Legal payouts by San Diego County sheriff soared fivefold in just 10 years, data show

Newly released data show that yearly payments by the Sheriff’s Office into the county’s public liability fund — the pool of money used to cover claims against the county — have more than quintupled over the past decade.

Tens of millions of those dollars were paid to families of people who died in San Diego County jails. Tens of millions more are likely to be paid as pending lawsuits are settled out of court or go to trial.

The Sheriff’s Office released the decade of payouts in response to a request by The San Diego Union-Tribune, after the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved the county’s largest single payment related to an in-custody death.

Last Sunday, the Sheriff’s Office announced the 10th death in its jails so far this year, surpassing the nine recorded last year and ending a decline in annual deaths that began after the record 19 reported in 2022.

Each legal payout is approved by the Board of Supervisors and paid from the county treasury. Those payments are then used to calculate how much the Sheriff’s Office must pay into the county’s public liability fund in future years.

In 2015-16, the Sheriff’s Office directed $8.3 million from its budget to the public liability fund. This year, the Sheriff’s Office expects to send almost $50 million.

The escalation in legal costs is largely driven by a spate of expensive and high-profile settlements paid by the county to the families of people who died or were gravely injured in San Diego County jails.

In the past 18 months alone, the county paid $14 million to the family of Elisa Serna, who died five days after being booked into the Las Colinas women’s jail. While experiencing untreated alcohol and drug withdrawal, she suffered a seizure and collapsed as a deputy and a nurse looked on. They then shut her cell door and left.

Late last year, the county agreed to pay nearly $5 million to the family of Michael Wilson, who died from a treatable heart condition after jail staff neglected to give him his prescribed medication.

The county also paid $4 million to the mother of Lester “Danny” Marroquin. In her lawsuit, she said jail staff ignored the 35-year-old’s escalating psychiatric distress and self-harming behavior. Against the advice of a mental health clinician, he was placed into solitary confinement, where he died from acute water intoxication.

Last month, the county paid its largest settlement ever for an in-custody death — $16 million to the family of Hayden Schuck, who died at 22 from a lack of medical care after he was placed in a remote section of the downtown jail known as “the back 40.”

The payments are likely to keep piling up.

According to an analysis by The San Diego Union-Tribune, the county is still defending 21 lawsuits filed by plaintiffs who say their loved ones died as a result of neglect or misconduct by jail staff.

A Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said Sheriff Kelly Martinez has made numerous reforms to help reduce legal costs and settlements, a spokesperson said.

“Sheriff Kelly Martinez has implemented several risk-management strategies and policies in an effort to continually improve the San Diego jail system she inherited,” Lt. David Collins said by email.

Martinez said in a written statement that she recognizes the importance of civil litigation and the pain experienced by families who have lost loved ones. She noted that while most of the lawsuits stem from jail operations, the overall liability costs reflect the full range of department operations.

She said she ran for sheriff on a promise to improve the jails and remains focused on that effort.

“I took office with a promise to improve San Diego’s jails, and I remain committed to that promise,” she said. “We have already made significant changes. And through careful study, assessment and implementation, we will continue in those efforts.”

Martinez said the challenges facing San Diego County’s jails are not unique and reflect broader societal problems.

“We as Americans need to take stock of how we have traditionally viewed incarceration in this country, because I believe we can do better,” she said.

Collins emphasized that Martinez has little direct control over the county’s litigation strategy or settlement decisions. Those choices rest solely with the Board of Supervisors — though the Sheriff’s Office can offer input.

Martinez believes that input should carry weight as settlements are evaluated, Collins said, while also noting the sheriff’s confidence in county counsel and its work.

As the pace of the lawsuits has quickened and the bill for the county’s payouts has grown, advocates and others have called for county supervisors to do more to hold the Sheriff’s Office accountable, including by taking the money out of its budget rather than the general fund.

Collins said the payments have traditionally come out of department revenues through the contributions to the public liability fund.

“The sheriff has heard community input that settlements should come from her budget, as you have reported yourselves,” he wrote. “She wanted to clarify … that this in fact is the case.”

Two homicides in one cell

Many of the pending wrongful-death lawsuits appear likely to succeed, in part because plaintiffs’ attorneys can point to a growing body of prior cases to argue that people have died due to systemic failures, not isolated mistakes.

Since 2020, only two out of 30 lawsuits have been dismissed. A damning 2022 state audit — which found San Diego had the highest jail mortality rate among California’s large counties — has provided a strong foundation for these claims.

In a ruling earlier this year in the Schuck case, U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw said evidence in the case suggested broader flaws in how the Sheriff’s Office responds to jail deaths.

“While not all in-custody deaths necessarily arise from unconstitutional conduct, this evidence suggests that the county has been passive in the aftermath of all deaths, resulting from deliberate indifference, mere negligence, or otherwise,” he wrote.

Lonnie Rupard was 46 when he died in a Central Jail cell in 2022. The Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death a homicide due to “ineffective delivery” of care, including of basic necessities like food and medicine.

Rupard suffered from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. He sometimes failed to take his medication, and ran afoul of the law. He was arrested by National City police on a parole violation in December 2021 and was dead three months later.

The coroner’s report noted that Rupard had lost 60 pounds while in custody, roughly one-third of his body weight.

Three days before he died, a psychiatrist visited Rupard to determine if he was fit for trial. His report, issued a week after he died, cited adverse conditions inside the cell that were apparently tolerated by jail staff.

“The toilet was full of excrement and the room was malodorous,” the report said. “There was feces on the floor and food smeared on the walls. The decedent was described as unkempt and dirty himself.”

Rupard’s family filed a civil lawsuit in 2023 that is still pending.

Eighteen months after Rupard died, Keith Bach was detained — and died — in the Central Jail. His case, too, was ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Bach, who was 63 and diabetic, had been arrested on suspicion of vandalism, although prosecutors never filed charges. By the time he died in jail less than three days later, records show the alarm on Bach’s insulin pump had been beeping for nearly 24 hours because it needed refilling.

The alert was still beeping hours later, when an investigator from the Medical Examiner’s Office arrived. The ensuing report said Bach had not been seen by medical staff for 19 hours before he died.

“The death is due to complications of a natural disease,” Deputy Medical Examiner Melanie Estrella wrote. “However, considering the inaction (i.e. neglect) characterizing the events leading to inadequate care … the manner of death is classified as homicide.”

Two months after Rupard died, Roselee Bartolacci was found dead in her cell at the Las Colinas women’s jail in Santee.

Bartolacci was 32 and developmentally disabled, and she functioned at the level of an 8-year-old. She was placed in isolation, where her cell quickly piled up with trash and human waste.

She repeatedly refused food, water and medicine and lost 44 pounds during her six weeks in custody, but medical staff and deputies did little to ensure her care, the subsequent lawsuit alleged.

“They left Roselee in her cell crying and moaning and sucking her thumb, speaking in gibberish and sitting in her own urine,” said Julia Yoo, the attorney for Bartolacci’s mother.

The family of Corey Dean recently filed a claim with the county, the precursor to a lawsuit. Dean, who had a history of schizophrenia, died in an administrative segregation cell in July.

Attorneys suing the county over jail conditions collected sworn declarations from men in nearby cells who described Dean covered in feces and pleading for help in the days leading up to his death.

In her own declaration, Dean’s sister said the Sheriff’s Office had initially told the family he died a “natural death.” She said she was devastated to learn what actually happened and believes he might still be alive had he been moved to a safer, more supportive setting.

The county is also facing lawsuits over in-custody homicides caused by deputies’ decisions to place acutely mentally ill people with histories of violence in cells with other men.

In 2021, 38-year-old Dominique McCoy was killed by a cellmate who said he was hearing voices telling him to kill McCoy. Last year, 24-year-old Brandon Yates was tortured to death by a man whose father had pleaded with the court for urgent mental-health intervention.

Two years ago, Eric Van Tine suffered a traumatic brain injury after a fight with a cellmate and died several months later.

The men had been placed in a three-person Central Jail cell, despite the fact that state regulators had repeatedly told the Sheriff’s Office to stop the practice of triple-bunking.

Reforms made, recommendations deferred

Sheriff’s officials are keenly aware of the toll the deaths are taking on family members, the community and their own reputation.

Last month, the Sheriff’s Office took the first steps toward hiring an outside expert to evaluate its medical and mental health services and recommend improvements.

Collins, the department spokesperson, cited a series of reforms and upgrades Martinez has made since she was sworn in almost three years ago as well as changes she is planning in coming months and years.

Martinez herself has highlighted these improvements to a civilian oversight panel and to reporters.

Months before she was elected sheriff, Martinez established a special position to manage in-custody death investigations, Collins said.

The new position, staffed by a lieutenant and called the in-custody death advocate and department investigation coordinator, or ICDADIC, acts as an advocate for people who die in jail and a liaison between the sheriff and outside entities, he said.

“The purpose of the ICDADIC is to acquire and maintain knowledge of all facts related to in-custody death incidents and to present such facts to Sheriff Martinez and Sheriff’s command staff within three business days of (a death),” Collins said. “Using those facts, changes to policy, additional training or recommendations for further internal investigation may be proposed.”

Under the sheriff’s direction, more medical professionals have been added to jail intake procedures to help identify people who may need special treatment or classification, he said.

“In 2024, the Sheriff’s Office incorporated doctors into the intake medical-screening process,” he said. “Additionally, many of the facilities are utilizing a primary care nursing model, which has nurses stationed in the housing modules.”

Martinez also created a secured hospital ward at Paradise Valley Hospital for people who need inpatient care, Collins said. The new unit, which will complement a similar facility at Tri-City Medical Center, is scheduled to open next month.

Finally, the spokesperson said the sheriff remains committed to obtaining accreditation from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, which sets the standard for providing quality care inside jails and prisons.

Former Sheriff Bill Gore hired the organization nearly a decade ago to evaluate San Diego County jails and detail new policies and infrastructure upgrades in order to qualify for accreditation.

But the Sheriff’s Office has been unable to meet many of the recommendations, in large part due to costs.

Martinez told the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board earlier this month that she plans to ask the Board of Supervisors for up to $1 billion in supplemental funding to pay for new jails.