An Allegheny County Jail inmate has filed a lawsuit alleging that guards broke his arm and put him in solitary confinement after he complained that the facility withheld pain medication.

Aaron Tipton, 31, of Penn Hills is alleging civil rights violations in the complaint he filed Tuesday in federal court in Pittsburgh.

The lawsuit alleges that on Sept. 16, 2022, Tipton was forced to the ground, repeatedly punched and kicked in his head, neck and chest, and then shocked four times with a Taser.

In addition, the complaint said a jail guard kneeled on Tipton’s right arm with his full body weight, forcefully pulling and twisting until it broke.

Tipton was then held in a holding cell for two hours before being taken to Allegheny General Hospital, the complaint said. His broken arm required surgery the next day.

“He was in the hospital for three days, and I didn’t know it,” Tipton’s mother, Janelle Tipton, said Tuesday.

She said when she complained to jail officials about the lack of notice, she was told family isn’t notified unless it’s a matter of life and death.

“That’s asinine,” she said. “My son could have died on the operating table.”

The lawsuit includes claims that jail staff failed to provide Tipton with adequate medical care, used excessive force, conducted unlawful searches, and retaliated against him after he filed grievances. It also also lists a claim for assault and battery.

Tipton was found guilty of aggravated assault last year and pleaded guilty to assaulting a corrections officer. He was ordered last month to serve 8-1/2 to 17 years in state prison. He has not yet been moved to a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections facility.

Tipton’s lawsuit, filed by attorney Joel Sansone, identifies 11 defendants, including the county and former Warden Orlando Harper, who retired in September.

Other defendants include nurse practitioner Lori Schultz; physician assistant Esther Stanton; nurse practitioner Sandra Simms; former Health Services Administrator Ashley Brinkman; Deputy Health Services Administrator Renee Madden; and corrections officer Hunter Sarver.

Three other officers are also listed but not identified by their full names.

The county said it does not comment on pending litigation.

According to the complaint, Tipton came to the jail in 2017. At the time, he was taking gabapentin, an antiseizure medication, for pain stemming from neuropathy and a drop foot.

But, the complaint said, the jail discontinued Tipton’s prescription. They directed him to take Tylenol and ibuprofen, which were ineffective and had to be purchased through the jail commissary.

Among the reasons that the jail claimed it could not give Tipton gabapentin were that it wasn’t in stock and was not prescribed for that use, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint alleges that Tipton filed several written grievances over the issue, but no action was taken.

Then, on April 27, 2022, the complaint alleges, Tipton’s attorney asked that his client be assessed for pain management. Again, no action was taken, the lawsuit said.

On Sept. 16, 2022, the complaint alleges that Tipton was strip searched. He was “handcuffed and, without provocation or justification,” was “violently attacked” while naked.

After Tipton had surgery on his arm, the lawsuit said, he once again was prescribed gabapentin, and again jail medical staff discontinued his medication.

The complaint also alleges that when Tipton returned to the jail, he was taken to solitary confinement, where he continued to be harassed by at least one corrections officer, who daily performed anal searches on him.

“At that time the defendants bragged about intimidating the plaintiff,” the lawsuit said.

Janelle Tipton spoke at a Jail Oversight Board meeting in October 2022 about what happened to her son the month before, and others have spoken on his behalf since then.

She said it felt like the comments “went in one ear and out the other.

“They didn’t care about anything being said.”

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