Sheriff’s lieutenant fired after inmate is found dead
The victim, who had mental issues, was left chained to a door
iUSLIN >> The sheriff has fired the highest-ranking officer in charge when a Fremont man with mental health issues was left chained to a cell door and eventually hanged himself.
Alameda County sheriff’s Lt. Craig Cedergren also was the person who found Christian Madrigal, 20, unresponsive in his cell June 10, 2019. Madrigal had been left there after authorities tried to restrain him using a longer ankle chain, which was found wrapped around his neck.
Cedergren was fired this weekend after a due process hearing and was found negligent of his duties. The decision upheld Sheriff Greg Ahern’s recommendation to terminate him, confirmed Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly.
Kelly said in an interview last month that the Sheriff’s Department did not have any policy that exists that allows chaining people to doors as a formal restraint method.
Madrigal had been taken to jail after his parents called Fremont police for help as their son was having mental health issues. He was arrested instead of being placed in a medical facility on a psychiatric hold, which is what his parents wanted. His stepfather mentioned to authorities Madrigal had taken psychedelic mushrooms about two weeks before. He was taken into custody on suspected drug use and erratic behavior.
Once at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, it was Cedergren who decided to chain Madrigal to the door using the ankle restraints, out of an apparent fear that the man would turn violent or harm deputies. Even though other deputies got out a restraint chair to place Madrigal into, Cedergren instead decided to use the chain.
Recently released body camera footage showed Madrigal mostly calm and quiet as deputies attended to him. At one point, they say he is “tensing” his body.
The ankle chain, or leg iron, is a metal chain with ankle cuffs at each end. 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 body camera video footage released last month, Cedergren is seen going to check on Madrigal and could be heard saying, “Hey, hey. Wake up” from outside the cell door. He calls over another deputy, and through her body camera, she can be heard saying, “Is he strangling himself?”
“No,” Cedergren says definitively. “Couldn’t have. Unless he has the f ***** g mask around his neck.”
Madrigal had on a spit hood at the time, used to prevent inmates suspected of being aggressive from spitting on officers.
As Cedergren opens the cell door, they see that Madrigal has the chain wrapped around his neck, and he appears motionless. Cedergren begins swearing as they remove the handcuffs and chains from him and begin CPR.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office cleared Cedergren and other deputies involved of any criminal charges. But the District Attorney Office’s investigation found there were “shortcomings in the care” provided by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. The decision to leave him “secured to the restraint chain, unattended, is concerning,” the report said.