KPBS Midday Edition

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

By Jade Hindmon / KPBS Midday Edition Co-Host, Pat Finn / Producer , Brooke Ruth / Senior Producer of Audio News

Published August 5, 2019 at 11:15 AM PDT

This story was published more than 5 years ago.

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 Midday Edition

Jade Hindmon

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Jade Hindmon is the host of KPBS Midday Edition. She connects San Diego through fearless conversations that inform, inspire and make you think. Prior to Midday Edition Jade was a reporter and fill-in anchor in the KPBS newsroom covering everything from politics to policing and the economy. Her award winning work spans network affiliates across the southeast and midwest. As a very proud Rattler, Jade studied broadcast journalism and political science at Florida A&M University. She takes a special interest in topics about democracy, accountability, racial justice, science and wellness.

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Pat Finn

Pat Finn previously served as a producer for KPBS Midday Edition and KPBS Evening Edition. Finn began her career in broadcasting at KTLA and KCET in Los Angeles. In 1979 she became KPBS’ Public Information Director, then Director of Advertising and Promotion, Program Director, and Director of Broadcasting. She oversaw the station’s local and national productions, including the one-hour documentary Los Romeros: The Royal Family of the Guitar, and Child Protective Services, a one-hour look inside the San Diego County agency responsible for the welfare of at risk children. Both programs also aired on public television stations nationwide. Finn has earned honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

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Brooke Ruth

Brooke Ruth is the senior producer of Audio News. She previously served as a producer for "KPBS Midday Edition" and a web producer. Before joining KPBS, Brooke was a web editor for four newspapers and a local television station. She began her career in news at the Imperial Valley Press. She has also been part of the web teams at the Napa Valley Register, North County Times, and U-T San Diego. While pursuing her undergraduate degree at UCLA in psychology, she worked on the student newspaper, the Daily Bruin.

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