CLEVELAND, Ohio— A Garfield Heights man has sued the state and prison officials, accusing them of failing to protect him from a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood who threatened the Jewish man and later stabbed him with a shank in a Mansfield prison.
Alan Gillespie, 60, said in his lawsuit that officials at the Richland Correctional Institution knew of fellow inmate Jimmie Woodland’s threats and his Aryan affiliation, yet they did nothing to protect Gillespie before Woodland stabbed Gillespie’s face.
Gillespie’s attorneys, Kristopher Immel and David Randolph, filed the lawsuit late Monday in federal court in Cleveland against Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Annette Chambers-Smith, several named and unnamed prison guards and Aramark, a contractor that provides food services for the prison.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko.
The prison system’s spokeswoman, JoEllen Smith, said the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation. cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to Aramark for comment.
Woodland, 49, faces criminal charges in Richland County Common Pleas Court in connection with the attack. He pleaded not guilty to charges of felonious assault and possession of a deadly weapon in prison. He also faces sentencing enhancements for being a repeat violent offender.
The stabbing happened on July 25, 2022, according to court records.
The lawsuit says the Richland prison does not have the ability to house violent offenders like Woodland.
Officials also knew of the potential for violence, but they failed to act, the lawsuit said. They knew Gillespie was Jewish because he required kosher meals and that Woodland was part of the Aryan Brotherhood gang. Gillespie had also reported that Woodland stole items from his cell several times, according to the lawsuit.
Woodland had also threatened to stab someone the day of the attack after he was fired from working as a prison employee for Aramark, the lawsuit said. Woodland helped serve food at the prison. He threatened to stab someone unless he was rehired, the lawsuit said.
The threat was made in front of a prison guard. Woodland then “put out a hit” on Gillespie and prison officials knew he wanted to “finish off” Gillespie, the lawsuit said.
Prison policy dictates that officials should have removed Woodland from the general population after he issued threats.
Woodland fashioned a bladed weapon and stabbed Gillespie in the face and jaw, near his throat, according to the lawsuit. Prison officials treated the wound and never took him to the hospital, according to the lawsuit.
Gillespie suffered permanent scarring and emotional damage from the attack. His attorneys accused prison officials of acting with deliberate indifference and gross negligence.
Gillespie was serving a three-and-half-year prison sentence for a 2019 high-speed police chase in a stolen car that went from Streetsboro into Aurora and ended after he swerved off the road, nearly hit a pedestrian and crashed into a fire hydrant.
He was released from prison in November.
Woodland is serving a life sentence after a 2001 murder in which he and his girlfriend, Tabitha Ulsh, concocted a scheme to rob and kill someone after they read police typically wait several days to kick off investigations into missing adults.
Ulsh drugged Fred Smith, the owner of a company that made welding equipment, at a bar in Findlay. Smith was at the bar after competing in a trapshooting tournament.
Woodland beat him unconscious three times before arriving at a remote area in Wood County, near Cygnet. He beat Smith to death with a shovel and buried his body.
Woodland and Ulsh stole Smith’s SUV and credit cards and fled to Mexico. They were arrested when they tried to re-enter the United States. Both avoided the death penalty when they pleaded guilty to aggravated murder in 2002.
Woodland has since been moved to a prison in Toledo.
