Dad sues after pregnant daughter with schizophrenia dies after arrest in California

A father is suing two California sheriffs after his pregnant daughter died following her arrest during a mental breakdown.

Saeed Toghraie of Chino Hills filed a lawsuit Aug. 19 in the U.S. District Court in Riverside, suing former San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon, current Sheriff Shannon Dicus and Captain Victor Moreno, saying that his daughter Cassandra Pastora’s civil rights were violated due to “inadequate conditions of confinement and denial of needed medical care.”

Toghraie said in the lawsuit that Pastora, who had schizophrenia, stopped taking her medications because she was pregnant and on March 13, was arrested during “an episode of psychosis.” Pastora, 24, was taken to West Valley Detention Center and deputies told Toghraie that “she would be safe,” according to the lawsuit.

Pastora attacked Toghraie during an argument about taking her medication and choked a neighbor, the Daily Bulletin reported. Her father goes by the first name Sam, according to the publication.

McClatchy News didn’t receive an immediate response to a request for comment from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

The next day, Toghraie was told by a deputy that Pastora was put in a “safe room” and stripped naked “so that she could not harm herself” but that she hurt her head on the window and was taken to Kaiser Permanente Foundation Hospital in Fontana, the suit states. Authorities told Toghraie that the unborn baby was healthy and officials “refused to provide” Toghraie with any more information about Pastora, according to the lawsuit.

Toghraie said that on March 16, a detective told him that Pastora tried to die by suicide and was still at the hospital, the lawsuit states. A nurse told him that Pastora was in “critical but stable condition” but couldn’t give any more information. Pastora’s unborn baby had died, according to the suit.

On March 17, Toghraie drove to the jail but was told that the information on his daughter was “confidential,” according to the lawsuit. A deputy then told him that Pastora was on a ventilator, the suit states.

Then, on March 22, Toghraie went to the hospital and a nurse told him Pastora had “widespread brain damage.” When Toghraie asked if they needed permission to take her off the ventilator, a doctor told him: “No, she’s dead.”

Toghraie said deputies told him Pastora had a “choking incident” and she tried to smother or hang herself, according to the Daily Bulletin.

“I think it speaks for itself they knew she was mentally ill. They knew she was pregnant. They knew she was withdrawing from her medication and had medical needs right then and there,” said Toghraie’s attorney, Ed Lyman, with The Cochran Law Firm, according to the publication. “They could have taken her to a hospital, but they immediately detained her. In that period, she lost her baby and she lost her life.”

Toghraie said he still doesn’t have answers about how his daughter died and that Pastora’s death certificate lists her cause of death as “pending,” according to the lawsuit.

“As of today, the defendants refuse to provide Casi’s father with any information concerning her arrest, her detention in jail, her injuries, her medical records, her autopsy, or even a completed death certificate,” the lawsuit states.