Four inmates at a northwest Georgia prison filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday that claims  guards punched, kicked, stomped and hit them with batons, inflicting injuries so serious that two were hospitalized and one of them had to have surgery.

The suit is reminiscent of another incident in 1997 at the same institution – Hays State Prison in northwest Georgia in Trion and near LaFayette. The state had to pay 14 inmates and their lawyers $285,000 to resolve a federal lawsuit filed after members of the prisons tactical squad conducted aggressive and bloody searches of inmate cells.

In the case filed Tuesday, the inmates say officers swarmed the D2 dormitory after some of the prisoners kicked doors and yelled in protest of something they witnessed from the dorm's window, guards allegedly roughing up other inmates.

At some point during the Aug. 12 incident an officer was injured. “Who hurt my officer?” Capt. Timothy Clark demanded, according to the suit. After that the beatings ensued, according to the lawsuit.

A Department of Corrections spokeswoman said DOC had not seen the suit and agency’s policy is to not comment on pending litigation. The prisoners want compensatory and punitive damages.

The suit names 10 officers and two supervisors.

The four inmates – now at different prisons -- say in the complaint they did nothing to prompt the beatings.

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