Michigan
Workers lifted homeless man in porta-potty, splashed him
Michigan Supreme Courtroom: Who would be the members if elected?
The Michigan Supreme Courtroom consists of seven members.
- Kevin Kolbe, of Saginaw, is suing town contractor whose workers he says carried a porta-potty into his residence in August 2025.
- The corporate didn’t reply to requests for remark however has contradicted Kolbe’s description on-line.
This story has been up to date with new data.
Kevin Kolbe was unable to bathe with cleaning soap for at the very least every week after a forklift driver purposely lifted a porta-potty with him in it up and down and splashed him with its contents, he says.
Kolbe, 59, of Saginaw, is homeless. And he has now filed a lawsuit in opposition to the corporate that employed the forklift driver. The corporate has described the state of affairs in another way, stating that the forklift driver didn’t know Kolbe was in there, that he was by no means raised and that there is no such thing as a proof that he fell underwater.
Kolbe filed the lawsuit in Saginaw County Circuit Courtroom in opposition to Fisher Contracting Co. on Nov. 4, alleging battery, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional misery after the interplay with the forklift driver in August.
The hope is that individuals and massive corporations notice they can not deal with others badly, Kolbe instructed the Free Press.
“I simply need folks to appreciate that as a result of I used to be homeless, I used to be nonetheless human,” he stated.
In an emailed assertion, Fisher Corporations lawyer Brian Rush emphasised that the park the place the incident occurred — Saginaw’s Ojibway Island, the place crews had been contracted to work on erosion issues — was closed and stated there have been warning indicators indicating the realm was unsafe.
He additionally stated the porta-potty had simply been cleaned, had not been used, and that Kolbe’s garments had been dry when he left.
“We had been shocked and upset to learn the allegations in Mr. Kolbe’s lawsuit and stay up for sharing what really occurred in a courtroom of regulation,” he stated.
Kolbe’s description of the encounter, as instructed within the lawsuit and an interview, describes the incident as brutal and intentional.
When it could not get any worse
Kolbe’s 19-year-old son died of a mind tumor in February 2025, he stated. On the time, Kolbe was dwelling with a former accomplice and their shared kids, however amid the psychological toll — going out of the “deep finish,” he stated — Kolbe moved outdoors to clear his head. Since then, he has been sofa browsing, sleeping outdoors and typically staying together with his former accomplice.
He was sleeping underneath a bridge close to Saginaw’s Ojibway Island across the time of the porta-potty encounter, he stated. He might see the porta potty on the island and on August 13, he urgently wanted to make use of the toilet.
He took his bicycle — with its reusable cans rattling and the blankets stowed in an connected little one provider — to go to the toilet, he stated. He heard some staff yelling at him earlier than he entered the restroom, however he stated he noticed nothing to point the porta-potty was for personal use. It seemed like others on the town. He could not wait.
The employees tried to show Kolbe a lesson, the lawsuit stated.
Whereas Kolbe was inside, a employee positioned one of many forklift’s tines underneath the porta-potty and lifted Kolbe up and down, the lawsuit stated. The porta-potty, which was unstable in that place, rocked forwards and backwards earlier than lastly falling in opposition to a tree.
The lawsuit describes that at one level Kolbe opened the door to see what was happening, and the employee working the forklift instructed him, “Get the (expletive) out of our porta-potty.”
Kolbe could not consider it was taking place, he stated. It did not look like his life might get any worse than it had been.
The porta-potty chemical substances — and all of the trash inside — hit the seated Kolbe and even splashed on his again, Kolbe stated. He did not have an opportunity to wipe himself earlier than going out.
In response to the lawsuit, the employees then laughed at him.
One other description
No different staff had been round when the incident occurred, and they didn’t emerge from their work space on the riverbank to taunt Kolbe, stated Rush of Fisher Corporations.
Staff had been transferring 40-foot-long sheet piles from the instant work space to the riverbank, and all however one had been a number of hundred toes away when the forklift incident occurred, he stated.
The bizarre employee realized the porta-potty was in the best way, caught loader forks into the construction to maneuver it, and was shocked when Kolbe went outdoors, Rush stated. The employee instantly stopped transferring the loader.
“The unit was by no means lifted off the bottom. Mr. Kolbe’s garments had been dry when he exited the moveable restroom,” Rush stated.
Out of concern for Kolbe, a foreman escorted him safely outdoors the development web site and waited with him.
One level on which Fisher Contracting and Kolbe appeared to agree: Kolbe referred to as the police, however they by no means confirmed up.
Kolbe stated they did not present up within the two hours he waited for them. Rush stated a employee waited with Kolbe for greater than an hour for police.
Saginaw Deputy Police Chief Matthew Gerow stated officers went however didn’t discover Kolbe on the agreed assembly location. He stated Kolbe was later knowledgeable he might file a police report, however he didn’t achieve this. Gerow stated an investigation by metropolis officers into the contractor discovered the contractor denied the allegations.
The corporate posted its model of the story in a Fb publish in September after information stations within the Saginaw space first reported Kolbe’s story. Within the publish, the corporate expressed its remorse over the state of affairs and its issues for Kolbe, saying he was “understandably upset” after the forks had been put in.
“(There) was no proof that any liquid had been spilled or splashed on the person concerned or in the bathroom,” the corporate acknowledged, later including: “We’re reviewing our procedures to make sure an incident like this can not occur once more, and stay dedicated to defending each our crews and the encompassing group.”
Psychological ache and disgrace
Later that day whereas utilizing the porta-potty, Kolbe went to the house of his former accomplice and youngsters however discovered nobody was there, he stated. He used an out of doors hose to scrub up a bit and placed on some washed garments that had been neglected for him.
It is arduous for Kolbe to elucidate what the following week felt like with out a actual bathe with cleaning soap, he stated.
Bodily he was itchy and did not really feel nicely. Mentally, he felt like an animal with feces on it, he stated.
Finally, a buddy helped him entry a bathe, he stated.
Since talking out by means of the information media, he has felt ashamed, he stated. He misplaced tooth on account of diabetes, and folks he knew are actually seeing the form he is in. His kids hear feedback in school that he’s the ‘homeless individual’ who skilled this.
He might get shelter at any time now, he stated through the Free Press interview. He would not really feel like he would have been handled this fashion if he had been another person, maybe higher dressed.
Whether or not the porta-potty was personal or whether or not the island was closed for building would not matter, stated Kevin Kelly, one among his Saginaw-based attorneys. It would not make abuse okay. It comes all the way down to primary human decency.
“It is like kicking somebody whereas they’re on the bottom,” Kelly stated of the encounter with Kolbe.
Kolbe put it this fashion: “You need to deal with folks the best way you wish to be handled,” Kolbe stated.
Kolbe is in search of a jury trial and a judgment of greater than $25,000.