Jeff McDonald

Speaker 1: 00:00 Mistakes and alleged abuse of power by San Diego County. Sheriff's deputies have already cost taxpayers almost $2 million this year, as reported by the San Diego union Tribune County supervisors have paid out settlements to claims ranging from excessive force to unlawful arrest, to being injured in San Diego County jail. And the lawsuits keep coming. 15 of them filed in the last year. Many of the claims who reportedly contain the same types of allegations against the Sheriff's department. Joining me is Jeff McDonald, investigative reporter at the San Diego union Tribune. Jeff, welcome to the program. Speaker 2: 00:37 Hello, good morning. Speaker 1: 00:39 Now you've examined some of the claims being made by people who have sued the County. And you say many of the same kind of offenses are being alleged in these lawsuits. What are they? Speaker 2: 00:50 Well, the most common ones are excessive force negligence and civil rights violations. They come in different forms. These are people that the Sheriff's deputies respond to. And in many cases, the deputies assume they're under the influence of drugs or alcohol rather than having medical conditions. That's a, that's a prevalent one. Uh, in other cases, they're inmates who have suffered injuries in jail due to, uh, lapses in medical care. Speaker 1: 01:16 And don't many of the lawsuits themselves reference lawsuits about the same kinds of complaints before. So in other words, this has been going on for awhile. Speaker 2: 01:25 Yes. I think the lawyers have gotten the defense. The plaintiff's lawyers have gotten wise to this and several of the lawsuits I reviewed, um, last month in preparation for this story have a whole litany of higher claims against the department, which have been, uh, either settled or, uh, litigated in favor of the plaintiffs. So other lawyers use those as an example of, uh, to establish a pattern within the Sheriff's department. Speaker 1: 01:51 Tell us about one of these lawsuits, the lawsuit filed by William Carr, for example, Speaker 2: 01:56 you as an African American guy and he's okay. He was a diabetic and he suffered from low blood sugar on a Sunday. Sure. Uh, up in Encinitas. Uh, and this was in 2018, I believe. And you went to a diner right after church with some friends. Yeah. Before the food came, he passed out. He slumped down in his chair and, and of course it's friends. I called nine one one. And, and, uh, rather than paramedics, deputies showed up and they didn't, uh, they didn't realize that he was suffering a health emergency and instead they, uh, they handcuffed him and, and according to the lawsuit, they dragged him out of the diner and into the street and put them on the curb. And, uh, when the paramedics got there, they, uh, ascertained what was wrong. They gave him some dextrose to boost his, uh, blood sugar level and he started to revive, uh, nonetheless, they took him to the hospital where he received 'em subsequent. I thought it was interesting that the Sheriff's department insisted that the handcuffs remain on, uh, mr. Carr during the length of the ambulance ride. Speaker 1: 03:08 And that's a federal civil lawsuit that's still pending. Speaker 2: 03:12 Yes. That one is still pending. It was filed quite recently. Uh, I forget when I think late last year Speaker 1: 03:18 now, over recent years, how much has the County paid out in settlements and judgments against the Sheriff's department? Speaker 2: 03:26 Well, at least $10 million. And it's a, it's significant because the County chooses to self-insure. So this is money that comes straight out of the general fund or other budgets within the County government. Uh, it's not paid by insurance, uh, which is, uh, money that could otherwise go to services or, or more, more roads or firefighters or streets or Speaker 1: 03:48 Sheriff's deputies. Now, one of the largest judgments was awarded to a North County welder named David Collins. What happened to him? Speaker 2: 03:57 Similar thing. He, uh, had a health issue. Uh, he stumbled out of his house. Uh, he lost, uh, he had a, uh, a sodium deficiency, which made him appear to, uh, uh, slur his words and appear unsteady. And he had hallucinations. Uh, he left his house and a neighbor pastored by saw his condition called the nine one one, uh, in that case, paramedics showed up and they were in the course of evaluating him when deputies also showed up. And they said to the paramedics, no, no, we got this. And, uh, they took him to jail instead of a hospital. Uh, he fell in jail and suffered a, what was called brain bleed. Uh, and now he's permanently, uh, impaired, uh, the County litigated that, and, uh, they passed up a settlement. They could have settled it for, uh, $3 million was an offer. They said, no, thanks. Speaker 2: 04:53 Uh, their position was that he had been drinking and the deputies didn't do anything wrong. Yeah. And so they went to court and the jury last summer returned a verdict of 12 and a half million dollars. Now that's still being litigated the County. Doesn't just write a check when that happens. Uh, the judge cut that amount in half for various legal reasons. That's six point $5 million, 6.4 million. I think it is. It's still being litigated and, and further hearings and, uh, and arguments are being made in court. So it'll be, probably be some months before mr. Collins sees any of the counting money. Speaker 1: 05:28 Now, the San Diego County Sheriff's department has a wide range of responsibilities and the County itself, as they say has deep pockets. So is it possible that the department is just a good tar target for these kinds of lawsuits? Speaker 2: 05:42 Yes. Every government agency is a good target and a lot of businesses for that matter as well, because most of them do have insurance for slip and fall cases and things like that. Uh, the Sheriff's department does a lot of services. They run jails, they patrol the streets, they man, the courts. Uh, so yeah, a lot of things can go wrong. It's, uh, it's, you know, obviously a very complicated, uh, system with, uh, with a lot of, uh, a lot of interests. Uh, the thing that troubles me is, uh, a lot of these allegations are repeat allegations and the settlements keep piling up. So I think that's of note to taxpayers who might be concerned about how they're resources are being expended, Speaker 1: 06:24 considering population size to San Diego County have more Sheriff's departments, lawsuits, and complaints than other California counties. Speaker 2: 06:32 We did look at that, but I decided not to, um, compare to other law enforcement agencies. Now the San Diego department's a lot bigger than most, I mean, certainly not LA County, but it's bigger even than San Diego PD. Uh, and because San Diego County, uh, in the Sheriff's department in particular has a history of inmates dying behind bars and other problems like that. We focused only on the excessive force and negligence lawsuits in San Diego Sheriff's department. Uh, when you start to compare other departments, a, the legwork is huge. Uh, and I couldn't commit that, that length of, uh, research to this, uh, to this project. Uh, but B it's also apples to oranges comparisons because of the size of the dynamics each department. Speaker 1: 07:22 So it's hard to say I've been speaking with Jeff McDonald, he's investigative reporter at the San Diego union Tribune. Jeff, thank you very much. You bet. Thank you.