A big ‘but’ arises in toilet-seat story

updated 4:21 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2005

DENVER - A man who sued Home Depot last month claiming a prank left him glued to a toilet seat made a similar allegation about another restroom more than a year ago, an official told a newspaper.

Bob Dougherty’s lawsuit alleges employees at the store ignored his pleas for help on the day before Halloween 2003 because they thought he was kidding.

But Ron Trzepacz, former director of operations for the town of Nederland, where Dougherty lives, told the Rocky Mountain News in Tuesday’s editions that Dougherty told him in the summer of 2004 he was glued to a toilet seat in the town’s visitor center but pulled himself free.

Trzepacz told the paper he inspected the bathroom and found “no indication that anything had been on the toilet seat.” No police report was filed, he said.

Dougherty’s lawyer, Mark Cohen, denied his client made such a claim and said Dougherty is willing to take a polygraph test.

“The allegation doesn’t make any sense,” Cohen told The Associated Press Tuesday.

Neither Trzepacz nor the Nederland town administrator immediately returned a call from the AP. Nederland is about 45 miles northwest of Denver.

Dougherty’s lawsuit, filed Oct. 28, said officials at the store in Louisville called for an ambulance after he had been stuck for about 15 minutes. Paramedics unbolted the toilet seat, which separated from his skin, leaving abrasions, according to the suit.

The lawsuit also said Dougherty was recovering from heart bypass surgery and thought he was having a heart attack when he got stuck.

The lawsuit claims he suffered pain, humiliation and financial loss. It seeks $3 million.

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