San Diego County settles $15M death-in-custody settlement; judge to monitor federal oversight

By Jeff McDonald
San Diego Union-Tribune

SAN DIEGO — Weeks before a federal jury was scheduled to hear the case, San Diego County has agreed to a surprising end to a long-running trial that began with a chilling prison death nearly five years ago.

The county and one of its private health care contractors will pay $15 million to the family of Elisa Serna, a 24-year-old pregnant woman who died in the Las Colinas Jail after a sheriff’s deputy and a health care worker watched her lose consciousness in her cell and left her alone to die.

San Diego County taxpayers will shoulder the burden of monetary damages, absorbing $14 million of the agreed-upon amount. Coast Correctional Medical Group, which provides medical personnel to treat people in the prison, will pay $1 million.

“The parties will promptly file a notice of the settlement with the United States District Court and jointly file a motion to dismiss this case immediately and, within three days of payment of the settlement award, dismiss the pending appeal,” the agreement reads.

The plaintiffs and their attorneys said the settlement was reached Friday evening after a negotiating session that lasted more than 12 hours. They plan to formally announce the settlement at a news conference Tuesday morning.

The settlement was approved by the judge overseeing the federal case, who posted information about the agreement on the court’s website on Monday.

A San Diego County spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the multimillion-dollar payout.

Sheriff Kelly Martinez released a statement noting that she was not serving as sheriff at the time of Serna’s death and touted reforms she has implemented since being sworn in early last year.

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Nineteen vehicles and two motorcycles from New Arrivals and Aztec Legacy were showcased at the Correctional Training Facility event.

“Since 2019, our jails have seen many changes and an incredible shift in priorities, approach and processes,” Martinez wrote. “As sheriff, I am committed to improving our jail system and ensuring that our jails are safe for all inmates and for all of our employees.”

The cash payment is the largest ever approved by the Board of Supervisors in a wrongful death case, plaintiffs’ lawyers said. San Diego County has paid more than $75 million over the past five years for deputy negligence or misconduct, sheriff’s records show.

In addition to the $15 million payment, the agreement calls for the Sheriff’s Department to provide new training for deputies and jail medical staff. At least some of the restorative education will focus on what it calls “compassion training” for department employees.

The resolution also called on the sheriff to update its policy regarding checking the vital signs of inmates in the medical observation unit.

It also requires a personal meeting between Martinez and Elisa’s parents, Michael and Paloma Serna, who have become staunch supporters of reform since their daughter’s death.

Paloma Serna said the cash payment was not a driving force behind her decision to end the case. She said she wants to continue fighting for reforms within the Sheriff’s Department.

“The dollar amount doesn’t matter,” said Serna, who plans to continue defending other men and women in sheriff’s custody. “Those things don’t change the fact that Elisa will never come back.”

Importantly, the settlement allows a San Diego federal judge who oversaw the legal proceedings to monitor the Sheriff’s Department’s compliance with the agreement for the next 12 months, believed to be the first time an elected sheriff will be subject to formal U.S. government oversight.

After several delays, the civil case was scheduled for trial next month. The agreement reached Friday specifies that each side will be responsible for its own legal costs.

Lawyers representing the Serna family hailed the settlement as a landmark decision that will motivate the Sheriff’s Department to do better in the future.

“Elisa Serna died in solitary confinement in the Medical Observation Unit, where she received neither observation nor treatment,” said attorney Eugene Iredale. “She died on the floor after a nurse and deputy witnessed her fall and seizure. Her family has decided to fight her case to ensure that inmate patients are not intentionally ignored and left to die as she was.”

Julia Yoo, partner at Iredale law firm, appreciated the Serna family’s commitment to overcoming this difficult situation.

“We hope these policy changes will begin a process of more compassionate treatment for all people in custody,” she said.

Serna died in 2019, five days after she was sent to prison.

Records and video evidence collected as part of a civil lawsuit later filed by her family showed she was never placed into drug and alcohol withdrawal protocols, even though she showed signs of feeling unwell and told officers during the arrest that she had just used heroin.

Serna’s death was recorded by video from prison cameras. Officers and medical staff were shown repeatedly choosing not to come to her aid in her final hours, walking past her cell as she struggled and writhed on the floor.

This case also caused a pair of criminal charges against the nurse and doctor responsible for Serna’s treatment, an extremely unusual indictment for the district attorney’s office, which typically relies on law enforcement.

Prison nurse Danalee Pascua was acquitted one count of involuntary manslaughter following a criminal trial earlier this year. The case against doctor Friederike von Lintag ended in a hung jury, and prosecutors later he refused to try again suitcase.

Elisa Serna died on Nov. 11, 2019, five days after being arrested and booked into the Santee Women’s Jail. She was the 15th person to die in the San Diego County Jail in 2019, a number that will rise to 16 by the end of the year.

Her parents received a voicemail from a sheriff’s investigator who notified them of a “medical emergency” but didn’t provide any details. When Paloma Serna called back for more information, she said the jail officer was cagey about what had happened to her oldest daughter.

“She told me that Elisa had been passing out and throwing up, that she had been drinking and taking drugs,” the distraught mother said in the days after Elisa’s death. “She gave the impression that Elisa had been locked in a cell and had smuggled drugs in. It sounded like it was an overdose.”

In the months and years that followed, medical records, interviews and statements showed that Serna did not receive medical care required by Sheriff’s Office policy.

Records showed that instead of treating vomiting, fainting and severe dehydration, prison medical staff believed Serna was faking his illness.

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They also show that Serna was honest about her drug and alcohol use.

“Yes, I do heroin, Xanax and drink,” she told prison staff when she was arrested. “I did them about two hours ago.”

On Nov. 8, two days after Serna arrived at Las Colinas, a nurse recommended that she be placed in the unit’s heroin and opiate withdrawal protocols — a treatment program designed to protect patients from the potentially fatal effects of abruptly stopping regular drug use.

Patient records from Nov. 10 show that Serna “was never treated for WD,” shorthand for withdrawal. After vomiting her dinner, she was given 50 milligrams of Vistaril, an antihistamine that is often used as a sedative.

Medical records show that Serna was also advised to drink water in small sips rather than gulps.

Throughout the legal proceedings, both criminal and civil, the Sheriff’s Office has refused to comment publicly on Serna’s case, limiting its stance to defending the quality of medical care provided and offering condolences to the victim’s family.

“Chiefs and nurses strive to overcome the mental health and behavioral issues of inmates to prevent death, and in almost all cases, they succeed,” former sheriff Bill Gore said in a 2019 statement.

For years, San Diego County has had one of the most dangerous prison systems in the country.

According to sheriff’s department records, 75 people died in custody since the death of Elisa Serna five years ago.

AND half-year investigation A 2019 San Diego Union-Tribune report on local jail deaths found that the department’s mortality rate under Gore was by far the highest of any large California county.

Gore retired mid-term in 2022. On the same day, California State Auditor report said the prisons under his leadership were so dangerous that a new law was needed to protect people in his care.

Governor Gavin Newsom last year the act was signed two bills aimed at improving local jails, although some elements of the legislation had already been stripped at the time. The legislation was initially intended to allow county supervisors to take control of jails when elected sheriffs refused to implement reforms.

Death in a local prison costs more than the misery and despair among surviving family members.

County records show that since 2019, the Sheriff’s Department has accrued more than $75 million in damages from jury awards and settlements, including at least $60 million paid over a five-year period ending Dec. 31, 2023.

This money comes directly from the state treasury because San Diego County is self-insured.

Taxpayers could be saddled with millions of dollars in new settlements in the coming months. The county is facing a slew of unrelated lawsuits filed by other families whose loved ones died in San Diego County jails in recent years.