Another gruesome death in jail, and neglect that preceded it, described in sworn testimony

Just four weeks ago, Corey Dean banged his fists and yelled for help for days, without being treated by San Diego County jail deputies or medical staff, before the mentally ill man died alone in his Vista jail cell.

When deputies pulled Dean from his cell, his body and mattress were covered in feces, according to sworn declarations filed in San Diego federal court.

Now it has happened again.

Three men in custody at the San Diego Central Jail have described another man who was repeatedly ignored by deputies and medical staff before he was found dead.

In sworn declarations filed this week in San Diego federal court, the men said they warned deputies and medical staff in the days before Karim Talib’s July 28 death that he badly needed help. What they describe suggests Talib suffered from mental illness or cognitive decline.

“The day after Mr. Talib entered Unit 7/E, the entire unit began to smell like feces,” Maurice Vasquez wrote. “Other incarcerated persons in the unit were yelling that they were concerned that the new person who had entered the unit was unwell.”

Vasquez said he repeatedly told deputies and medical staff Talib needed treatment, but no help came.

Meal trays stacked up for days, uneaten. Medications delivered multiple times a day piled up, untaken.

“Once I was in the dayroom, I went to Mr. Talib’s cell and observed him lying down with his eyes open and his diaper filled with fecal matter,” Vasquez said. “There was so much fecal matter that the diaper had slid below Mr. Talib’s buttocks.

“Mr. Talib looked like he was dead,” he said.

A Sheriff’s Office spokesperson declined to comment on either case. But he emphasized the challenges jails face in treating people with serious medical and mental health needs.

“In the absence of a secure, hospital-level mental health facility, our jails have become the region’s largest mental health provider by default — not by design,” Lt. David Collins said by email. “This is a public-health failure, not a criminal justice solution.”

Two years ago, Sheriff Kelly Martinez announced a 10-year, $500 million plan to upgrade local jails. Most of that money would be spent to replace the Vista Detention Facility, which opened in 1970.

In an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune last October, Martinez said her office looked into adapting one of the county’s jails to provide a higher level of medical and mental health care but found it really wasn’t possible.

“We just weren’t able to make that work with the way the system has to work, and people going to court, and where we have to hold them,” she said.

But Collins suggested Martinez might be rethinking such a facility. He described “a renewed focus on understanding the need for a secure mental health facility.”

“Sheriff Martinez is committed to preventing all deaths but must be given the tools required to do the job,” he said.

The Union-Tribune reached out to all five members of the county Board of Supervisors — which lacks direct oversight of the sheriff but does control her $1.2 billion budget — for comment on the troubling details about Dean’s and Talib’s final days.

Only board vice chair Monica Montgomery Steppe responded.

“Every person in our custody deserves to be treated with basic human dignity,” she said in an emailed statement. “For far too long, there have been clear and repeated calls to improve how we care for individuals in our jails. Those calls must now be answered with concrete reforms, improved oversight and sustained investment in care and support services.

“We have a moral obligation to get this right, and I remain fully committed to using every tool at my disposal to prevent further harm in our facilities,” she wrote.

Since 2006, at least 251 people have died in San Diego County jails. After a high of 19 deaths in 2022 and a critical state audit, the number of in-custody deaths dipped, with nine deaths recorded last year and 13 in 2023.

Talib was the seventh person to die in a San Diego County jail this year.

The deaths do more than cause grief for decedents’ families and traumatize the incarcerated people who witness them. They have cost tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits and legal settlements — taxpayer money that could otherwise be spent on parks, libraries or even improving jails.

San Diego County is currently defending at least 19 lawsuits that are likely to result in millions more dollars in payments to plaintiffs’ families.

The new declarations were filed as part of a class-action lawsuit against the county over conditions in its jails. That case has already resulted in a partial settlement over the jail’s treatment of disabled people, but its claims alleging deficiencies in medical and mental health care are still being litigated.

Owerrie Bacon also signed a sworn declaration about the lack of care Talib received.

During his time in the dayroom, Bacon said he looked into Talib’s cell and saw that he had been defecating on himself and could not change his diaper.

“I tried to speak with Mr. Talib a couple times, but he never responded to me,” he wrote. “In fact, I never heard him speak with anyone, including custody, medical or mental health staff.”

Larry Lightning was assigned to a nearby cell on the seventh floor. He said in a sworn declaration that he saw Talib, who used a wheelchair for transport, rolled out of his cell a few days before he died so that a work crew could clean up.

But the effort did little good.

“I then observed custody staff return Mr. Talib to his cell, but he still had fecal matter on his shirt, diaper and his wheelchair,” Lightning said. “It appeared that Mr. Talib had not been given a shower or otherwise cleaned while he was out of his cell.”

Two days before Talib died, Lightning said he heard a nurse say that Talib had recently been moved from the jail’s medical observation unit to administration separation, or AdSep, a housing classification similar to solitary confinement.

The night before Talib died, Lightning said he heard a mental health clinician ask Talib if he were OK, and if he could change his own diaper.

Lightning heard no response.

“The clinician was at Mr. Talib’s cell for maybe three minutes,” he wrote. “Once the clinician started to leave, I got her attention and told her that Mr. Talib should be moved back to the medical unit because he was unwell. But Mr. Talib was not moved back to the medical unit.”

On the morning of July 28, Lightning said he heard deputies enter Talib’s cell. He peeked through the window of his cell and watched them drag him out by his shirt.

“I saw Mr. Talib’s eyes open, but there was no life in his eyes,” Lightning wrote. “The image of Mr. Talib’s lifeless eyes has haunted me since then, and I have found it difficult to sleep as a result.”

It’s not clear what role the declarations from people who witnessed the last hours of Corey Dean and Karim Talib might play in the class-action lawsuit. The legal process known as discovery, where parties exchange information ahead of trial, closed earlier this year.

Gay Grunfeld, the lead attorney in the case, said plaintiffs have filed a motion to re-open discovery to include the two recent deaths.