Family says Sacramento police didn’t seek medical aid for man who died in custody
Relatives of a man who died in custody at the main county jail last year has amended its lawsuit against the city to include details of his arrest by Sacramento police that family members say show neglect of his medical needs.
David Barefield, 55, died of an overdose and coronary disease on May 12 during the intake process at the Sacramento jail downtown after a series of missteps that led county officials to acknowledge shortfalls in their system of evaluating and caring for inmates.
His family filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court in Sacramento late last year against both the city and the county, but county officials settled their part of the case last month by agreeing to update their policies and pay the family $3.5 million.
Barefield was one of three men to die at the jail in a six-week period last year and at least 30 who died at jail facilities since 2021, previous reporting by The Sacramento Bee shows.
In an amendment to their original complaint filed Wednesday in federal court for the Eastern District of California, the family included a transcript of audio from the arresting officers’ body cameras and dashboard cameras that appear to show disregard for Barefield’s attempts to explain his condition. Mark Merin, the family’s attorney, confirmed that the timeline and quotes were from the videos, which he reviewed.
Barefield, the complaint alleges, was slipping in and out of consciousness after taking methamphetamine and fentanyl at a location in South Sacramento near the 5300 block of Stockton Boulevard, the complaint said. He lay down on a path near a sidewalk and a electric vehicle charging station, prompting a security company employee to call police.
“I have a person sleeping on the property I’m watching on camera,” the employee said. “No weapons seen. I think he may be high on something.”
The officer who responded to the call, Kyle Stedman, tried to get Barefield to move, the complaint says.
“Get off the property,” Stedman said, according to the complaint. He was one of several officers named in the complaint as defendants in addition to the city itself.
“I can’t,” Barefield said in a mumble, according to the complaint. The two went back and forth, the transcript alleges, with Stedman offering a hand at one point, and asking Barefield just to move over a few feet to get off the property.
“I can’t move,” Barefield said repeatedly. Stedman asked if Barefield needed and ambulance, but did not call one despite Barefield’s repeated answers of “yes.”
Stedman continued to ask Barefield to move, eventually saying, “Why are you refusing to leave?” Barefield responded again, “I’m not. I can’t move.”
Eventually, Stedman called for backup and he and several other officers attempted to get Barefield to move. Barefield says that he cannot move, and says that he has pain in his abdomen. They ultimately took him into custody without providing medical care.
Along the way officers made comments and laughed about what the complaint said were the “filthy” conditions in which Barefield was found, the compaint alleged. At the same time, Barefield “had labored and shallow breathing, he gasped, panted, and moaned in pain, his body twitched, and his eyelids flickered,” the complaint alleged, based on the dashcam video.
They took him to the county jail after learning that there were outstanding warrants against Barefield, the complaint alleged. They did not administer Narcan, the drug that can reverse opiate overdoses, the complaint alleged.
“You can fake — pretend you’re dead all you want,” Stedman said as he tried to get Barefield out of the police car at the jail, the complaint alleged. “Let’s go.”
It was there, where he also did not receive timely medical care, that Barefield died, the complaint alleged.
“He asked for an ambulance and was derided, humiliated and made fun of,” Merin said by telephone.
The Sacramento Police Department declined to comment on the case or the allegations, saying in a email that it does not discuss ongoing litigation.
This story was originally published April 17, 2025 at 12:04 PM.
