Families who lose a relative in a San Diego County jail typically pursue a San Diego jail wrongful death lawsuit in federal court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the federal civil rights statute, naming the sheriff, individual jail staff, and the private medical contractor that provides care inside the facilities. Since 2019, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has paid more than $75 million in jury awards and settlements tied to negligence or misconduct, and recent individual cases have settled for as much as $16 million.1Corrections1. San Diego County Settles Jail Death Lawsuit for $15M
How These Lawsuits Are Filed and What They Allege
The core claim is a federal civil rights claim: that jail staff showed deliberate indifference to a serious medical or mental health need, and that supervisors and the county failed to train or supervise them. The suits are usually filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California by the decedent’s children or estate.
The pending case brought by the sons of Lonnie Rupard illustrates the pattern. Rupard, a 47-year-old man with schizophrenia, was booked into the San Diego Central Jail in December 2021 and died in his cell on March 17, 2022, after losing 60 pounds over roughly three months. The San Diego County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide and listed the cause as “pneumonia, malnutrition and dehydration in the setting of neglected schizophrenia.”2NBC San Diego. Family of Man Who Died in San Diego Central Jail Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit His sons, Justino and Ronnie Rupard, filed suit on July 26, 2023 as Estate of Rupard v. County of San Diego, Case No. 3:23-cv-01357-CAB-BLM.3CourtListener. Estate of Lonnie Rupard v. County of San Diego
The complaint names current San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez, former Sheriff Bill Gore, mental health professional Christina Anosike, and Correctional Healthcare Partners, the third-party company providing medical services inside the jails. It alleges staff knew about Rupard’s psychotic disorders, allowed his medications to lapse after he refused them, failed to transfer him to a psychiatric hospital, and left him in a cell that investigators later described as “covered in trash and feces.”4San Diego County CLERB. Final Findings Report The family’s attorneys, Jeremiah A. Lowe and Victoria Lazar of Lowe Lazar Law and Daniel M. Gilleon of the Gilleon Law Firm, described the conditions as “inhumane” and said the food served to Rupard allegedly contained larvae.5Prison Legal News. San Diego County Jail Accused of Letting Mentally Ill Detainee Starve to Death
A Key Ruling: The County’s Immunity Defense Is Not Working
One of the biggest hurdles in jail death litigation is official immunity. On August 21, 2024, U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo denied motions to dismiss filed by the sheriff’s department officials and the medical defendants in the Rupard case, finding the family had plausibly alleged “reckless disregard for decedent’s schizophrenia rising to the level of conscience shocking” and that “a reasonable medical professional likely would have appreciated the risk of failing to recommend decedent further medical care.”6Courthouse News Service. San Diego Sheriff Can’t Claim Immunity in Jail Death of Schizophrenic Man
Judges in these cases have been pointing to the same body of outside findings to conclude that supervisors were on notice of the risk. Bencivengo cited a 2022 California State Auditor report identifying deficiencies in care for incarcerated people, and a 2017 finding by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care that San Diego County failed to meet 26 of 38 essential health care standards.6Courthouse News Service. San Diego Sheriff Can’t Claim Immunity in Jail Death of Schizophrenic Man The practical effect is that failure-to-train claims against sheriff’s leadership are surviving dismissal, pushing cases toward settlement or trial.
In the Rupard case, claims against two unnamed nurses were dismissed, and the court ruled that only Rupard’s children could remain as plaintiffs. The litigation is now in discovery and court-ordered alternative dispute resolution, with no trial date set as of mid-2026.3CourtListener. Estate of Lonnie Rupard v. County of San Diego
Recent Settlements and Verdicts
Several recent payouts give a sense of what San Diego jail death cases have been worth and the fact patterns driving them.
William Hayden Schuck — $16 million (2025). Schuck, 22, died of severe dehydration in March 2022 after six days in custody. A judge had ordered his immediate medical evaluation, but he was returned to a cell and found dead the next morning. The county destroyed 57 hours of surveillance footage from his cell, and a federal judge sanctioned the county for it. The settlement is the largest the county has paid in a jail death case.7San Diego Union-Tribune. County Will Pay $16M Over 22-Year-Old’s Death in San Diego Jail
Elisa Serna — $15 million (2024). Serna, 24, died in November 2019 at the Las Colinas jail after suffering untreated heroin and alcohol withdrawal symptoms for five days. The settlement included 12 months of federal judicial oversight of sheriff’s jail operations, a first for the department.8Courthouse News Service. San Diego Reaches $15 Million Settlement With Family of Woman Who Died in Jail
Lucky Phounsy — $12 million (2023). Phounsy, 32, died after deputies in Santee used a stun gun, baton strikes, and hogtie restraints during a mental health crisis in 2015. A jury initially awarded $85 million, but a federal judge threw out the verdict and ordered a new trial on damages. The county settled for $12 million before the retrial.910News. San Diego County Agrees to Pay $12 Million in Wrongful Death Settlement
Dominique McCoy — pending. McCoy, a 38-year-old low-level offender, was wrongly arrested due to a clerical error and then killed by a higher-security cellmate in December 2021. In April 2026, a federal judge allowed the family’s challenge to the county’s policy of housing inmates of different security levels together to proceed to trial.10Courthouse News Service. Judge Allows Key Claims Against San Diego County in Inmate Beating Death Suit
The cost to the county has climbed with the volume. Its sheriff’s department annual contribution to the county’s public liability fund jumped from $8.3 million in 2015–16 to $41.1 million in 2024–25.11San Diego County. Independent Study of In-Custody Deaths in San Diego County Jails
The Record Plaintiffs Are Building On
Jail death suits in San Diego County are being brought against a backdrop of unusually heavy mortality and repeated outside criticism. Between 2006 and 2020, 185 people died in San Diego County jails. Deaths reached record levels in 2021 and 2022, with 18 and 19 respectively, followed by 13 more in 2023.12CalMatters. San Diego Jail A study commissioned by the county’s Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board that analyzed 179 in-custody deaths from late 2011 through early 2024 found the San Diego Central Jail alone accounted for half of all system-wide deaths and nearly all recorded homicides.13Times of San Diego. San Diego Central Jail Deaths Over Capacity
The February 2022 California State Auditor report, titled “San Diego County Sheriff’s Department: It Has Failed to Adequately Prevent and Respond to the Deaths of Individuals in Its Custody,” found deputies frequently performed inadequate safety checks, with video showing staff spending “no more than one second glancing into the individuals’ cells” while walking through housing units. The audit also found registered nurses without specialized training were performing mental health screenings at intake, and that internal review processes focused more on protecting against litigation than on improving welfare.14California State Auditor. San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Audit Report 2021-109
A 2018 Disability Rights California investigation found “probable cause to believe prisoners with disabilities were subjected to abuse and/or neglect,” documented roughly two suicide attempts or self-harm incidents per week, and flagged over-incarceration of people with mental health needs and overuse of solitary confinement. A 2017 San Diego County Grand Jury had already reported that the county’s inmate suicide rate was the highest among California’s large county jail systems.15Disability Rights California. Suicides in San Diego County Jail
Civilian oversight has had limits. The state auditor found CLERB had failed to investigate nearly one-third of in-custody deaths over a 15-year period, including 40 natural deaths excluded from review entirely. The board cannot subpoena officers or compel changes; it can only recommend action to the County Board of Supervisors.12CalMatters. San Diego Jail For plaintiffs, that gap is part of why civil litigation has become the main accountability mechanism.
What the Litigation Has Produced Beyond Money
The broadest reform coming out of this wave of lawsuits is Dunsmore v. San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, a federal class action filed in 2020 challenging medical care, mental health treatment, disability accommodations, and conditions across the entire jail system. By mid-2026, three components had been settled: an ADA facility-upgrade settlement received final court approval in August 2025; a mental health settlement mandating clinical levels of care and limits on solitary confinement received preliminary approval in March 2026; and a medical and dental settlement announced in May 2026 requires expanded staffing, substance-use withdrawal treatment, and individualized treatment plans for chronic conditions. Four claims remain unresolved, including allegations of racial discrimination and denial of access to counsel, and plaintiffs’ counsel have said they will go to trial on those if settlements cannot be reached.16San Diego Union-Tribune. Sheriff Will Reform Health Care in San Diego County Jails Under Latest Settlement
At the state level, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 519 in October 2023. The law established a statewide “Director of In-Custody Death Review” within the Board of State and Community Corrections, appointed to a six-year term, with authority to review in-custody deaths and issue public policy recommendations. Sheriffs are required to respond within 90 days.17Prison Legal News. California Adds Statewide Detention Monitors Overseeing Local Jails
Inside the jails, the sheriff’s office reports adding medical doctors to booking facilities in 2025, a 65% reduction in overdoses between 2024 and 2025, and no in-custody suicides during 2024. Following the Schuck settlement, the department committed to training all sworn jail personnel to recognize signs of mental illness and substance withdrawal, and began transitioning to modern camera systems that support longer video retention.7San Diego Union-Tribune. County Will Pay $16M Over 22-Year-Old’s Death in San Diego Jail18East County Magazine. County Reaches $16 Million Settlement Over Jail Death of Hayden Schuck
For families considering a case, the path remains federal civil rights litigation against the county, the sheriff, individual staff, and the medical contractor, with the record built by auditors, CLERB, and prior plaintiffs now doing substantial work to defeat immunity defenses and push cases toward settlement.