$404,000 Verdict for Ohio Prisoner Brutalized by Trio of Guards, Kept in Solitary for Two Years
by Chuck Sharman
On September 12, 2025, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio returned a verdict awarding $404,000 in damages to state prisoner Tommy Meadows on his claim that he was brutalized at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) near Lucasville in May 2019 by three guards who then kept him in solitary confinement for two years.
When a fight broke out in the “chow line” at the prison dining hall, Meadows wasn’t involved, but guard Christopher Coppick handcuffed him to escort him back to his cell. In the process, the guard twisted the prisoner’s fingers and pushed him against a wall before taking him to the floor, causing Meadows to injure his head. Coppick crawled atop his back as fellow guard Kennth Plowman came and shackled his legs. They escorted him to a “strip cell,” where a third guard, William Bauer, joined in further assault on the handcuffed and shackled prisoner, bloodying his head from multiple lacerations. Threatening to kill him, Bauer then pepper-sprayed him in the face—twice.
For the next two months, Meadows’ attempts to file a grievance with the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) were thwarted by the guards, who repeatedly threatened him. With the help of his unincarcerated girlfriend, Meadows was finally able to file a grievance in July 2019. On the same day, Plowman filed a report stating that he had overheard Meadows plotting with another unnamed prisoner to assault a guard. That landed Meadows in Extended Restrictive Housing for the next 24 months.
In May 2021, Meadows filed a complaint in the district court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, accusing the guards of using excessive force, in violation of his Eighth Amendment guarantee of freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. The state offered to settle the case for $5,000, but Meadows refused. Defendants then filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, which as largely denied on October 25, 2022. Defendants’ further motion for summary judgment was also denied on January 28, 2025. See: Meadows v. Coppick, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 194685 (S.D. Ohio); and 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15251 (S.D. Ohio ).
The case proceeded to a five-day trial in September 2025. At its conclusion, jurors found that Meadows had sustained excessive force allegations against the three guards. They awarded the prisoner $209,000 in compensatory damages, including $43,000 from Coppick, $75,000 from Bauer and $91,000 from Plowman. The jury also awarded $195,000 in punitive damages, including $30,000 from Coppick, $100,000 from Bauer and $65,000 from Plowman.
“Inmates rarely have counsel in these sorts of cases,” Meadows’ attorney, Emmett Robinson, told the Cincinnati Enquirer, adding that “[t]hese cases rarely go to trial [and] inmates almost never win.” Yet he said, “We were told that this was one of the most significant civil rights jury cases in the Southern District of Ohio in many years.”
Robinson and his co-counsel irked U.S. District Jeffrey P. Hopkins with repeated tardiness, including making the court wait 20 minutes after jurors returned before they could read their verdict. For that, Hopkins sanctioned them $100 on October 28, 2025.
Meanwhile, Defendants filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law or to alter judgment, while Meadows moved to recover legal costs and fees. The motions remain pending, and PLN will update developments in both. Meadows is represented Robinson and his eponymous Cleveland firm, as well as attorneys Peter Pattakos, Gregory B. Gipson, Maryam Assar and Zoran Balac of the Pattakos Law Firm LLC in Fairlawn. See: Meadows v. Coppick, USDC (S.D. Ohio), Case No. 1:21-cv-00322.
Additional source: Cincinnati Enquirer
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Related legal case
Meadows v. Coppick
| Year | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (S.D. Ohio), Case No. 1:21-cv-00322 |
| Level | District Court |