At least 80 people have died in sheriff’s custody over the five-plus years since Darryl Dunsmore went to federal court to challenge conditions in San Diego County jails.
But his legal complaint, which has subsequently expanded into a class-action lawsuit that involves every past, current and future person booked into county jail, still remains nowhere near trial.
The civil-rights lawyers working to force reforms on Sheriff Kelly Martinez are worried about lapses in treatment for mentally ill people, a lack of quality medical care and substandard living conditions in the county’s seven different facilities.
They also worry that people keep dying in San Diego County jails. Even though the four deaths reported so far this year are below recent annual averages, plaintiffs’ attorneys said the men and women in custody remain vulnerable.
Last week, the plaintiffs filed a motion asking the court to schedule a pretrial conference, which would force both sides to prepare for trial by describing how they plan to present their cases.
Judge Anthony J. Battaglia rejected the motion just one day later, ruling that it is still too soon to resolve pretrial disputes over evidence and testimony.
Instead, the judge said he would not schedule a pretrial conference until at least 30 days after a written ruling following the outcome of a July 24 hearing, when lawyers for the county will argue that much of the case should be dismissed without a trial.
The decision was something of a setback for the attorneys representing jail detainees, who complained that county lawyers have deliberately slow-walked the case.
“Plaintiffs will continue to prepare for trial and will continue to seek the relief that we believe is necessary to bring this jail into constitutional compliance,” said Gay Grunfeld, one of the lead plaintiffs’ attorneys.
Both parties have been exchanging evidence and expert testimony for more than a year, but a trial date has been elusive since the county sought to dismiss most of the claims in what’s called a motion for summary judgment.
A hearing on those arguments was originally scheduled for early March, with a trial to be held soon after to litigate any claims that survived the dismissal effort.
But the hearing was delayed until late March at the county’s request and then pushed to May and now July. Plaintiffs claim they are being harmed by the troubling conditions documented in more than 20 reports by independent experts.
“Collectively, these reports describe a system plagued by preventable deaths, substandard healthcare, widespread drug contraband, violence, environmental hazards, inadequate access to lawyers and courts and overincarceration of Black and Latinx individuals,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in the recent court filing.
“The case is presently in limbo,” they added. “In the meantime, conditions in the jail continue to irreparably harm the plaintiff class.”
The court’s refusal to schedule a pretrial conference came less than two weeks after a ruling on another key issue – allowing into evidence three in-custody deaths the county claimed should be excluded.
According to attorneys representing San Diego County, the deaths of Jose Ramon Cervantes Conejo, Abdul Kamara and Eric Van Tine should not be included because they died at various hospitals – not in county jails.
“The three deceased individuals did not die in the custody of the Sheriff’s Office and they did not away in custody as defined by the complaint and the issues raised therein,” the county’s legal team argued in a court filing.
Kamara was arrested by sheriff’s deputies and stopped breathing after being placed in a restraint device at the Vista Detention Facility. Van Tine was beaten by a cellmate in the San Diego Central Jail and Cervantes Conejo suffered severe brain damage after a deputy said he rolled off a bench in a Vista jail holding cell — injuries a neurosurgeon described as “not compatible with a simple fall.”
After a June 2 hearing, the court agreed with the plaintiffs.
“Given that each of these individuals allegedly suffered fatal injuries in a San Diego County jail, information relating to these deaths is relevant to a claim,” the court ruled. “Moreover, the production of records is proportional to the needs of the case.”
Dunsmore, now 57, filed his lawsuit in March 2020, when he was a state prisoner being housed in San Diego County jail.
His hand-written complaint, filed pro se, or without the benefit of an attorney, claimed that he was illegally being denied meaningful access to court to prosecute an unrelated case. He also accused the sheriff of denying him proper disability services, food and access to showers.
“I am totally disabled,” Dunsmore wrote in his initial claim. “(I) have been denied shower for 90 days, eating for 5 days dependent adult assistance for 90 days causing malnourishment, partial eating for 90 days and other medical ADA violations.”
Dunsmore is now being held at the California Health Care Facility outside Stockton. His case was picked up and amended by a group of civil rights lawyers, who already have generated some results.
Two years ago, the county agreed to a settlement that called for making county jails compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. And the county last year agreed to provide better interpretive services to people in custody who are hearing-impaired.
But the county and plaintiffs remain far apart on issues like medical care and mental health treatment.
Last year, medical and mental health experts hired by the Dunsmore legal team visited several county lockups and wrote lengthy and detailed reports describing serious lapses in care. One expert wrote that San Diego jails were among the worst he had seen.
“In my more than 35 years evaluating and working in detention facilities, I have come across very few, if any, mental health care systems so lacking in effective systems and levels of care,” Dr. Pablo Stewart wrote in his 165-page analysis.
The San Diego County jail system is among the largest in the country, with an average daily population of about 4,000. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sheriff’s Office reported daily populations as high as 5,600.
According to a 2022 state audit, 185 people died in San Diego County custody between 2006 and 2020 – the highest mortality rate in California. In the year following the audit’s release, a record 19 people died in San Diego jails.
The in-custody deaths and serious injuries have cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in legal settlements and jury awards. Records show the county paid more than $75 million in recent years for deputy misconduct and negligence.
The Sheriff’s Office has sought extra money to improve its jails over the past two years and boost medical and mental health services.
Martinez announced a nearly $500 million infrastructure project for new and upgraded jails in 2023. Last year, she also announced a $26 million plan to renovate the downtown Central Jail.
