County to pay $365K settlement to beaten inmate

SAN JOSE >> Santa Clara County will pay $365,000 to a former inmate to settle an excessive-force lawsuit in which he alleged he was beaten by vengeful correctional deputies at the Main Jail two years ago.

Rikki Martinez, 39, sued the county in federal court about six months after the April 18, 2016 encounter that left him with serious head injuries. The county refuted the suit’s claims and stated Martinez was combative when he was punched to get him to comply.

“He was basically given vigilante justice,” said Robert Powell, who filed the suit on Martinez's behalf along with lead attorney Sarah Marinho. “(The settlement) indicates there is some accountability for what was done to Mr. Martinez.”

Other than confirming the payout amount, the County Counsel's Office declined comment on the settlement, which was made public earlier this week. Martinez has since been convicted of an assault charge and is being held at High Desert State Prison in Susanville in Lassen County.

The named defendants in the lawsuit were the county, correction officer Salvadore Jacquez; correctional deputies Jon Quiro, Jason Satariano, Eamonn Dee and Adam Torrez; and correctional sergeants Elmer Wheeler and Matthew Tracey.

According to the lawsuit and the county's legal response filing, Martinez had been held in county jail facilities since 2014 while awaiting prosecution

for assault charges and was initially being held at the lower-security Elmwood men's jail in Milpitas on the day he was injured.

That afternoon, authorities accused Martinez of kicking a correctional deputy in the face at Elmwood, during a dispute over homemade wine Martinez and another inmate were making in their cell. That prompted correctional staff to transfer Martinez to the Main Jail in North San Jose.

As they shepherded Martinez into a fourth-floor cell, deputies allowed him to kneel while they removed his restraints, consisting of leg shackles, waist chains and handcuffs.

The next sequence of events, some of which was recorded on a deputy's body-worn camera — a portion of which was obtained by ABC7 — is largely in dispute between Martinez and the county. Martinez claims that he was cooperative, while the the deputies escorting him contend he grabbed Jacquez's hand, prompting the deputy to shout, “Relax! Relax your hand! Let go of my hand!”

Martinez, who insists in the suit that his hand was relaxed and that he was not resisting, can be heard saying,

“I ain't touchin' you! Man, come on, man!”

The body-camera view of the confrontation, including where everyone's hands are, is obscured by the group of deputies huddled around Martinez. The suit alleges that moments later, as Quiro sat on Martinez's legs, Jacquez punched the inmate in the face “three to five times with a closed right fist” as Martinez screamed for help.

Martinez contends that at one point, three deputies were on top of him as he lay face down into the cell mattress as he yelled, “I can't breathe! I can't breathe!”

The suit claims that Torrez also hit Martinez with his fist twice.

While refuting most of the plaintiff's claims, the county did acknowledge that Jacquez hit Martinez, but that it was not in the nature described by the suit. Martinez was taken to the hospital for reported severe swelling of his head, swelling of his right eye, contusions, a bloody nose, a chipped front tooth, a swollen and reddish-bluish discoloration of his right ear, dizziness and a loss of consciousness.

Martinez maintains that the deputies plotted the attack

in retaliation for the earlier kicking incident. He also claimed that he was subsequently subjected to intimidation and retaliation by jail personnel after he filed a grievance, including putting him in isolation and withholding his medication to help treat the PTSD he was diagnosed with in 2015 while in custody.

The settlement comes amid a broad reform movement in the county's jails, much of which was spurred by the 2015 beating death of mentally ill inmate Michael Tyree, which led to three jail deputies being convicted of murder. One of the key reforms is the introduction of an independent monitor for the county's jail and sheriff operations.

But even with the progress, which includes the construction of a modern jail facility in the coming years to replace the dilapidated south wing of the Main Jail, the county's jails continue to weather highprofile challenges and controversies.

A racist-text scandal involving primarily correctional deputies rocked the Sheriff's Office, leading to the termination of the former

correctional union president and resignation of the former deputy union president, and becoming a centerpiece of a contentious sheriff's election race. Overtime spending by the agency also has come under scrutiny as county leaders question whether the sheriff's department is relying too heavily on mandatory overtime to keep the jails running. Meanwhile, the attorney who represented Tyree's family is helping another family pursue allegations that their mentally ill son was mishandled by correctional

deputies and staff, leading to him severely injuring himself while being transported.

Powell said Martinez decided to file his grievance, and later litigation, to accelerate jail reforms.

“He did express from the beginning that by filing suit and subjecting himself to the risk of further harassment,” Powell said, “something would start to change in the way Santa Clara County runs their jails.”