Inmate fed possibly infected sandwich sues

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 3 (UPI) -- An inmate in an Ohio jail has sued two former guards who allegedly gave him a sandwich contaminated by an HIV-positive prisoner with hepatitis C.

Joseph Copeland Jr., who remains jailed in Columbus while awaiting trial on a robbery charge, also named Franklin County Sheriff Jim Karnes and county commissioners. The Columbus Dispatch reported.

The guards involved in the incident, Joseph Cantwell and Phillip Barnett, have both been fired. Cantwell could also be prosecuted.

In his lawsuit, Copeland maintains Cantwell and Barnett forced the inmate with human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C to rub his sexual organ on a bologna sandwich. After Copeland was finished eating, they allegedly asked him how he liked it.

"It was the purpose and intent of the defendants to cause Plaintiff Copeland to contract the HIV virus and contract hepatitis C," the complaint said.

The other inmate, Todd Triplett, is also suing, saying he was harassed by guards while he was in the county jail.