Former inmate sues King County, claiming he was badly injured by scalding hot jail shower

From Lewis Kamb's article in The Seattle Times

A former Shoreline firefighter who claims he was badly burned by scalding hot water from a shower in the King County Jail last year has sued the county for negligence.

Jason Howton, 45, of Auburn, filed the lawsuit in King County Superior Court on Nov. 20, contending that while he was being held in the jail on May 27, 2019, he suffered burns to “various parts of his body including … his left shoulder, chest, abdomen, and genitals” after a shower’s water temperature momentarily spiked.

Howton’s suit contends jail officials later “recorded” the shower’s water temperature at 158 degrees — nearly 40 degrees hotter than recommended standards.

“We have no reason to believe that these (water) temperatures were where they were supposed to be,” said Craig Sandberg, one of Howton’s attorneys. “No inmate should be able to get burned while taking a shower while under care of the King County Jail”….

According to Howton’s suit, King County inmates can operate jail showers by pressing a button, but they have no control over water temperature. The suit contends that after the incident, “King County recorded the water temperature from the subject shower as 158-degrees Fahrenheit” — two degrees higher than the temperature known for water to create a thermal scald burn on skin within one second of exposure.

When asked this week about discrepancies between Howton’s lawsuit and the jail’s reports that said the shower’s temperature reading was at 111 degrees, Sandberg acknowledged the 158-degree figure cited in the suit came from Howton, not an official jail report.

“However, my client wouldn’t have gotten burned if the water was only 111 degrees, and they produced photos of his burns,” said Sandberg, a Chicago-based lawyer who is teaming with the Seattle law firm Anderson-Santiago on the case.

Whether or not the redness of Howton’s skin disappeared within a day, Sandberg said “his injuries were certainly painful and severe, and they persisted for some time.”

“Thankfully, his skin didn’t blister and slough off,” Sandberg said. “But they did cause terrible injuries to his skin and damages to the nerves.”

While his legal team now represents only Howton in the case, Sandberg said his client is “aware of other people that had experienced flashes and spikes in water temperature in the jail’s showers”…

Click here to read the full article on The Seattle Times website.

Howton is represented by Mr. Sandberg with his Seattle-based co-counsel, Jason Anderson and Tyler Santiago from the law firm of Anderson Santiago, PLLC.