Fifty lawsuits have now been filed over Riverside County jail toilets. One prisoner started it all. Inmates say splattering toilets create unconstitutional conditions.

Brett Kelman | Palm Springs Desert Sun

Show Caption Hide Caption Fifty inmates sue over jail toilets A Riverside County inmate filed a lawsuit about malfunctioning toilets. He's linked to 49 other lawsuits filed by other prisoners.

Six years ago, a convicted sex offender, Thomas Bodnar, took Riverside County to court. Bodnar said in a lawsuit that he had spent three years locked in a county jail cell with a gurgling toilet that splashed coin-sized bits of sewage on the cell floor.

These jail conditions, Bodnar argued, amounted to cruel and unusual punishment – a violation of his constitutional rights. Riverside County fought the lawsuit at first, but as the case drew close to trial, the county caved. Bodnar was paid $25,000 in a settlement. His lawsuit was dismissed in 2014.

It appeared the debate over county jail toilets was over. Not even close.

As of mid-April, 49 other prisoners have filed copycat lawsuits over Riverside County jail toilets, each citing Bodnar’s case as precedent as to why they should get a payout of their own. Every suit makes the same claim: In the Riverside and Murrieta jails, if an inmate flushes in one cell, the toilets in the neighboring cells will splatter or overflow, spilling sewage onto the floor. Jail staff won't provide any cleaning supplies to sanitize the cell, so inmates must use their own bar soap and towel to clean the floor.

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Now county attorneys say Bodnar is secretly responsible for all the lawsuits. In a recent court motion, they allege Bodnar is “ghostwriting” suits on behalf of other inmates in return for a cut of their settlement. In short, Bodnar never really stopped suing Riverside County, bringing the same case over and over.

“In essence, this is nothing more than an attempt to extort money from the county while serving a prison sentence,” wrote attorney Wai Hung Wong in the county’s motion.

There is at least some evidence to support the county’s ghostwriting claim. All the toilet lawsuits are word-for-word copies of Bodnar’s original complaint, with only the names and dates changed, and almost all the suits have been filed by prisoners at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, where Bodnar was incarcerated after he was convicted in Riverside. One inmate even made the ghostwriting deal public – filing a handwritten agreement in court asking for 15 percent of his settlement to be paid to Bodnar as a “finder’s fee.”

Bodnar did not deny that he has helped some inmates file lawsuits, but said he hasn't helped them all and has never been paid any share of their settlements.

When working as the inmate law clerk in Valley State Prison, Bodnar said, he worked with about 15 inmates to file similar complaints. He said he didn't solicit people – word of mouth brought the inmates to him.

"They are trying to make this out to be some inmate scam, but it's not," Bodnar said. "I like fighting for the rights of people who can't do it themselves. That's why I helped these guys."

Bodnar originally offered to settle his suit for $35,000 with a gag order that would've prevented him from helping other inmates on their own suits. The county counter-offered a $25,000 settlement without a gag order, which Bodnar accepted.

The first deal likely would have been much cheaper for the county in the long run.

Bodnar, who took a year of law classes before going to prison, will be released in about a month. He plans to become a paralegal.

Inmates say it shouldn't matter if Bodnar is helping with their lawsuits or not. If he was an attorney, instead of a prisoner, no one would think twice about him assisting others.

"It means nothing, here nor there," said Giovanni Gladden, one of the suing inmates, who has studied law while behind bars. "All that matters is that the inhumane conditions are happening."

'I think this is legit'

Despite the 50 lawsuits filed over jailhouse toilets, no independent party has assessed if a plumbing problem exists in the county jails.

The sheriff’s department agreed last summer to allow independent inspectors to look at the jails' plumbing, but the inspections never actually occurred.

Last July, during settlement negotiations with a few inmates, the sheriff’s department agreed to allow two outside experts – an engineer and a former warden – to inspect the jails and see if the toilet splatter was real. The experts were appointed by a federal judge in January, but they have yet to produce any inspection reports.

One of those experts, former federal prison warden Joe Gunja, said no one has spoken to him about Riverside jails since last summer. Gunja didn’t even know he had been officially appointed.

“It’s ironic that you called me, because I haven’t heard a thing from them,” Gunja told The Desert Sun. “They just told me to sit tight, and they would tell me to come out.”

County attorneys initially said the inspections had not occurred because the experts had not yet been appointed by a judge. When told the expert had in fact been appointed three months ago, attorneys said the experts were in “in the process of being retained.”

If the jail inspections ever do occur, Gunja said he didn’t expect the findings to be good. Although legal claims by prisoners are often doubted, the spree of toilet lawsuits appear to have merit, he said.

“I think this is legit,” Gunja said. “I think it’s already been basically proven to a judge that there is a problem and they need to fix it.”

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$83K in settlements already

So far, Riverside County has settled 16 of the toilet lawsuits for a total of $83,000.

The largest settlement was the first – $25,000 to Bodnar – and they’ve been shrinking ever since. The next 10 lawsuits were settled for $3,500 to $8,000. More recently, settlements have amounted to $500 to $2,000 each.

But not everyone is willing to take the deal.

Gladden, who filed his toilet lawsuit last summer, recently rejected a $1,000 settlement offer.

“They subjected me to such filthy and nasty conditions. And now they are going to throw $1,000 at me?” Gladden said. “That’s an insult.”

Another inmate, Joshua Snyder, who sued in 2015, rejected a $12,500 settlement offer.

Snyder claims he was exposed to the splattering toilets for more than a year. The sheriff’s department insists his toilets were fine, and that Snyder never complained about sewage splatter.

"It was pretty much like being locked in a toilet bowl,” said Snyder, a convicted robber. “It was like living in a Porta-Potty that you were never allowed to leave.”

Riverside County has said in court documents that the older portions of the jail plumbing system allowed small amount of water – no more than a pint – that could sometimes transfer from one jail toilet to another, but never enough to splash or overflow. Regardless, these portions of the plumbing system were retrofitted about a year ago, stopping the transfer of water between cell toilets.

Twelve toilets have been left as they were, to preserve evidence in the inmate’s lawsuits.

Some inmates, like Gladden, see the retrofit as evidence that they were right all along.

“If it wasn’t broken,” he said, “then what are they fixing?”

Investigative reporter Brett Kelman can be reached at 760 778 4642 or by email at brett.kelman@desertsun.com. You can follow him on Twitter @tdsBrettKelman.