Former Inmates Claim Human Waste Was Put In Food
POSTED: 5:27 pm EST March 11, 2006
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Four former inmates of the Citrus County Detention Facility filed a federal lawsuit against the private company that runs the jail, alleging two former officers put human waste in their food and drinks.
The inmates were subject to cruel punishment, torture and battery in 2004, when they were forced to eat the food contaminated with urine and feces, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Tampa.
A spokesman for Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America said the company took immediate action once they heard about the incident.
"Management immediately investigated and terminated three employees right there and then," company spokesman Steve Owen said Saturday. "The company does have a zero tolerance policy for conduct of that nature."
Owen said the company had not been served with the lawsuit, which accuses them of negligent hiring.
Former inmates, Javon Walker, Jeffrey Young, Larry Robbins and Greg Platt, had been held in the jail's segregation unit. The segregation unit is reserved for inmates who are considered a safety risk at the Lecanto jail.
The inmates complained the food had a foul odor and didn't taste right, but were forced to eat the food or go hungry, the lawsuit said. After eating the food, they suffered from "vomiting, stomach cramps and nausea," the lawsuit claims.
The incidents occurred several times between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, 2004, according to the lawsuit.
"The very people they depend on to protect and keep them safe are the very ones abusing them," said attorney William Grant, who filed the lawsuit.
The lawsuit said correction officers Kevin Hessler and Alexander Diaz "intentionally and repeatedly fed the plaintiffs urine and fecal matter, even after the plaintiffs protested and resisted" because the food tasted and smelled bad.
Grant said a supervisor should have reported the complaints to the jail warden sooner.
Charles Mulligan, a former supervisor employed by Corrections Corporation of America, said one of the corrections officers acknowledged to putting human waste in an inmate's drinking jug, according to transcripts of a telephone hearing with the Office of Employment Appeals in Tallahassee on Feb. 16, 2005.
Mulligan was fired because he did not report the incident, the jail's warden, Carlos Melendez, testified at the hearing. Hessler and Diaz, who are accused of battery in the suit, also were fired.
Grant, who now represents the former inmates, formerly represented Mulligan.
The Corrections Corporation of America is the sixth largest corrections system in the nation and has about 60,000 inmates in more than 60 facilities around the country, according to their Web site.
The company runs six other facilities in Florida, including Bay County Correctional Facility, Bay County Jail and Hernando County Jail.
