The father of an inmate who was killed at the State Correctional Institution at Benner Township earlier this year says in a new lawsuit that prison staff failed to protect his son from a cellmate they knew to be an imminent threat.
Derric Harsh Jr., formerly of Millersville, was found dead in his cell on Feb. 27 and the Centre County coroner’s office ruled the death was homicide by manual strangulation. Harsh was serving an eight-to-16 year sentence for a rape conviction in Lancaster County and had been at Benner Township since Feb. 2, 2017.
Eric Mueller, who allegedly murdered the 23-year-old, was known by prison staff to be suffering ‘from major mental illnesses and presented a threat to the safety of correctional staff and other inmates at SCI Benner,’ when he was placed in a cell with Harsh in late February, according to the 10-page lawsuit filed Friday in the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania.
Mueller, who is serving two consecutive life sentences for murders out of Philadelphia, ‘was experiencing hallucinations, was feeling homicidal, [and] was distressed that he had lost his single-cell status,’ attorneys Jonathan Feinberg and Paul Messing, who are representing Derric Harsh Sr., wrote.
The 44-year-old Mueller allegedly claimed prison staff told him he would have to kill someone to regain single-cell status, previously threatened to kill a cellmate and made repeated statements alluding to harming cellmates. Staff members were aware of Mueller’s state of mind and the danger he posed, the attorneys wrote.
‘Despite knowing that Mr. Mueller presented an imminent risk of extreme violence to others, and particularly to a cellmate, the correctional and mental health staff at SCI Benner… failed to take steps to ensure that Derric M. Harsh, Jr. was protected from Mr. Mueller,’ the lawsuit claims.
The complaint alleges that staff made no effort to intervene when Mueller fatally attacked Harsh and that the murder was the result of their ‘deliberate indifference.’
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, claims prison staff violated Harsh’s Eighth and 14th Amendment rights.
State police at Rockview have investigated the case. Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said criminal charges have not yet been filed against Mueller in the case, but that he has been in contact with Harsh’s family.
‘If charges are going to be filed it will be done in conjunction with the wishes of the family,’ Cantorna said.
He added that there is no statute of limitations for filing murder charges and that the Harsh family understands Mueller is serving consecutive life sentences.
