Families sue Riverside County, sheriff over deaths in jails

Families of three inmates who died while in custody at Riverside County jails filed federal civil rights lawsuits Wednesday against the county and Sheriff Chad Bianco over what the plaintiffs allege were failures to ensure the defendants received appropriate treatment.

Relatives of 25-year-old Abel Anthony Chacon, 31-year-old Mario Solis and 20-year-old Michael Vasquez are seeking unspecified damage awards and other concessions from the county and sheriff’s department stemming from their deaths in 2022.

The same attorneys representing the plaintiffs filed an analogous civil action in federal court in March on behalf of the family of 29-year-old Richard Matus Jr., who died on Aug. 11, 2022, at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.

“This action seeks to bring to public light the deliberate disregard for safety and protection carried out by the individual defendants in this action,” according to one of the lawsuits.

Each suit lists a range of causes, largely based on alleged violations of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which requires equal treatment under the law. However, there are also allegations of breaches of the California Civil Code, deprivations tied to alleged medical negligence and policy malfeasance.

Chacon died on Aug. 25, 2022, from a drug overdose in his cell at the Byrd Detention Center, according to his family’s 53-page suit. Solis died by suicide, stuffing a pencil and other items down his throat, at the Murrieta jail, on Sept. 3, 2022, according to his family’s 59-page suit. Velasquez died from a drug overdose on May 26, 2022, at the same facility, according to his family’s 52-page suit.

Jail booking information indicated that Chacon was awaiting disposition of an attempted murder case, while Solis was facing charges related to a robbery. No details were available regarding Velasquez.

All of the civil actions point to circumstances similar to Matus’ case, with the plaintiffs alleging the men endured medical emergencies, sometimes days ahead of their deaths, but the obvious signs were overlooked or misinterpreted by correctional staff, and as a consequence, they died.

Neither the county Executive Office nor sheriff’s department immediately responded to a request for comment.

Matus was awaiting adjudication of charges of attempted murder and armed robbery for a 2018 holdup at a Banning medical marijuana dispensary that left three people seriously injured. His brother and co-defendant, 23-year-old Raymond Matus, is slated to be tried in August on the same charges.

The plaintiffs allege jail staff were deficient in their response to the inmates, and pointed to wider, systemic problems caused by the sheriff, his administrators and the county as a whole.

The four deaths were among 18 in-custody fatalities in 2022, and that number represents what the plaintiffs called an “alarming” spike traced to the sheriff’s department’s “unconstitutional patterns and practices.”

“The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department knew that there existed a great indifference to the safety and protection of the inmates who were in the government’s custody within the county’s correctional facilities,” according to one of the suits.

The plaintiffs referred repeatedly to the federal suit filed by the Bay Area-based Prison Law Office on behalf of convicted felon Quinton E. Gray in 2013.

That civil action sought to remedy what the plaintiffs claimed were ongoing failures in ensuring inmates with mental health disorders received adequate treatment. The suit culminated in a settlement between the county and plaintiffs in 2016, in which the county entered into a federal consent decree, promising to significantly expand medical resources available to detainees, at a cost of $40 million.

According to one of the suits, despite the consent decree, sheriff’s administrators have “deliberately failed to take even modest actions to prevent in-custody deaths at Riverside County correctional facilities.”

In addition to Chacon, Matus and Velasquez, at least three other in-custody fatalities in 2022 were recorded as “drug overdoses,” according to the suits. Others included homicide, suicide and “natural causes.” However, three deaths that occurred between Oct. 13 and Dec. 12 remain under investigation and undetermined.

The losses prompted the California Department of Justice in February to announce a civil rights investigation targeting Bianco and his staff.

“Whether you have a loved one in jail, or are worried about crime in your neighborhood, we all benefit when there is action to ensure the integrity of policing in our state,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said.

Bianco fired back, saying publicly, “This investigation is based on nothing but false and misleading statements and straight-out lies from activists, including their attorneys. This will prove to be a complete waste of time and resources.”

He also questioned the legitimacy of the families’ complaints to the Justice Department, writing in an online forum, “Did they ever demand that their family members not commit crimes … (or) demand they take responsibility for their own actions?”

Along with an unstated monetary award, the plaintiffs are seeking changes in “policies, procedures and practices” that “mitigate the obvious well-known risks of harm attendant” in the men’s deaths.

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