Walter Clark Legal Group files lawsuit after abuse claim at RivCo jail
Garrett Hottle
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (KESQ) – The Walter Clark Legal Group has filed a lawsuit against Sheriff Chad Bianco, the County of Riverside, and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office in federal court after a pretrial detainee was assaulted in jail.
The lawsuit was filed in the Central District of California federal court.
Attorneys Walter T. Clark and Dan C. Bolton allege the county and agency failed to provide medical care to a seriously injured pretrial detainee.
“Denied critical medical care for a near-fatal injury for 12 hours and tossed around in different cells while his pleas for help were repeatedly ignored, the Sheriffs in the John J. Benoit Detention Center, in Indio, California, showed a shocking and deliberate indifference to Plaintiff’s serious medical needs—essentially torturing Plaintiff while he suffered excruciating pain hour after hour—while wantonly and intentionally violating basic standards of decency in violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and well-established civil rights protections,” reads a news release from the Walter Clark Legal Group.
The attorneys said the plaintiff in the new case was a misdemeanor pretrial detainee who was seriously beaten by two inmates in a supervised area with video surveillance. They say no correctional officers intervened to stop the attack.
“After beginning to experience increasing and intolerable pain in his abdomen, his pleas for medical treatment were ignored by Sheriffs. Rather than provide the medical care he was constitutionally entitled to, Riverside County Sheriffs accused Plaintiff of lying about his pain and refused to permit him to see a medical professional,” reads the news release.
The plaintiff was allegedly left in a separate holding cell for hours as he continued to beg for help, attorneys said. He was moved to a suicide prevention cell for 12 hours before taken to a waiting area and eventually JFK Memorial Hospital.
Attorneys said it was determined that the plaintiff was septic with an infection spreading throughout his body, and that he needed emergency surgery. He underwent two operations, including a splenectomy (surgical removal of the spleen) and an exploratory laparotomy (a procedure where the surgeon makes a large incision in the abdomen to directly examine the abdominal area).
The plaintiff woke up at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs after being airlifted.
In a similar case, Clark and Bolton filed a First Amended Complaint on Oct. 7 based on the failure to provide medical care to a pretrial detainee, Clifford W. Mathews, that resulted in his wrongful death.
Bolton added, “Riverside County jails in recent years have been among the deadliest jails in the United States. This action seeks to hold Riverside County accountable for the ongoing and brazen violation of civil rights of pretrial detainees.”