LISBON — Two 27-year-old Cleveland men accused in the attack of another inmate at the Columbiana County Jail pleaded to charges in common pleas court on Tuesday, although one still denies he actually had anything to do with the assault.

Tremaine Cowan pleaded guilty to assault, a misdemeanor charge, and was sentenced to 180 days concurrent with time he is already serving in a federal case. Cowan still has two and a half years to serve out of a four-year sentence in that case.

Mack Griffin pleaded guilty to intimidation of a witness, assault and two counts of possession of drugs. He was sentenced to a year in prison also consecutive to prison time he was already serving in Belmont Correctional Institute.

The two men appeared in separate hearings on Tuesday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.

Although Cowan agreed to plead guilty to the charge, he disagreed with Judge C. Ashley Pike about whether he actually did the crime. After consulting with his defense attorney, Joe King, and Pike, Cowan agreed to offer an Alford Plea. This allows him to agree to plead guilty to the charge without admitting he was actually guilty, but based on his feeling it was in his best interest to do so.

Initially Cowan had been charged with a third-degree felony intimidation of a witness in a criminal case and the assault charge. However, he was offered a plea agreement involving just the misdemeanor assault charge and decided he wanted to take the good deal.

Both Cowan and Griffin were charged with a beating of James Cunningham Jr., striking him repeatedly in the head and face, breaking his nose and blackening his eyes.

“I did not assault this man,” Cowan said. “I guess I am just guilty by association.”

Cowan stated Cunningham said he was assaulted by two black men, and he, Cowan, matched the description.

The plea agreement came after Cowan’s attorney won an argument to suppress the evidence from the photo identification line up the county jail had conducted. Pike had ruled on the motion to suppress on Jan. 4.

Griffin did not contend he did not assault anyone. He agreed when the evidence was recited in court that he and his co-defendant Cowan assaulted Cunningham at the jail, and he made threats to Cunningham not to talk. Additionally, the charges were for a search of his home, where cocaine and acetyl fentanyl and fentanyl were found on June 15, 2016.

Although Griffin had 9.07 grams of fentanyl, Assistant County Prosecutor Tammie Riley Jones noted while it is a dangerous drug and changes may be coming to the law, currently the 9.07 grams is still under the bulk amount making the charge a fifth-degree felony.

Jones was requesting the sentences to run consecutive to other time Griffin is currently serving. However, defense attorney Coleen Hall Dailey argued that these drug charges stemmed from drug activity that actually occurred in between two other drug cases, for which Griffin has already sentenced. Dailey questioned how the prosecutor’s office or the drug task force could not have recognized these charges were coming so the three cases could have been dealt with all at the same time.

Although Jones noted these charges came from a different agency, the East Liverpool police and may have been delayed while lab results on the drugs were pending, Pike agreed with Dailey. He made the sentence concurrent with the two years he is already serving.

However, Griffin was also scheduled to appear for a pretrial on additional charges in the Operation Big Oak indictment on Friday.