CLEARFIELD – A state prison inmate accused of assaulting a corrections officer was given additional prison time Tuesday during sentencing court.
Curtis Anthony Young, 24, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to aggravated assault before Judge Fredric J. Ammerman, who sentenced him to 24 months to 48 months in prison. The new sentence will run consecutive to his original sentence.
When asked if he had anything to say, Young apologized for his actions.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, on Jan. 16, a corrections officer responded to a call bell at Young’s cell because his cellmate needed to go to school.
After the officer opened the cell, Young, who was not allowed to be out, pushed the officer out of the way to leave the cell.
Even though Young was given multiple orders to get back in his cell, he refused and continued down the steps. When he reached the bottom, he turned, got into face of the CO and threatened him.
The CO pushed him away, but Young came at him. This is the last thing the CO remembered of the assault.
He suffered abrasions to the left side of his head and his left eye was swollen shut.
Another CO told investigators that he noticed the phone was off the hook in one of the blocks. When he walked there he saw the injured officer who said, “I think Young popped me.”
When the second officer found Young, he ordered him to stop. Young then stated “I got no problem with you. I’m done.” He went on to say the injured officer had started this and “I finished it.”
Later the victim told police that he believed Young was upset with him because he wrote him up for breaking a cell restriction the prior week, which was why Young was on cell restriction at the time of the assault.
Video footage shows the officer falling to the ground and Young getting on top of him. Young then struck the officer approximately 10 times.
An exam of Young revealed abrasions on his right hand and he later bragged to other inmates that he had knocked a guard down.