PORTLAND – Two Cumberland County Jail inmates face criminal mischief charges for allegedly concocting a scam to sue the county because one man’s upper bunk bed collapsed on top of his cellmate.

Indictments were handed up recently against Michael Wildes and Jeremiah Young, who investigators say deliberately snapped off the top bunk and made it look like an accident.

“It’s basically a prison con game,” said Sheriff Mark Dion. “We thought it was fishy at the start, so we went fishing.”

The inmates said Young’s bunk pulled free of the wall May 1 and came crashing down on Wildes, 27, who was in the lower bunk. Wildes said he suffered scrapes, bruises and an injured kidney.

Young, 32, who weighs 380 pounds, said he was forced to sleep in a top bunk even though he said it wouldn’t hold him.

The men filed a notice of claim, a legal step that means they might sue. Soon, other inmates reported that bunks were pulling free, although without the same level of injury.

Jail administrators said at the time that the inmates were purposefully breaking the welds that hold the bunks to the walls. They began spending $50,000 to reinforce the welds.

Lt. Bruce Chase, the county’s administrative investigator, said he dug deeper and found that Young’s bunk collapse was staged.

“It was a scam,” he said.

“These two, as well as other inmates, were involved in planning how to scam the county.”

Chase quoted other inmates as saying that Wildes voluntarily took a beating from Young in exchange for a larger share of the expected settlement before the cellmates snapped off the top bunk.

The inmates had worked for days to weaken the bunk supports – rated for 2,500 pounds – to the point where they would break easily, he said.

The jail spent $10,000 on diagnostic tests, but could find no substantial injuries to Wildes.

The cellmates’ lawyer, Timothy Zerillo, said he has not examined the state’s evidence nor talked to his clients, and there has been no decision on the future of their claim.

“As far as I’m concerned, my clients are still contending there was no foul play here and this was a legitimate accident,” he said.

In addition to criminal mischief, Young faces the additional felony charge of tampering with a witness for allegedly threatening the family of an inmate who he believes revealed the plot.