Julius Nasso (L) and ex-partner Steven Seagal in happier times

This morning, Lowdown's Lloyd Grove shared the fairly harrowing ordeal of Julius Nasso--a New York-based producer who recently finished a 9-1/2-month prison sentence in Ohio for conspiring to extort "aging actor" and former business partner Steven Seagal.

Part of the story details Nasso's plans to open his Cinema Nasso Film Studios next month on Staten Island, but the producer also recalls some of the thug life he experienced in Elkton:

Prison was scary at times. While behind bars, Nasso said, he tangled with a "skinhead biker with a swastika tattooed on his head" - which earned him 90 days in the hole - and watched helplessly as a fellow inmate was kicked to death in the middle of night by rival gang members.

"But I survived," he said. "I'm not a publicity hound, I'm a low-key guy."

Such a "low-key guy," in fact, that he wound up in a low-security prison like Elkton--where a spokesman today told The Reeler that no such death ever occurred.

"The one allegation where the inmate was kicked to death in the middle of the night?" the spokesman said. "Really, what you're talking about there is an inmate homicide. We haven't had any inmate homicides here at Elkton. Never, let alone the time that Nasso was here at Elkton. I can tell you that."

He would not comment, however, on Nasso's "90 days in the hole" because the prison keeps inmates' disciplinary records private. Meanwhile, Nasso could not be reached for comment. It is probably for the best, though--it is not like the guy is a publicity hound or anything.