Ohio Vet Files First Lawsuit in Taco Bell Cyclospora Outbreak
A 27-year Army veteran from Ohio has sued Taco Bell and produce supplier Taylor Farms after being hospitalized with a Cyclospora infection tied to shredded iceberg lettuce, marking the first legal case from an outbreak that has sickened more than 1,600 people.
The First Legal Shot in a Growing Outbreak
A 27-year US Army veteran from Ohio became the first person to file a lawsuit tied to the ongoing Cyclospora outbreak linked to Taco Bell, according to reporting by Dexerto. The suit, filed July 17 in Mahoning County, names both Taco Bell and its produce supplier Taylor Farms as defendants. It was brought by food safety law firm Ron Simon & Associates alongside DiCello Levitt & Casey LLC on behalf of David Ott.
The timing is pointed. The lawsuit arrived just one day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publicly identified shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants as the source of the outbreak. As of the CDC’s announcement, 1,644 people had been sickened and 94 hospitalized, with reported illnesses spanning from May 13 through July 13, 2026, across Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
What Ott Says Happened
According to the complaint, Ott purchased several Taco Supremes from a Taco Bell in Youngstown, Ohio, on June 18 and June 20. Two days after that second visit, he began experiencing severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, bloating, dizziness, headaches, and a low-grade fever.
He was admitted to Christus Good Shepherd Medical Center, where doctors performed a colonoscopy, a CT scan, and multiple blood and stool tests. Laboratory results confirmed a Cyclospora infection. Ott spent two days hospitalized before being discharged with a prescription for Bactrim, an antibiotic commonly used to treat the parasitic infection. He is still recovering at home, according to the lawsuit announcement.
Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that causes intestinal illness and can lead to prolonged, sometimes debilitating symptoms. It is not the kind of thing that resolves over a weekend.
”He Should Not Have Had to Spend His Summer Vacation in a Hospital Bed”
Attorney Ron Simon included a pointed statement with the lawsuit announcement. “David Ott gave twenty-seven years of his life to this country,” Simon said, as quoted in the filing. “He should not have had to spend his summer vacation in a hospital bed because a lettuce supplier and a national restaurant chain failed to keep a parasite out of the food they sold him.”
The legal theory is straightforward: both the supplier and the restaurant chain had a duty to ensure the food reaching customers was safe, and that duty was not met.
A Larger Reckoning Taking Shape
With over 1,600 confirmed illnesses and 94 hospitalizations across five states, this outbreak is substantial by any measure. The CDC’s confirmation that Taco Bell’s shredded iceberg lettuce was the vehicle gives plaintiffs a clear target, and Ott’s case is almost certainly not the last one that will be filed.
Taylor Farms, one of the largest produce suppliers in the country, has been at the center of food safety scrutiny before. Its involvement here adds a supply chain dimension to what customers might otherwise see as a fast food problem. The lettuce does not originate at the restaurant. It arrives there.
Ott’s attorneys filed in Mahoning County, which covers the Youngstown area where their client ate and got sick. That local specificity matters. This is not an abstract public health statistic. It is a man in northeastern Ohio who served nearly three decades in the military and ended up undergoing a colonoscopy after ordering dinner.
Who filed the lawsuit against Taco Bell and Taylor Farms?
The lawsuit was filed on July 17, 2026, in Mahoning County, Ohio, by food safety law firm Ron Simon & Associates alongside DiCello Levitt & Casey LLC on behalf of David Ott, a 27-year Army veteran.
How many people have been sickened in the Cyclospora outbreak linked to Taco Bell?
According to the CDC, 1,644 people have been sickened and 94 have been hospitalized, with illnesses reported between May 13 and July 13, 2026, across Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
What is Cyclospora and how does it spread?
Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that causes intestinal illness. In this outbreak, the CDC linked it to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants.
What happened to David Ott after he ate at Taco Bell?
According to the lawsuit, Ott ate Taco Supremes from a Youngstown, Ohio Taco Bell on June 18 and June 20, became seriously ill two days later, and was hospitalized at Christus Good Shepherd Medical Center for two days before being discharged with a prescription for Bactrim.