For years, San Diego County jails have been triple-bunking individuals in cells designed for not more than two. State regulators have repeatedly informed the Sheriff’s Workplace to cease the observe, and the division itself has acknowledged that it’s harmful and violates state code.
A 3-person cell is the place Walt Mehran is accused of attacking Eric Van Tine on Dec. 2, 2023.
The lads’s cellmate informed sheriff investigators that Van Tine had threatened Mehran. The cellmate thought the 2 had settled the argument, however after Van Tine fell asleep, Mehran dragged him from his bunk and beat him unconscious.
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Van Tine suffered a traumatic mind damage and spent 4 months in a coma. When he awoke, he was unable to feed or bathe himself and struggled to speak.
In October, he developed a extreme lung an infection and ended up on life help. His household selected to withdraw care on Nov. 6.
The demise raises extra questions on how individuals are housed in San Diego jails — particularly these, like Van Tine and Mehran, who wrestle with critical psychological sickness.
That historical past must be a consideration, stated Julia Yoo, an lawyer representing Van Tine’s household. The household has filed a declare towards San Diego County, the precursor to a lawsuit.
“Here, it appears they placed at least two seriously mentally ill people in a tiny triple cell with at least two of them in an acute and agitated state,” she stated. “The failure to place them in a unit where they could be monitored and stabilized was reckless.”
The Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t reply to questions on what position an individual’s psychological well being historical past performs in jail housing selections, citing pending litigation.
Mehran, 23, has been charged with tried homicide. District Legal professional spokesperson Steve Walker stated that cost might be upgraded relying on findings from Van Tine’s post-mortem.
‘Likely to cause conflict’
It’s not clear when the Sheriff’s Workplace began triple-bunking individuals. However the earliest crimson flag was raised concerning the observe in a 2016 report by the county’s civil grand jury, which described triple-bunking as “excessive” and “a configuration likely to cause conflict.”
An undated Sheriff’s Workplace doc associated to jail building, obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune by way of a public information request, acknowledges that triple-bunking creates “an unsafe environment for both staff and inmates.”
A number of occasions state regulators informed the Sheriff’s Workplace to cease the observe.
“All items of noncompliance have been corrected with the exception of the continued use of triple bunks that are not supported by the current infrastructure of your jail facilities,” reads a 2021 inspection report from the Board of State and Group Corrections.
The division informed inspectors that triple-bunking would stop with the completion of the Rock Mountain Detention Facility, which opened in July 2023.
However at the same time as beds have been added and the county’s jail inhabitants fell to historic lows, triple-bunking continued.
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Scott Frakes, the previous director of the Nebraska Division of Correctional Companies who now consults on correctional facility design and administration, stated confining three individuals in a single 75-square-foot cell must be achieved on an emergency foundation solely.
“Even when done on an emergency basis, there must be some type of vetting process to reduce the risk of predator-victim situations and to identify mental health issues,” he stated through e-mail.
In an interview with the Union-Tribune in October, Sheriff Kelly Martinez stated the observe of triple-bunking had stopped. A spokesperson stated in a Dec. 6 e-mail that triple bunks have been “being phased out.”
On Dec. 1, 2023, Mehran, then 22, was arrested by San Diego police for assault and vandalism. He was booked into the Central Jail the next day.
Van Tine, then 40, was arrested by San Diego police on Dec. 2 and charged with assault and making a prison menace. He was additionally booked into the Central Jail.
The lads and a 3rd particular person have been housed in a cell on the jail’s fifth ground. At just below 75 sq. toes — 58 sq. toes smaller than the common U.S. bed room — the cell held three stacked bunks, a metallic bathroom/sink mixture and a metallic desk with a bolted-down stool.
‘Please get this person … help’
Each Mehran and Van Tine had been within the Central Jail earlier than. On Aug. 3, 2023, Van Tine had been arrested after he stood outdoors the window of a Mission Seashore condominium, brandished a BB gun and threatened to kill a vacationing household inside.
He was granted probation in October 2023, after agreeing to attend an anger administration class and Alcoholics Nameless conferences and keep away from the condominium. He was additionally referred to the county’s behavioral well being companies unit.
It’s unclear from court docket information whether or not Van Tine sought out any companies or what he did to get his probation revoked, however in lower than two months, he was again in jail.
Initially from Arizona, Van Tine had struggled with schizophrenia, his brother, Matthew, stated. He was steady when he determined to maneuver to San Diego to begin a brand new life for himself.
“Eric knew the area pretty well, since he had been coming there almost every year since he was 8 years old,” Matthew Van Tine stated.
Matthew stated the Mission Seashore condominium his household would lease is subsequent door to the condominium the place his brother was arrested.
Family members Van Tine threatened despatched emails to the decide in his case, urging him to require Van Tine to get remedy for his psychological sickness.
“Please get this person the help he is in desperate need of,” one e-mail says.
Mehran had additionally been on probation when he was arrested.
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Court docket information present that he was charged with assaulting his girlfriend in Could 2020. He was granted probation, was re-arrested for violating an order to keep away from the sufferer after which struggled to adjust to the order that he enroll in a domestic-violence prevention program.
His probation was revoked in August 2023, and he was arrested on a brand new assault cost simply over three months later.
His lawyer, Avery Webb, informed the Union-Tribune that it was clear Mehran’s psychological well being had deteriorated.
Mehran was discovered incompetent to face trial and spent a number of months at a psychiatric hospital in Los Angeles. At a listening to this week, he was sporting a inexperienced jail uniform, figuring out him as having a psychiatric dysfunction.
‘Failed to provide a safe environment’
In 2021, the household of Lyle Woodward received a $400,000 settlement in a lawsuit they filed after his demise within the Central Jail.
Woodward’s historical past of psychological sickness was well-documented in jail information. However as an alternative of being positioned on the psychiatric ground, he had been put in a three-man cell. A kind of males, Clinton Thinn, strangled Woodward on Dec. 3, 2016.
Thinn had attacked different individuals within the jail previous to being positioned in a cell with Woodward. In an interview with a murder investigator that grew to become a part of the household’s lawsuit, Deputy Curtis Stratton stated he had tried to get Woodward housed on the psychiatric ground, however getting anybody assigned there was “a feat of strength.”
Woodward and Thinn ended up in the identical cell, Stratton stated, “because everyone else kind of corralled them, the two crazy guys together.”
During the last 5 years, six incarcerated individuals have been killed by a bunkmate, not together with Eric Van Tine. In no less than 5 of these instances, both the sufferer or the alleged attacker had a beforehand recognized psychological sickness.
Earlier this yr, John Medina pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide for the Dec. 29, 2021, slaying of 38-year-old Dominique McCoy. Medina, who turned 18 lower than two weeks previous to McCoy’s demise, was in jail on suspicion of assault with a lethal weapon and felony animal abuse.
McCoy was in custody for allegedly violating the phrases of his probation, however his probationary interval — stemming from two misdemeanor drug-possession counts — had ended, court docket information point out. Every week after his arrest, a decide ordered him launched.
Whereas processing that order, deputies positioned McCoy in a cell with Medina. The cell had three bunks however just one mattress. In keeping with court docket information, Medina and McCoy acquired right into a struggle over the mattress.
Medina informed murder investigators that he was listening to voices that informed him to kill McCoy.
McCoy’s household has filed a wrongful demise lawsuit, alleging that Medina’s historical past of violence meant he shouldn’t have been positioned with McCoy.
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And earlier this yr, the county’s Residents’ Regulation Enforcement Evaluation Board dominated that deputies “failed to provide a safe environment for McCoy.”
“Based on Medina’s documented propensity towards violence, the department failed to implement reasonable measures to prevent him from doing harm to others, shortcomings that contributed to McCoy’s death,” the oversight panel stated.
This previous January, 24-year-old Brandon Yates was tortured to demise by a cellmate. Yates repeatedly pressed the panic button contained in the cell, however nobody got here, in accordance with testimony at defendant Alvin Ruis’ preliminary listening to.
Yates’ father, Dan, stated his son struggled with psychological sickness and homelessness, regardless of his household’s makes an attempt to get him assist. Yates’ habits irritated his first pair of cellmates, who demanded he be eliminated, his father stated. A deputy positioned him in a cell with Ruis.
Court docket information present Ruis, who had been charged with spousal battery and cruelty to a baby, was fighting psychological sickness. On Dec. 28, 2023, lower than three weeks earlier than Ruis killed Yates, Ruis’ father despatched an e-mail to the court docket, pleading for assist for his son.
“We need medical and mental (health) attention before he kills himself … or someone else,” the letter says.
‘Jail-attributable deaths’
The Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t report Van Tine’s assault or subsequent demise to the media. But it surely acknowledged in an e-mail this month, in response to questions from the Union-Tribune, that it ought to have.
“It is of public interest and it should have been reported due to the severity of the injuries sustained during Mr. Van Tine’s time in custody,” a sheriff’s spokesperson stated through e-mail.
The fees towards Van Tine have been dropped — which means when he died, he was now not in sheriff’s custody.
Due to this, the Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t report the demise to the state. As soon as an individual is launched from custody, sheriff departments are usually not required to report the demise.
The sheriff’s spokesperson stated the division was not notified that Van Tine had died.
Julia Yoo, his household’s lawyer, shared with the Union-Tribune an e-mail she despatched to a sheriff’s official on Nov. 8, notifying them of Van Tine’s demise.
Yoo believes his demise must be thought-about an in-custody demise — or what correctional well being specialists name a “jail-attributable death,” which means one thing that occurred within the jail contributed to the demise.
“Any other reading of ‘in-custody death’ is strained and tortured logic,” Yoo stated.
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