By Randall Edwards

Columbus and Franklin County officials are named in a $20 million lawsuit filed in the death of a Columbus man who was allegedly beaten during an arrest and suffocated with a pillow.

The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, says city police officers and deputy sheriffs used excessive force in arresting Richard Williams, a 31-year-old father of three, on May 18, 1991.

It was filed on behalf of his estate.

Williams was arrest by Columbus police at about 1 a.m. near 1500 N. High St. for littering and disorderly conduct, according to the suit.

He was shackled, handcuffed sprayed with Mace and smothered for 20 minutes, the suit says.

He lost consciousness at the county jail and was never revived.

He died of a head injury two days later at Grant Medical Center, the suit says.

City officials said they had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.

Sheriff Earl O. Smith, among the defendants, said Williams was never admitted to the jail.

"When they came in, they said he was bleeding," Smith said. "We don't take injured people into the jail."

The suit says Williams' face was cut and his head and neck were injured when officers and deputies pushed his face into a wooden table an entry to the jail.

After a jail medic examined and refused to admit Williams, deputies forced Williams over the top of a counter, forcing his arms up in the air behind his back and pushing his head into a pillow, the suit say.

He was held in that position for 20 minutes, even though he lost consciousness and control of his bowels and bladder, according to the suit.

The suit says Williams was next taken to Grant Medical Center.

When Williams arrived, 30 minutes after he was examined by the jail medic, hospital employees determined that he had no pulse and was not breathing.

Much of this activity was captured on videotape, which is in the sheriff's possession, the suit says.

Smith said there is no pillow in the area where prisoners are videotaped.

"They have a padded area they lay their head down on, rather than smashing their head into a table" Smith said.

Among the defendants are police Officers John E. Sprague, Kirt N. Spencer, William S. Moore and Sgts Michael G. Carlisle and Dallas Baldwin.

Also named are Deputies Dana Ditchen, Richard D. Delozier and Gary Strayer, Cpls. Mark West and G.J. Piedmont and Sgts. John Jenkins and R. Staggs.

Smith, Police Chief James G. Jackson and other city and county officials also are named.

The lawsuit demands a jury trial and has been assigned to U.S. District Judge George C. Smith.