San Diego County sues own jail healthcare providers in new lawsuit

S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman. On today's show , we'll talk with U-T reporter Kelli Davis about her recent reporting on a lawsuit against two health care providers for county jails after the violent death of an inmate. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. San Diego County is suing two of its jail health care providers following the violent killing of Brandon Yates inside the San Diego Central Jail. The lawsuit claims the man who killed Yates did not receive adequate mental health care. Kelly Davis joins me to discuss her latest reporting on this case. She's an investigative reporter with the watchdog team at the San Diego Union-Tribune. Kelly , welcome. Hi.

S2: Hi. Thank you for having me.

S1: It's always a pleasure. So , Kelly , what are the details in this lawsuit against the jail's health care provider ? Yes.

S2: So so as you mentioned , the Yates family had filed a lawsuit against the county over the death of their son , Brandon. Um , and they filed that earlier this year. And so last week , the county filed what's called a cross claim , which is basically kind of its own lawsuit , claiming that its medical provider , medical contractor NAF care , and a subcontractor called Liberty Health Care violated their contracts by not providing adequate mental health care to a man named Alvin Ruiz , who killed Brandon Yates in a jail cell in January 2024. And it's important to note that the county's claim um , it doesn't say that the allegation in the Yates family's lawsuit is true. You know , it's very carefully worded. So it doesn't say that the the claims the Yates family is making are true , but argues that if the county is found liable , it's actually the contractors who should pay the damages. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. Well , you know , remind us what happened to Brandon Yates. I mean , what do we know about what transpired in that cell and why he got there ? Yeah.

S2: So , Brandon , he was. He was 24. Um , he was arrested after he was found sleeping in someone's backyard shed. He was. He was homeless at the time. Uh , his family said he struggled with addiction , mental illness. They had really tried to get him help. He had. He had been an apprentice to commercial fisherman. Um , it was really trying to get his life together. You know , just his family described as his very , very kind person , just really motivated to terrorize poles life together. And like I've heard from so many parents , his mom thought he'd be safer in jail than on the street. And maybe this could be the chance for him to finally get some help. But not long after he was booked , he was placed in the cell with. With Mr. Ruiz within just a few hours. The two men , um , you know , Brandon was was off his meds. He was. He was psychotic. Mr. Ruiz was psychotic. They both had kind of delusions about religion and started arguing about that. And that triggered a very violent , uh , fight where mysteries was , was really the aggressor , and , um , just brutally murdered. Uh , Brandon , it's it's very disturbing.

S1:

S2: Um , so about a month and a half or a month or so before he killed Brandon. And he had been arrested after assaulting his wife and children. He also had a history , a very well documented history of mental illness. And so when he was booked into jail , he had had threatened suicide. He'd been placed in , like , high observation housing. He had violent outbursts. He had , you know , exhibited signs of acute psychosis , threatened to harm other people. And , um , the county's claim against its contractors is that there were all these red flags , these mental health clinicians who had assessed Mr. Ruiz but failed to put him into the jail's psychiatric stabilization unit. Um , failed to ask a judge or to initiate the process of asking a judge , um , that Mr. Ruiz could be involuntarily medicated and that they didn't alert custody staff , that Mr. Ruiz posed a serious risk to others.

S1:

S2: That's the big question. Um , in in the Yates family's lawsuit. So the county is kind of putting it on its contractors , you know , saying that the medical clinicians should have flagged him as a as a threat. But according to records obtained by the Yates family's attorney , jail deputies , the ones who are responsible for classifying people and determining , you know , what cells they're placed in , what part of the jail they're placed in. They they knew mysteries was was dangerous. He had been classified by jailhouse deputies as both um , uh , he had two great classifications on one called bypass , where he was supposed to be kept away with from other people. He could not be in the a jail module day room with other people because he posed too much of a threat. And he was also classified as keep separate , meaning he should not have been housed with with others. And according to sheriff's department's policy , the deputies who moved Brandon Yates into Alvin Ruiz's cell , they would have had to confirm that it was safe to put Brandon in that cell. So so the family saying like , yes , you know , the contractor or the medical providers should have done a better job at assessing Mr. Ruiz. But Jill , deputies already knew that , that he was a threat. Um , so and then they also they go on to argue that once , uh , Mr. Ruiz started hacking Brandon , uh , he Brandon was hitting the emergency call button in his cell. Other people were hitting the emergency call buttons in their cells because they heard this fight going on. Um. And no one , no one came.

S1:

S2: I mean , that that's that was kind of how the , the mental illness , um , manifested itself. And so they , they started arguing about religion and , um , mysteries , who was very upfront with investigators on why , you know , what motivated him. He he believed that Brandon was the devil and that God had told him to murder Brandon. And the way he did it is just horrific , just , um , suffocating him. And when he realized Brandon was still alive , did it again. Um , forced , like , um , soap down his throat , put a blanket over his face , um , and then staged after Brandon was dead. Kind of staged Brandon's body to make it look like a crucifixion , almost. And his his reasoning for doing that is , he said he wanted to show that Brandon didn't kill himself , that this was his his work , that he he did this to show that he was responsible for killing Brandon.

S1: The whole situation and the claims are horrific.

S2: There is a long list of other charges. Charges he has kind of accumulated in jail for different violent events other than. Than what happened with Brandon. And then the charges he was facing for , um , harming his wife and children. Uh , I'm. I'm not exactly where I'm sure where they are in the case , but , um , I notice there's a hearing coming up at the end of , of the of October , um , where I think they're going to kind of bring together all the charges and figure out where to go from there. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. Well , back to the county's lawsuit , then , against NAF care.

S2: Um , there are smaller contractors. Um , and I think a subcontract at least one subcontractor. But NAF care handles the the bulk of the health care services in the county. Seven jails and um and care uh handles health care for for jails around the US and they're it's not hard to find uh , other lawsuits filed against NAF care over over jail deaths and injuries. And so the county's contract with NASCAR was signed in 2022. It's good for five years with the possibility of an additional five years beyond that. So the total for the ten year block is about , um , $620 million. So it comes out to about $60 million a year. And I think there's been some contract amendments since then , but that's kind of the base. The base amount is about 60 million a year.

S1: Is this the first time the county sued one of their own , uh , providers.

S2: For NAF care ? Um , yes. Uh , and I didn't get into this in the story , but , um , in 2019 , the family of a woman named Colleen Garrow sued the county. A mrs. Garrow had suffered a debilitating stroke at the last cleanest women's jail and was not provided immediate medical care , which just kind of exacerbated the damage the stroke caused. She ended up permanently disabled. She needs around the clock care. So her family filed the county. The county filed a claim against two of its medical other medical contractors at the time. Um , but the county did end up paying the full settlement of $9.5 million to Miss Groves family. And then each contractor paid its own settlement.

S1:

S2: They stand behind their employees. They they want to provide the best possible care for people in San Diego jails. Um , so , um , yeah , they'll have a chance to the contractors will have a chance to respond to the county's claim. But but so far , just in a statement , NAF care says that its employees are professionals. They do their best , you know , and , uh , yeah , that's about it.

S1: Well , you know , you've done a lot of reporting on , uh , this tragic trend of in custody deaths in San Diego County jails.

S2: There were there were a spate of suicides , um , over a number of years , 2014 , 2015 , 2016. Um , the county brought in an outside consultants. There were there were a lot of reports , lots of lawsuits , and we've seen suicides go down. Then there were a lot of drug overdoses , a lot of lawsuits , Suits , counties brought in , um , you know , Narcan , the the , the overdose , um , medication , you know , to address that done better with drug screening. Overdoses have gone down. Um , then there were a spate of homicides , kind of , um , leading up to Brandon's death. There were seven over a period of three years. We haven't Brandon's , I believe , um , was the last homicide we've seen since then , if I'm remembering correctly. But there have still been some some serious cases since then , and I , you know , I looked at my notes before our interview today , and there are 16 or 17 pending lawsuits just over jail deaths , and then a larger class action suit over , over , um , conditions and the provisions of , of health care and mental health care in San Diego jails. So , so so it's a lot.

S1: Yeah , I know that there was a proposal on the table for the Citizens Review Board to be able to investigate health care providers after an inmate death.

S2: For outside investigators to , to take their own look at whether policies were followed. And what was interesting is , is so the Law Enforcement Review Board , um , only recently got that power , the authority to investigate jail deaths. Before that , that vote by the county board of Supervisors happened. Um , the sheriff's department , the sheriff herself warned if you give Clark the law enforcement review Board , if you give them this authority , Nav , care might pull out of its contract because they don't they don't like this. They don't want this extra oversight. Um , they don't want people kind of meddling in their , you know , what they do. And so I circle back to the sheriff's department and I said , hey , you know , Sheriff Martinez said NASCAR might end its contract because of this additional oversight. Like , how are things ? How is it , how are how are things going ? Now that NASCAR is being , you know , countersued by the county , like , that seems like a much bigger issue and I didn't. They said they can't comment because it's pending litigation.

S1: Very interesting. And I know it's something you'll continue to follow. I've been speaking with Kelli Davis. She is an investigative reporter on the watchdog team with the San Diego Union Tribune. Kelli , as always , thank you for joining us. And thank you for your reporting.

S2: Thank you so much , Jade.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.