State Police Investigate Garner Prison Assaults

State police said that they learned about 1:30 pm March 18 that Garner Correctional Institution inmate Michael S. Davis, 19, had allegedly thrown a volume of fluid, which was possibly urine, into the face of correction officer Luther W. Duncan, no age given, at the high security prison on Nunnawauk Road.

State police said they were investigating the incident in terms of possible criminal charges against Davis.

Davis, who was incarcerated in July 2004, is being held on $280,000 bail on a pending charge of third degree sexual assault, according to the state Department of Correction.

Also, on March 14, Garner inmate Gary Ortega, 37, was involved in an assault with inmate Brian Niblack, 41, state police said. Niblack was injured in the incident, state police said.

State police arrested Ortega on a charge of third degree assault. Ortega was scheduled for court arraignment on March 15.

Ortega, who has been incarcerated since May 1996, is serving a 30-year prison sentence a first degree kidnapping conviction.

Niblack, who was incarcerated in August 1988, is serving a 56-year sentence on a murder conviction.