Former inmate at King County Jail sues over snack

With cement walls, steel bars, metal beds and those plasticy slippers, jail inmates don't have much to look forward to besides treats from the commissary, where they can buy things like clean underwear and sweet snacks.

But one former King County Jail inmate says he got something else from the commissary — a moldy dessert that made him vomit. He also claims he had to wait two days for medical attention.

Moses Wiggins III said in court papers filed last week in King County Superior Court that on June 29, 2007, he purchased a box of Keefe Snack Legends Dunkin' Sticks through the commissary at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. Three nights later, after eating some of the snack, Wiggins says, he began feeling sick and noticed the remaining snack in the box was green with mold.

The box had no expiration date, according to the lawsuit, which names as plaintiffs King County Administration, several members of the jail staff and the snack distributor, Keefe Commissary Network.

Wiggins, who is serving a prison sentence for theft, complains in the suit that it took jail staff two days to get him medical attention. He vomited and suffered stomach cramps, and was told by a nurse to continue drinking water, stated Wiggins, who is representing himself.

The county was only made aware of the suit Tuesday and couldn't comment on it specifically, said jail spokesman Maj. William Hayes.

"We're not interested in providing food that's going to make the population sick, and we expect the same from our food vendors," he said.

A spokesman from Keefe Commissary Network, a division of Keefe Supply Co. whose corporate office is in St. Louis, could not be reached Tuesday afternoon.

The county has been criticized for conditions and care in its jails. A report last November by the U.S. Department of Justice found Seattle inmates had suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of guards and were not receiving adequate medical care, and concluded that their civil rights were being violated. The jail was also doing an inadequate job addressing the spread of highly contagious and dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the report found.

Wiggins, 41, has at least eight felonies on his record. He pleaded guilty in September 2007 to theft in a case involving the November 2006 shooting and attempted robbery of a Kent man and is serving a 3-½-year sentence.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com