As of Feb. 3, Brent’s Deli on Townsgate Road had a clean bill of health, having passed a Ventura County Environmental Health Department inspection with no violations noted.

“First and foremost, it is completely safe to dine at Brent’s Deli,” said restaurant owner Marc Hernandez in written correspondence to the Acorn.

But that wasn’t the case last summer, says Stephanie Wehr of Oxnard who ate lunch at Brent’s with her family on Aug. 2 and filed a lawsuit against the restaurant on Jan. 22.

Wehr al- leges Brent’s was negligent in the way it handled food and sanitation and, as a result, she got salmonella poisoning that put her in the hospital.

Wehr’s attorney, Trevor Quirk, said his client, who is a nurse practitioner at UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center, is hoping for accountability and to raise awareness through the suit.

“It’s sad because it’s a local deli,” Quirk said. “We’re not here trying to hurt businesses, but they didn’t do the right thing and got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and said they weren’t trying to take cookies.”

Citing a state salmonella investigation and county environmental health department inspection reports from July that called attention to the issue, the suit claims “Brent’s . . . knew or should have known the premises . . . was contaminated with salmonella.”