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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Woman Says Boss’ Feces Made Her Sick

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (CN) - A funeral home employee says she contracted a virus when her boss disposed of his used adult diapers in the office wastebasket and refused to wash his hands.

Elizabeth Martinez sued the Arizona Ruffner-Wakelin Funeral Home and CEO Fred D. Wakelin, saying Wakelin's unsanitary habits gave her the H. Pylori virus, which can cause peptic ulcers.

Martinez says Wakelin would defecate at his desk on a regular basis and "dispose of his bodily waste ... in the office waste paper basket."

In her claim in Yavapai County Court, Martinez says Wakelin also "failed to properly clean or sanitize his person or the items he touched which were in use in the office, some of which he knew would be handled by (Martinez)."

After suffering stomach pains, Martinez says, she went to a doctor who diagnosed her with a bleeding ulcer caused by H. Pylori, which can "only be caught through contact with human feces."

Martinez seeks unspecified damages. She is represented by Krista Carmen of Warnock MacKinlay.

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