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KPBS Midday Edition

Plaintiff Who Suffered Brain Damage In County Jail Awarded More Than $12 Million

A San Diego County Sheriff's vehicle parked at the department's administration center, San Diego, August 13, 2018.
Claire Trageser
A San Diego County Sheriff's vehicle parked at the department's administration center, San Diego, August 13, 2018.
A Carlsbad man who suffered brain damage while in custody at the Vista Detention Facility was awarded more than $12 million dollars in damages last week, one of the largest awards in a case against San Diego County in recent history.

Brian Collins, a 30-year-old welder from Carlsbad, was disoriented and hallucinating when he fell on a public street. A passerby called 911. Paramedics were evaluating him when San Diego County Sheriff's deputies arrived and took him to jail in Vista for public drunkenness.

Collins' symptoms were caused by dangerously low levels of sodium, the lawsuit said. While in jail he fell and hit his head on the concrete floor and suffered a brain bleed. He is now permanently incapacitated. He can walk and talk, but many simple tasks are now a struggle, his attorneys said.

A jury awarded Collins more than $12 million in damages. The lawsuit is one of 40 filed by inmates and their families in the last 10 years resulting in more than $20 million in damage awards, which are paid with taxpayer dollars, according to reporting by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

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Freelance investigative reporter Kelly Davis and Union-Tribune investigative reporter Jeff MacDonald explored this case and how it fits in the pattern of deaths and injuries in San Diego County jails since Bill Gore was elected sheriff in 2009.

Davis joins Midday Edition to talk about the Collins case.

KPBS has created a public safety coverage policy to guide decisions on what stories we prioritize, as well as whose narratives we need to include to tell complete stories that best serve our audiences. This policy was shaped through months of training with the Poynter Institute and feedback from the community. You can read the full policy here.