San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
INMATE’S FAMILY SUES COUNTY OVER DEATH
Mark Armendo found unresponsive in cell, died later; family says he got COVID in jail
Sometime on June 29, sheriff’s deputies at the Vista Detention Facility found Mark Armendo unresponsive on the floor of his cell.
Jail staff began administering CPR in an attempt to revive the 34-year-old, but their efforts were unsuccessful. They called 911, and paramedics transported Armendo to Tri-city Medical
Center for emergency treatment.
His condition worsened. Armendo was suffering from pneumonia and seizures. He was moved to UCSD Medical Center on July 4 “for a higher level of care” but the medical experts could not save him, according to an investigation by the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Armendo died Aug. 21 from an undetermined seizure disorder, along with a pulmonary thromboembolism — blocked arteries in his lungs — pneumonia and a staph infection listed as contributing factors in the medical examiner’s report.
Armendo’s family on Nov. 20 sued San Diego County, alleging Armendo was infected with COVID-19 while at the Vista jail.
“Mark began experiencing serious and obvious medical conditions requiring immediate care, including respiratory distress substantially caused by a disease believed (based on current information) to be
COVID-19,” states the lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court.
“He was down in his jail cell for a significant period of time and was pulseless when discovered by jail staff,” the complaint adds.
All four of his listed underlying medical conditions are potential byproducts of COVID-19, public health researchers have said.
The lawsuit does not say when he was tested for coronavirus or who made the diagnosis.
Sheriff ’s officials rejected the idea that Armendo con
COVID-19 in jail.
“The department’s position is that he did not” get sick in custody, sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Ricardo Lopez said by email.
“While you are correct that Mr. Armendo ‘was hospitalized,’” Lopez wrote in response to questions from The San Diego Union-tribune, “I want to be clear, Mr. Armendo was not hospitalized as a result of COVID-19.”
Lopez did not respond to follow-up questions, including where else Armendo might have become infected.
Three days after Armendo was sent to the emergency room, jail commanders announced new COVID-19 testing procedures in its jails.
“It is now part of our booking process to test every person who arrives in our jails,” the department said in a July 2 news release.
Deputies also were told to quarantine incoming detainees for seven days, and the department initiated education and counseling services to promote awareness of the infection.
The changes came as
cases of COVID-19 grew more prevalent across the county’s seven jails.
According to the department, at least 28 employees and 25 inmates had acquired the virus by July 10, the week after Armendo collapsed in his cell. Infections have escalated since then.
On Wednesday, officials said at least 222 inmates had tested positive for the virus, including 83 active cases. At the same time 149 employees had been sickened, they said, including a counselor at the Las Colinas women’s jail who died in late October.
The department reports that no inmates have succumbed to the virus.
Inmates have complained for months that they are not receiving enough soap, sanitizer or protective supplies to effectively prevent COVID-19 from spreading throughout the jails.
Sheriff ’s employees also have told the Union-tribune that they have not been given enough protective gear and that the rules for preventing COVID-19 are not uniformly enforced.
After confirming a recent outbreak in the George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa, the Sheriff ’s Department said in a news retracted
lease it is “working closely with the Department of Public Health concerning our ongoing COVID-19 response” and it is “committed to the safety, security, health and well-being of people in our custody.”
The medical examiner’s investigation notes that Armendo’s mother, Patrice Clines, said he had no underlying medical conditions before he was arrested in February on suspicion of selling methamphetamine outside a homeless shelter and booked into jail.
Armendo was sentenced to 32 months in state prison two weeks before he was found unconscious.
Court records show he was officially released from custody on July 6, a week after he was hospitalized, at the recommendation of the District Attorney’s Office. But he never left the hospital.
“In light of Mr. Armendo’s medical condition, including his positive Covid diagnosis along with the Covid-19 pandemic, the people recommend that the defendant’s sentence should be recalled,” the court order says.
As a result, sheriff’s officials did not report Armendo’s
case as an in-custody death. If they had, it would bring the total number of inmate fatalities this year to 10.
The Union-tribune reported last week that five of those fatalities occurred since the beginning of October, making the past several weeks one of the largest spikes in San Diego jail deaths in recent years.
A six-month Union-tribune investigation published last year found that San Diego County has the highest mortality rate among California’s largest jail systems.
But sheriff ’s officials say they work continuously to prevent in-custody deaths. They say they have boosted health care spending, hired additional staff and rewritten policies to protect inmates.
Similar to other lawsuits filed by families of people who have died in San Diego jails, the Clines complaint argues that county officials like Sheriff Bill Gore fail to provide inmates with proper medical care.
“By June 2020, the county’s final policymakers were on notice of the countless deaths of, and injuries to, inmates from the denial of medical care in county jails,” the complaint states.
“These individuals were also on notice of the serious medical risks and needs arising from COVID-19.”
Because Armendo had been released from custody before his death, the Medical Examiner’s Office initially did not assume immediate jurisdiction.
That changed after coroner’s investigators reviewed the case file in late August. A note on the autopsy report describes it as a “death in custody case.”
The same document shows that Armendo’s body had been scheduled for cremation but was instead sent to a private pathologist for an independent autopsy. A lawyer representing Armendo’s family said the findings have not been completed.
Homer Venters, an epidemiologist and former chief medical officer of correctional services for New York City, said that while he could not speak directly to the Armendo case, the fact that an inmate was having seizures when he was admitted to the hospital raises a red flag.
“My concern whenever a patient goes out to the hospital with seizures secondary to infection is that they deteriorated for several days without being appropriately monitored,” he said.
“Also, when a person who is incarcerated contracts COVID, that’s most likely attributable to infection contracted inside, unless the person had a furlough.”
Armendo had not left the jail since his arrest in February.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages for Armendo’s mother and his minor son, has been assigned to Judge Timothy B. Taylor. San Diego County has yet to respond to the allegations. A pretrial conference has been tentatively set for June 2021.
The Singleton Law Firm, which represents Clines, also submitted a complaint to the county’s Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, which is charged with investigating deaths in county jails and allegations of misconduct by sheriff’s deputies.
Paul Parker, the review board’s executive officer, said he is awaiting documents from the Sheriff ’s Department in order “to determine if (Armendo’s) death was related to something occurring in custody.”