Inmates beaten to death inside the Sacramento County Jail; now their families are suing
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office has been hit with two federal lawsuits in the last month alleging that mentally ill inmates were beaten to death by fellow prisoners because jail officials failed to protect the victims by placing them in areas where they could have avoided harm.
The latest lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Sacramento over the death of Bryan Debbs, a 33-year-old man with schizophrenia who was serving a six-month jail sentence when he was attacked by a fellow inmate in the Main Jail on July 8, 2019.
Debbs was taken to Sutter Medical Center for treatment and died on Aug. 3 with no notice from the Sheriff’s Office that an inmate had died until The Sacramento Bee began asking questions about the circumstances of a death listed on the county coroner’s website.
The lawsuit, filed by Sacramento civil rights attorney Mark Merin, says Debbs was attacked by fellow inmate Christian Ento, who later was charged with murder.
The case mirrors another jail inmate death Merin filed suit against the sheriff over last month, the case of Antonio Thomas, a 39-year-old mentally ill Main Jail inmate who was beaten by his cellmate on Dec. 10, 2019, four days after Thomas had been arrested for failing to check in with his probation officer, that lawsuit says.
“Antonio Thomas was assigned to share a cell with a violent inmate suspected of murder,” the lawsuit says, adding that Thomas was left brain dead and finally died Jan. 21 at UC Davis Medical Center after his family had him taken off life support.
Sheriff Scott Jones’ office declined Wednesday to discuss pending litigation.
“However, these cases are both tragic as Mr. Debbs and Mr. Thomas both died as a result of being assaulted by their cellmate,” Sgt. Tess Deterding added in an email.
The lawsuits allege sheriff’s officials failed to protect Debbs and Thomas by housing them in medical facilities rather than in the general population. The lawsuits go on to say that the sheriff’s “deficient policies and customs are evidenced by numerous incidents where vulnerable inmates have been severely injured or killed.”
Those cases include, according to court filings:
▪ The June 16, 2017, beating of Clifton Harris, a gay inmate who had asked for accommodations in the jail but was beaten into a coma by a fellow inmate and died March 2, 2018.
▪ The Jan. 16, 2015, beating and asphyxiation death of 68-year-old Choi Saeteurn by his 37-year-old cellmate.
▪ And the Dec. 14, 2014, beating death of inmate Edward Larson, who could be heard yelling “stop hitting me” after his cellmate, Ernest Salmons, attacked him.
“Despite knowledge of these numerous incidents and systematic problems at Sacramento County Jail facilities (Sheriff Scott Jones and the county) perpetuated the problem by knowingly turning a blind eye to the abuses and have ignored or refused to investigate complaints of subordinate misconduct, acquiescing to and implicitly condoning the misconduct through a culture of impunity,” the lawsuits say.
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 1:24 PM.