Alameda County agrees to pay family $5M

Christian Madrigal hanged himself at Santa Rita Jail

DUBLIN >> Alameda County has agreed to pay $5 million to the family of a young man who hanged himself at Santa Rita Jail after being left alone for hours chained to a jail door.

Christian Madrigal, 20, of Fremont was found with a chain wrapped around his neck and had strangled himself; he later died at a hospital. He was taken to the jail after his parents, mother Gabriela Covarrubias and stepfather Jose Jaime, called police, believing he was having a mental health breakdown. The parents had wanted their son taken to a psychiatric facility instead. They sued the county last year for wrongful death and excessive force.

It’s likely the biggest settlement by Alameda County in five years, said the family’s attorney Adante Pointer. In 2015, the county agreed to pay $5.5 million to Stanislav Petrov, a man who was beaten by then-Deputies Luis Santamaria and Paul Wieber, who were charged with felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon and fired.

“To me, this was a complete failure that resulted in a young man’s life cut short, far too soon. It left a gaping hole in the hearts of his family,” Pointer said Thursday in an interview.

Ma d r i g a l wa s le f t “hitched to the door like a dog,” Pointer said. To add insult to injury, he said when his parents came to check on him at the jail, the jail staff told them Madrigal would be released in a couple of hours — when really he was in the back of an ambulance on his way to a hospital.

Pointer said Madrigal’s mother, Covarrubias, is committed to making sure everyone responsible for her son’s death is held accountable. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office did not file any criminal charges against any of the deputies involved in the case. However, Pointer said District Attorney Nancy O’Malley met with the family last week and said she would “take a look” at the case — but made no promises to reopen it.

“You can’t deal with this situation with just money; there has to be reform and personal accountability,” Pointer said.

The sheriff’s lieutenant who had decided to put the long chain typically used for ankle restraints on Madrigal, and chain him to the door when he was allegedly being uncooperative, eventually was fired for his actions. The then- lieutenant, Craig Cedergren, later found the man unresponsive in his cell and began swearing, as seen in body camera footage released by the Sheriff’s Office.

In an interview with the Internal Affairs Department’s Sgt. Mark Pickett, Cedergren said he was having “the ultimate oh f— moment, where you own it — nothing good is going to come of it — you’re f— d,” he told the interviewer, according to documents released by the Sheriff’s Office.

Cedergren admitted his negligence and said he had made an “epic” mistake.

Instead of using a restraint chair, a type of metal chair used to restrain inmates, Cedergren as the highest-ranking supervisor present made the decision to use ankle restraints. The restraints have a metal chain with ankle cuffs at each end, and are used so inmates can use their feet to walk. The chain itself was run through the open port of the jail door (called a cuffing port) and secured to the outside doorknob of the cell, still attached to Madrigal’s handcuffs.

In the internal investigation report, Cedergren told investigators he believed that using ankle restraints the way he did had been presented to him in course curriculum for entry-level staff. He also believed the method had been used other times at the jail. But the Sheriff’s Office confirmed earlier this year that there was no policy that existed that allowed chaining people to doors as a formal restraint method.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved the settlement. Alameda County Counsel Donna Ziegler did not return a request for comment.