A Nebraska jury has served up a $40,000 award to a police officer and his family whose fast-food meal at a KFC/Taco Bell combo restaurant included a “special” coleslaw that an employee had contaminated with his urine and saliva.

Two of Keith Andrew's children fell ill after eating the coleslaw on Oct. 28, 2005, with the youngest being hospitalized with gastroenteritis. The restaurant employee, Casey Diedrich, allegedly served it to them from a special pan he reserved for law enforcement officers.

Food-tampering has become something of an occupational hazard for police, with restaurant employees being accused of lacing their food with everything from marijuana to sink sanitizer. What made Andrew's case unusual was evidence that managers at the KFC/Taco Bell in Sidney, Neb., knew of Diedrich's tampering activities.

The Cheyenne County District Court jury found the operator of the restaurant, Mid Plains Food & Lodging of North Platte, Neb., liable for the Andrews' medical expenses and emotional distress. Keith Andrew is a lieutenant in the Sidney Police Department.

“We didn't think you could hold a restaurant liable for a low-life [employee's] actions if the restaurant didn't know about it,” plaintiffs' attorney Andrew W. Snyder (Chaloupka Holyoke Hofmeister Snyder & Chaloupka, Scottsbluff, Neb.) said.

According to trial evidence, managers knew Diedrich had previously urinated and spat into coleslaw. And another employee testified that he told an assistant manager of the contamination while the Andrews were still present at the restaurant.

“Despite having been informed immediately of Mr. Diedrich’s actions, Defendant’s management decided to not take any action to protect Plaintiffs, who were beginning to eat (and did eat) the [tainted] food,” the family said in their complaint.

Andrew did not find out about the contamination until six weeks later when he investigated a burglary at the restaurant and an employee told him what Diedrich had done.

Diedrich, who had a history of getting into trouble with Sidney police, told his probation officer that he served the coleslaw to the Andrew family because he was mad and upset with Lt. Andrew. He pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of violating the Nebraska Pure Food Act.

“The evidence at trial and in discovery was that Casey Diedrich spit and urinated in a pan of coleslaw that he then placed below the regular food line,” Snyder tells On Point. “If someone he did not like came into the restaurant, he dished them coleslaw from the special pan rather than the regular food line.”

The assistant manager testified she did not recall being told of the contamination of the Andrews' food. Snyder said that was “difficult to believe. Either you have had a conversation with an employee who told you a customer’s food was spit and urinated in and they are about to eat, or you haven’t. I don’t think you would forget one way or the other.”

The Andrews had asked the jury for $100,000 in damages but Snyder wasn't at all disappointed with the verdict. “It's pretty good when you consider that most of it is for mental distress,” he said, noting that Nebraska does not allow punitive damages.

In other recent cases of police officers suing restaurants for food-tampering:

• Two Isleta Pueblo, N.M., tribal officers sued Burger King, alleging three employees laced their hamburgers with marijuana.

• An Eagle, Colo., officer sued Taco Bell, alleging an employee spit into his soda.

• A Monroe County, N.Y., sheriff's deputy sued Burger King, alleging an employee tainted a meat patty with urine and oven cleaner.

 

By Matthew Heller
7/17/08