PETA complains about inmate’s diet

Wednesday, July 10, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

An animal rights organization is asking the Clark County Detention Center to provide a different diet to a former teacher accused of kidnapping a 15-year-old boy and having sex with him.

Tanya Hadden, 33, is a practicing vegan who has pleaded not guilty to 19 charges, including felony kidnapping, six counts of statutory sexual seduction and 12 counts of sexual conduct between a teacher and a student. If convicted, she could face life in prison.

Hadden's parents have asked for help from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in an attempt to get the woman food that does not contain meat or dairy products.

But Metro Police officials say Hadden is getting a 2,800-calorie-a-day diet free of animal and dairy products. Hadden when she first came to the jail did not mention that she wanted a vegan menu, said Lt. Vincent Cannito, a department spokesman.

"She has been accommodated," he said. "Her complaint now is that she doesn't like some of the food. She is getting a strict vegan diet developed by our dietitian."

Her parents claim Hadden has dropped about 35 pounds since she was booked into the jail. They said their daughter now weighs about 80 pounds.

"The guards are telling her she looks like Karen Carpenter," said mother Joan Hadden Phelps. "She isn't getting the nutrition she needs."

Cannito said according to records she has lost seven pounds since the time she was booked into the jail. He said Hadden didn't even ask for a different diet until the middle of June. She has continued to complain about the diet and the way it is being prepared, he said.

PETA plans to fax Metro a letter in the next 24 hours asking that Hadden be given the vegan diet. In similar cases at other jails, it has taken just a couple of phone calls to get such changes made, said Bruce Friedrich, PETA's director of vegan outreach.

"We're seeing if we can work this out quickly and easily," Friedrich said. "We're trying to make sure that we have the facts of the case correct."

If Metro refuses to serve a proper diet, the group would likely respond with protesters at the jail, rather than filing a lawsuit, which is time-consuming, he said.

"We're going to move more quickly on this than the courts tend to move," he said.

Friedrich said getting a vegan diet is a First Amendment right.

"It's unconscionable that they'd let someone in their care suffer like that," Friedrich said. "It's cruel and unusual punishment."

Clark County Deputy District Attorney Lisa Luzaich said that although Hadden appeared thinner at a recent court appearance, "she certainly doesn't look like Karen Carpenter." "I suspect the reason she's lost so much weight is that she's distressed at the position she's in, not because the jail is giving her food she won't eat. She's facing life in prison," Luzaich said.

Deputy Public Defender Steve Immerman could not be reached for comment this morning. Hadden is accused of abducting Richard Pena, a student in one of her classes at San Bernardino, Calif.'s Cajon High School. The two drove to Las Vegas and were found May 2 at a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino.

Pena told police the two had sex repeatedly. Hadden's lawyer maintains the charges involve consensual acts.