Federal judge sanctions San Diego County for erasing ‘critically important’ video in 22-year-old’s jail death

A federal judge has sanctioned San Diego County for failing to preserve jail video footage that could have shed light on the final days of a 22-year-old man who died in the downtown Central Jail in 2022.

In a ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw adopted in full a recommendation by Magistrate Judge Allison Goddard, who found the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office failed to retain 57 hours of video from a hallway camera outside William Hayden Schuck’s cell.

Goddard made her recommendation in court on July 31 and in writing the following day. The county filed an objection two weeks later and requested a hearing earlier this week.

Sabraw agreed with Goddard that the county had a clear obligation to preserve the footage once Schuck died and his family filed notice of potential litigation.

He rejected arguments from a county attorney that the video was irrelevant because it didn’t show the inside of the cell and would have only briefly shown Schuck being moved to a different cell.

“It ought to trigger a process where all of the recordings — no matter how many days leading up to the death from that detainee’s time in custody — ought to be preserved,” Sabraw said.

Sabraw described the missing footage as “critically important” because it could have shown whether deputies, medical staff or others came and went, or whether Schuck was ignored altogether.

At a July 31 hearing, Goddard sharply criticized the county’s handling of the footage, calling it “shocking in the height of negligence.” In her tentative ruling, she noted the Sheriff’s Office has a policy requiring that surveillance video relevant to an in-custody death be preserved for at least two years.

The Sheriff’s Office saved 36 hours from the camera outside Schuck’s cell, indicating someone found the footage relevant, Goddard said. But the remaining 57 hours was overwritten, even though the county received two preservation letters from the family’s lawyers in April and September 2022.

In a deposition, a sheriff’s official acknowledged that “there probably isn’t a single deputy in the department” who knows the written retention policy. Instead, footage is automatically erased once the system reaches storage capacity — typically around nine months at the Central Jail.

County attorney Steve Inman argued in court that the Sheriff’s Office “would not have considered this allegedly missing video to be related to Schuck, because it didn’t show Schuck.”

Attorneys for his family say the footage could have captured whether deputies performed welfare checks or if medical staff entered the area — both key issues in their lawsuit accusing sheriff’s staff of negligence.

In a deposition, a deputy described Schuck as being housed in part of the jail that was referred to as “the back 40,” a slang term originally used by farmers to refer to a remote piece of land.

Another deputy said people held there could easily be forgotten during routine safety checks.

Schuck had been arrested on March 10 after a car accident for being under the influence of drugs and in possession of a controlled substance. He was placed in a temporary holding cell without a mattress, where he remained for nearly five days.

A deputy who escorted Schuck back from court the day before he died said he had to physically guide Schuck to keep him from wandering. Another recalled Schuck slurring the word “thirsty” and being unable to stand without help. Despite that, he was not taken to the jail’s infirmary.

Other footage from that day showed Schuck collapsing twice as he was being moved to a different cell. He was found unresponsive the next morning, March 16.

An autopsy concluded he died from complications of drug intoxication, with dehydration listed as a contributing factor. A medical expert hired by the family said severe dehydration was the primary cause of death.

The report also described bruises, scrapes and open sores across his chest, back, arms and legs.

“The circumstances of this case strongly raise the inference that Hayden was forgotten about in that cell,” said attorney Lauren Mellano.

As a sanction, Sabraw agreed with Goddard’s recommendation that jurors be allowed to draw an “adverse inference” — meaning they may, but are not required to, assume the missing video would have been unfavorable to the county.

Both sides were ordered to meet and confer on the specific wording of the jury instruction.

Sabraw called the remedy “measured and fair,” noting it still gives the county room to argue its position at trial. He rejected the county’s request to let jurors first decide whether the video were destroyed intentionally.

“There’s a lot of speculation as to what it would have shown or not shown,” he said. “But what also seems clear is the position of that camera, it would have depicted passersby, comers and goers in the jail, whether it’s deputies, medical staff, whoever.”

Inman told Sabraw that deputies in the jails are now equipped with body-worn cameras and that footage is stored indefinitely. Sabraw said that’s an important step but doesn’t change the court’s obligation to address what happened in this case.

Goddard also granted the plaintiff’s request for attorneys’ fees tied to the sanctions motion. Sabraw sent that issue back to her to determine the amount.

The case is headed to trial unless the county agrees to settle. Last month, Sabraw refused to dismiss the family’s lawsuit — one of at least 19 the county is currently facing over jail deaths — saying there was enough evidence of possible negligence.

At Thursday’s hearing, Inman said the Board of Supervisors is expected to consider the family’s latest settlement proposal later this month.