Man malnourished after jail didn’t give him gluten-free food, Washington lawsuit says

A man filed a lawsuit against a Washington jail, saying that he wasn’t given gluten-free food while he was incarcerated and wound up in the hospital.

Gaven Picciano, 26, filed a disability discrimination lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. Picciano is suing the Clark County Jail and NaphCare Inc., the company that provides medical services at the jail. Picciano said that he has celiac disease and can’t eat food with gluten because it affects his health.

Emily Sheldrick, the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office’s chief civil deputy, told McClatchy News that she can’t comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit alleges that Picciano was jailed from Jan. 30 to Feb. 20 after his former girlfriend phoned the police when he was experiencing suicidal thoughts after a breakup. Picciano said he wasn’t given “adequate food that was safe for him to eat” for 22 days and for the first nine days he was detained, he “had virtually no access to food at all.” As a result, he said he lost about 10% of his body weight.

Picciano said he asked staff for gluten-free food and guards told him to trade his food with other prisoners. According to the suit, Picciano collapsed after not eating for 10 days and was given Narcan.

“Picciano had not taken drugs or overdosed,” the lawsuit states. “He had collapsed from not having food.”

According to the lawsuit, Picciano was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and arrhythmia. The hospital instructed the jail to provide him with gluten-free food, but “still, the County failed to do so,” the lawsuit said.

At one point, Picciano said he became sick with “cross-contaminated food,” and the jail told him “your diet was revised to GF,” but he still wasn’t receiving the proper meals.

As a result of the lack of gluten-free food, Picciano “suffered extreme hunger, significant weight loss, fatigue, dizziness, gastrointestinal distress, vomiting, weakness, pain, and loss of consciousness,” according to the lawsuit.

This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 12:30 PM with the headline "Man malnourished after jail didn’t give him gluten-free food, Washington lawsuit says."