According to Allegany County State’s Attorney Michael Twigg, a state prison inmate will be pleading guilty in Cumberland on Tuesday to stabbing a correctional officer in an attack that led to the warden’s firing. The hearing for Richard Crawford, 45, is the result of an episode that exposed dysfunction at the maximum-security North Branch Correctional Institution. Crawford will plead guilty to first-degree assault in the August stabbing of Herbert Hilliard. Several days prior to the attack, a letter an inmate had sent to a supervisor threatening to harm Hilliard unless Hilliard was moved to another cellblock, which was released by the state workers union after the attack. Hilliard was not informed of the threat and the prison’s security chief was quickly reassigned. Last month warden Bobby Shearin was fired for alleged leadership failures resulting in both distrust and safety risks.
