First Posted: 2/11/2015
LIMA — The head of security at a local prison has resigned while four more employees were disciplined Tuesday as a direct result of a Sept. 11 escape by three inmates, including an infamous school killer.
Maj. Mark Bishop resigned Dec. 15 from his position as head of security at Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution, where the escape occurred, JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the state prison system, said Wednesday.
Maintenance Supervisor Dennis Barkimer was issued a working suspension without pay for two days while Shawn Mowery, a maintenance repair worker and Michael Laurita, a correctional officer, each were issued one-day working suspension, which means they work a day without pay. Telecommunications technician Robert Stippich received a written reprimand, Smith said.
The following are the violations listed in disciplinary records:
Stippich failed to repair a security camera to a recreation yard.
Barkimer failed to remove items he was previously was told to remove that inmates used to make a ladder to escape.
Laurita failed to escort the inmate to the recreation yard, conduct irregular 30-minute rounds in the recreation yard and close and secure a door to the yard.
Mowery placed a hasp and padlock on a door to an area where the inmates built a ladder used in an escape when he wasn’t authorized to do so.
Chardon High School killer Thomas “T.J. Lane, Cliff Opperud and Lindsey Bruce, another killer, escaped Sept. 11 by using a ladder to get on to a roof to the entry building.
They dropped from the roof and ran. Bruce was captured minutes later but Lane and Opperud remained hiding nearby until they were caught in the next nine hours.
Lane and Bruce were not charged with escape because each is serving at least one life sentence with no chance for parole.
In November, Kevin Jones, then the warden at the prison, was reassigned to another job in Columbus at the central office and Deputy Warden Ray Schaublin was demoted to inspector.
Smith said Jones had a change in job title but did not call the move a demotion. She said the move included a lower salary.
