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For years, San Diego County jails have been triple-bunking folks in cells designed for not more than two. State regulators have repeatedly advised the Sheriff’s Workplace to cease the follow, 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 boys’s cellmate advised 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 assist. His household selected to withdraw care on Nov. 6.
The demise raises extra questions on how persons are housed in San Diego jails — particularly these, like Van Tine and Mehran, who wrestle with critical psychological sickness.
That historical past ought to 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.
“Right here, it seems they positioned at the very least two severely mentally in poor health folks in a tiny triple cell with at the very least two of them in an acute and agitated state,” she stated. “The failure to position them in a unit the place they could possibly be monitored and stabilized was reckless.”
The Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t reply to questions on what function 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 could possibly be upgraded relying on findings from Van Tine’s post-mortem.
‘More likely to trigger battle’
It’s not clear when the Sheriff’s Workplace began triple-bunking folks. However the earliest pink flag was raised concerning the follow in a 2016 report by the county’s civil grand jury, which described triple-bunking as “extreme” and “a configuration more likely to trigger battle.”
An undated Sheriff’s Workplace doc associated to jail development, obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune by means of a public information request, acknowledges that triple-bunking creates “an unsafe atmosphere for each workers and inmates.”
A number of instances state regulators advised the Sheriff’s Workplace to cease the follow.
“All gadgets of noncompliance have been corrected excluding the continued use of triple bunks that aren’t supported by the present infrastructure of your jail amenities,” reads a 2021 inspection report from the Board of State and Neighborhood Corrections.
The division advised 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 had 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 folks in a single 75-square-foot cell ought to be achieved on an emergency foundation solely.
“Even when achieved on an emergency foundation, there should be some sort of vetting course of to cut back the danger of predator-victim conditions and to establish psychological well being points,” he stated through electronic mail.
In an interview with the Union-Tribune in October, Sheriff Kelly Martinez stated the follow of triple-bunking had stopped. A spokesperson stated in a Dec. 6 electronic mail that triple bunks had 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 legal risk. He was additionally booked into the Central Jail.
The boys and a 3rd particular person had been housed in a cell on the jail’s fifth ground. At slightly below 75 sq. toes — 58 sq. toes smaller than the typical U.S. bed room — the cell held three stacked bunks, a steel bathroom/sink mixture and a steel desk with a bolted-down stool.
‘Please get this particular person … assist’
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 exterior the window of a Mission Seaside 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 courtroom 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 start out a brand new life for himself.
“Eric knew the realm fairly properly, since he had been coming there nearly yearly since he was 8 years outdated,” Matthew Van Tine stated.
Matthew stated the Mission Seaside 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 choose in his case, urging him to require Van Tine to get remedy for his psychological sickness.
“Please get this particular person the assistance he’s in determined want of,” one electronic mail says.
Mehran had additionally been on probation when he was arrested.
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Courtroom 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, advised 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 carrying a inexperienced jail uniform, figuring out him as having a psychiatric dysfunction.
‘Failed to offer a secure atmosphere’
In 2021, the household of Lyle Woodward gained 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 type of males, Clinton Thinn, strangled Woodward on Dec. 3, 2016.
Thinn had attacked different folks 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 power.”
Woodward and Thinn ended up in the identical cell, Stratton stated, “as a result of everybody else sort of corralled them, the 2 loopy guys collectively.”
During the last 5 years, six incarcerated folks have been killed by a bunkmate, not together with Eric Van Tine. In at the very least 5 of these instances, both the sufferer or the alleged attacker had a beforehand identified psychological sickness.
Earlier this 12 months, 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, courtroom information point out. Every week after his arrest, a choose 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 line with courtroom information, Medina and McCoy received right into a struggle over the mattress.
Medina advised murder investigators that he was listening to voices that advised 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 12 months, the county’s Residents’ Legislation Enforcement Assessment Board dominated that deputies “failed to offer a secure atmosphere for McCoy.”
“Based mostly on Medina’s documented propensity in the direction of violence, the division did not implement cheap measures to stop him from doing hurt to others, shortcomings that contributed to McCoy’s demise,” 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 keeping 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.
Courtroom information present Ruis, who had been charged with spousal battery and cruelty to a baby, was scuffling with psychological sickness. On Dec. 28, 2023, lower than three weeks earlier than Ruis killed Yates, Ruis’ father despatched an electronic mail to the courtroom, pleading for assist for his son.
“We want medical and psychological (well being) consideration earlier than he kills himself … or another person,” 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 electronic mail this month, in response to questions from the Union-Tribune, that it ought to have.
“It’s of public curiosity and it ought to have been reported because of the severity of the accidents sustained throughout Mr. Van Tine’s time in custody,” a sheriff’s spokesperson stated through electronic mail.
The costs towards Van Tine had been dropped — that means when he died, he was 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 usually are 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 electronic mail she despatched to a sheriff’s official on Nov. 8, notifying them of Van Tine’s demise.
Yoo believes his demise ought to be thought of an in-custody demise — or what correctional well being specialists name a “jail-attributable demise,” that means one thing that occurred within the jail contributed to the demise.
“Another studying of ‘in-custody demise’ is strained and tortured logic,” Yoo stated.
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