County must pay $73K in attorney fees tied to deleted jail video after record $16M settlement

San Diego County will pay $73,250 in attorney fees to lawyers representing the family of William Hayden Schuck, on top of a record $16 million settlement that resolved a federal civil-rights lawsuit over the 22-year-old’s death in the San Diego Central Jail in March 2022.

The additional payment stems from a ruling last month by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who sanctioned the county for allowing 57 hours of potentially critical surveillance footage from a camera above Schuck’s cell to be erased. The judge said the missing video could have shown whether deputies or medical staff had checked on Schuck or ignored him as his condition deteriorated.

Had the case gone to trial, jurors would have been instructed that they could draw what is called an adverse inference and assume the lost footage would have hurt the county’s case. Sabraw also ordered the county to cover the plaintiffs’ legal costs related to litigating the sanctions.

Lauren Mellano, one of the attorneys who represented Schuck’s family, said the county needed to face consequences for deleting the footage.

“We agreed to accept a lower amount than we could have gotten by litigating it in court,” she said. “It was less about the size of the fees than sending a clear message that destroying surveillance video is never OK.”

Filed in May 2023, the Schuck family’s lawsuit accused jail staff of negligence and deliberate indifference to their son’s medical needs.

Schuck was arrested on March 10, 2022, on suspicion of drug possession and driving under the influence after a rollover car crash.

After booking, he was placed in a temporary holding cell in an isolated part of the jail known to deputies as “the back 40” — a slang term originally used by farmers to refer to a remote piece of land. One deputy testified in a deposition that people held there could easily be forgotten during routine checks.

By March 15, Schuck was incoherent, could barely stand and muttered only the word “thirsty,” according to statements by deputies. Video from that evening reportedly showed him hunched over, dry-heaving and collapsing.

Around 3:45 a.m. the next morning, deputies delivered a meal tray and left. Nearly six hours later, they found Schuck unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at 10:18 a.m. on March 16, less than a week after his arrest.

The medical examiner ruled Schuck’s death an accident due to complications caused by cocaine and MDMA he had ingested before his arrest. A medical expert for the family concluded that severe dehydration was the primary cause.

At a press conference last month announcing the settlement, attorney Tim Scott said facing the adverse inference jury instruction “did make the county more willing to settle.”

In a written statement following the settlement, the Sheriff’s Office said it has made significant reforms in the years since Schuck’s death.

“The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to learning from the past while continuing forward progress and ensuring that past deficiencies are not repeated,” the statement said.

At a news conference announcing the settlement, Sabrina Schuck spoke of her son’s struggle with addiction and said the family had been arranging treatment for him before his arrest.

“It was going to be a long haul from there — but that’s the haul I would like to be making instead of this one,” she said.

Schuck was the fifth of 19 people to die in San Diego County jail custody in 2022, the highest annual number on record.

Since then, jail deaths have declined. Thirteen people died in 2023, nine in 2024 and nine so far this year.

But the county is still facing more than 20 wrongful-death lawsuits and a class-action case aiming at improving medical and mental health care in the county’s seven jails.