tedrow told county detectives that Smith and Antonio often joked with him, but said the guards refused to release him from the handcuffs. At one point, Tedrow said he fell after being struck by one of the water balloons and was "kind of" scared during the incident.

Surveillance video and other evidence indicates Tedrow was cuffed in the shower for 37 minutes. Another guard arriving for his 3 p.m. shift made Smith and Antonio release Tedrow, according to the complaints.