Ignored for years, jail’s sewage problems coming back to haunt Pierce County
Thousands of people who have been incarcerated at the Pierce County Jail could be certified as a class of detainees affected by a decades-old plumbing problem that former inmates claim caused sewage backups and noxious smells that made people sick and suicidal.
Federal Magistrate Judge S. Kate Vaughan recommended to District Court Judge Thomas Zilly on April 30 that former inmates Zakery Bonds and Echota Wolfclan, who have sued Pierce County over conditions in the jail, be appointed as class representatives and that a class be certified consisting of all detainees who have been jailed in cell blocks with unremedied plumbing defects that led to unsanitary conditions.
In class actions, one or a few people sue on behalf of a group or class of people who have similar claims. Bonds and Wolfclan’s lawsuit has arrived at the critical stage where a judge decides whether the case can proceed as a class action.
Vaughan’s endorsement is a step toward the entry of an injunction that might leave the county vulnerable to liability in over two dozen stayed or consolidated federal lawsuits that make similar claims about poor conditions in the jail. Bonds and Wolfclan claim the issue is widespread, alleging that the 29 lawsuits filed in federal court point to plumbing issues in at least 28 different cell blocks in the downtown Tacoma facility.
An injunction could also force the county to fix the infrastructure issues that have led to the conditions. A 2014 engineering report that recommended overhauling the jail’s plumbing and replacing toilets estimated it would cost $3.1 million.
“There are approximately 550 inmates at the Jail at any given time, with thousands of individuals detained there annually,” Vaughan wrote.
“Plaintiffs have submitted expert testimony and detainee declarations indicating systemic plumbing issues at the Jail could cause backflushing observed by detainees,” she continued. “Plaintiffs have also shown that, during detentions, detainees are moved between cell blocks with different plumbing configurations, placing all detainees at risk of encountering the alleged plumbing issues and corresponding sanitation risks.”
Attorneys for Bonds and Wolfclan — which the court ordered be appointed to represent them in 2023 — have asked the court to award their two clients compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial and attorneys fees and costs for the entire class. It’s unclear how much the men could be awarded. Class-actions in other states over jail conditions have led to multi-million dollar settlements.
Pierce County has sought to dismiss the case, arguing in part that backups into cells can be caused by inmates intentionally or accidentally clogging toilets rather than a plumbing defect, and that foul odors can come from detainees’ refusing to shower or spreading feces around their cells during mental health episodes or when upset.
Vaughan wrote in a detailed 42-page report and recommendation that maintenance records, the testimony of jail staff and meeting notes indicate that administrators have been aware of the odor and backup issues and attributed them to a defect in the design of the plumbing system. The judge said the documentation indicated that the issue has persisted for more than a decade, if not multiple decades.
“Patti Jackson, [former] Pierce County Chief of Corrections, testified that odors related to the plumbing chases and dry p-traps have persisted since she started working at the Jail in 1989,” Vaughan wrote.
Jackson, now Tacoma’s police chief, is one of four named defendants alongside former Sheriff Ed Troyer, former corrections Capt. Matthew Dobson — now a major overseeing the Main Jail’s operations — and corrections Sgt. Anthony Mastandrea. Pierce County and the County Council are also defendants.
Adam Faber, a spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which represents the county in civil suits, said he did not have anything to add when reached for comment Wednesday.
Former inmates say county indifferent to complaints
NPR member station KNKX first reported on the lawsuit in 2023. Wolfclan told the public radio station that he had settled a federal complaint with the county the previous year for $33,000 hoping the issue would be fixed. The story reported that the prior lawsuit uncovered a 2014 engineering report that recommended replacing the jail’s toilets and other plumbing and gave the $3.1 million repair estimate.
Bonds and Wolfclan claim the defendants have been deliberately indifferent to the jail’s plumbing conditions that cause raw sewage to “ping-pong” between adjoining cells’ toilets. An expert witness, former secretary of the Department of Corrections Stephen Sinclair, inspected the jail in July 2025 and gave the opinion that by not seeking funding for repairs, the defendants disregarded serious health risks for inmates and jail staff.
“I view this situation as a systemic failure because it is clear to me that an issue that should be a high health and safety priority has continually been overlooked by leadership across Pierce County,” Sinclair wrote in his report.
Sinclair said a 2016 Facilities Management assessment of deferred maintenance listed reworking valves and piping in the Main Jail’s toilets to eliminate flow problems between adjacent cells. Sinclair said he was baffled by a related comment in the assessment that said that would prevent contraband from being passed between cells.
“Why is there no mention of the larger health and safety problems associated with allowing people to live and work in an environment with constant ‘Ping-Ponging’ of human waste between toilets and an overwhelming methane odor?” Sinclair wrote.
The same Facilities Management assessment, according to Sinclair, listed the Main Jail and its deferred maintenance projects as the fourth-lowest priority among 23 county facilities. He said he saw no reason for such a low prioritization given what was known about the plumbing problems and reported health effects.
Pierce County has said that the corrections chief can advocate for jail projects, but she and other staff do not have any authority over budgetary matters involving maintenance or capital improvement of the jail.
Jail staff have also complained about the smell of methane in the facility. After a 2016 complaint to the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, according to Vaughan’s report, Jackson circulated a memo that said a short-term solution practiced for years was to pour water down the drains in pipe chases regularly to create a seal that prevents “sewer fumes” from entering the space.
“The memorandum went on to note that practice corrodes pipes, that maintenance was working on pricing for a long-term solution,” Vaughan’s report said.
Attorneys for the county referred to the practice as helpful, showing that officials have not been deliberately indifferent to the issue.
Another expert witness, James Platt, is a licensed master Journeyman plumber. He inspected the jail with Sinclair and saw multiple floor drain grates that were painted over or clogged with debris. “He opined that, taken together, the deficiencies observed indicate improper installation and maintenance of the Jail’s drainage and vent systems, and that such conditions could explain widespread reports of foul odors and sewer gases in the Jail,” Vaughan reported. Vaughan recommended excluding the testimony of the defendant’s expert witness, Dan Rapp, putting the county in a precarious position to try to counter the plaintiffs’ expert.
Rapp is a former contractor who began giving diagnostic and forensic analysis of building systems’ performance and code compliance in 2010 for Construction Systems Management, a Seattle-based consulting company.
Rapp had given the opinion that backups at the jail were nearly impossible without a clog in the vertical riser. Vaughan noted that Rapp had no plumbing certifications, and she said it was concerning he premised his conclusions on the absence of certain documents and data he never sought out or confirmed did not exist.
‘Stop flushing, stop flushing!’
Bonds was incarcerated at the jail while he awaited trial from March 2022 through February 2025 when he was sentenced to 27 years in prison for DUI vehicular homicide and vehicular assault.
When he entered cell block 3 South E in 2022, according to Vaughan’s report, Bonds allegedly saw the toilet brimming with raw sewage, which rose and fell every time someone flushed their toilet in a nearby cell. Sewage backed up into his toilet and overflowed when neighboring inmates flushed. Sometimes Bonds was sitting on the toilet when that happened, and he said he had to use his clothing to clean up overflows multiple times.
On one occasion, Bonds recalled maintenance personnel once yelling, “Stop flushing, stop flushing!” Raw sewage had flowed into a judge’s chambers underneath the cell block.
Wolfclan has been a defendant in 18 Pierce County criminal cases since 2004, according to Vaughan’s report. He is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and in April 2023 while held at the jail he was transferred to the mental health unit in cell block 3 North A. His toilet was allegedly filled with raw sewage emitting gases that gave him an immediate headache.
The next morning, Wolfclan awoke to find the toilet had overflowed, covering the floor, and he was forced to eat his breakfast in his cell. According to Vaughan’s report, Wolfclan also noticed the floor was covered in black grime that stuck to detainees’ socks, causing it to transfer to their beds and blankets. Wolfclan alleged the odors led to many health affects, and he took medications for headaches, allergies, upset stomach, coughing and other respiratory problems.
“All of the units in which I was housed in the Jail were filled with a strong sewage odor,” Wolfclan wrote in a declaration filed in court. “The stench was constant and inescapable.”
“He witnessed his cellmate vomiting, suffering diarrhea, and being unable to eat for up to four days,” Vaughan’s report said of Wolfclan’s allegations. “He also observed other residents whose eyes swelled shut, reported suicidal thoughts due to the conditions, and were placed on IVs due to being unable to eat.”
Sinclair’s expert report gave a sampling of more than 300 kites — a written request to staff — and grievances detainees have filed about the issues between 2015 and 2024.
Attorneys say jail deserves systemic fix
Scott Pritchard and Jenna Poligo, two of the attorneys representing Wolfclan and Bonds from the Seattle law firm Stoel Rives LLP, told The News Tribune that fighting with the county over the issue has been frustrating but deeply motivating.
“The resistance from the County has been substantial, and in our view, needless,” Pritchard wrote in response to questions. “There’s a wealth of documentary and other evidence making it crystal clear that the County has known about the issues in the jail for decades and consciously decided not to address them in any meaningful way. Had the County simply decided to work with Plaintiffs on a solution to these problems early on, all of this could have been avoided.”
The attorneys said class certification is an important milestone that recognizes these are not isolated complaints but a systemic issue deserving of a systemic remedy. Most important to Pritchard and Poligo, they said, is ensuring that the conditions are addressed. Pritchard said the issues would have continued unabated if not for the efforts of Wolfclan, Bonds and other class members who have spoken up.
“We are on the verge of forcing the County to fix a critical longstanding infrastructure problem,” Pritchard said. “There’s also a very real possibility that those who were harmed and have their own resulting damages claims will be able to continue to press those claims against the County for years to come. We would hope that the County would be incentivized to resolve the problem at this point.”
It’s unclear what fixing the Main Jail’s infrastructure to stop sewage problems would look like. According to the county’s motion for summary judgment, a steering committee formed in 2022 determined that the cost to repair and update areas of the Main Jail would equal about 70 percent of the cost to tear it down and replace it.
The county said its 2026-2027 budget included plans to renovate the 2002 “New Jail” to hold medium and maximum-security detainees now housed in the Main Jail.
Now that Vaughan has recommended class certification, the county has two weeks from April 30 to file objections before Zilly considers adopting the report, amending it based on the objections or rewriting it.
