A man has sued the Sacramento County alleging that while booking him in the jail last year, deputies fractured his arm.
The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court by Cristain Rodriguez, names the county as a defendant as well as six other people who were stated to be deputies at the time.
On Sept. 29, Rodriguez was arrested for an alleged probation violation and transported to the Sacramento County Main Jail for booking, according to the lawsuit.
During the booking process, two deputies strip searched him, “threw” him against a wall and began twisting his fingers, elbows and wrists while he was not resisting, the lawsuit says.
The deputies then dragged him to an adjacent room and slammed him onto the floor on his stomach, where he was handcuffed behind his back, even though he was still not resisting, the lawsuit states. Unknown officers stood on his ankles.
Deputy Jarrod Hopeck then grabbed Rodriguez’s left arm and twisted it forcefully behind his back while he was handcuffed, while Rodriguez repeatedly said, ‘you’re going to break my arm,’” the lawsuit states.
“(Hopeck) knew that he had broken (Rodriguez’s) arm as he heard it break, and saw (Rodriguez) react in agony at the exact moment that it occurred,” the lawsuit states.
Hopeck is not still a county employee as of Dec. 7, according to a list of county employees The Bee received from a request under the California Public Records Act. It’s unclear if he quit or was fired. Hopeck did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. He had been involved in at least six other uses of force or officer-involved shootings since 2016, according to a Sheriff’s web page.
Five days after the injury, Rodriguez was assigned to a cell, and continually requested medical care, but never received it, the lawsuit states. After he was released, medical professionals diagnosed him with a fractured elbow along with other injuries. His injuries have not healed.
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Amar Gandhi declined to tell the Bee whether the nine people named as defendants were still Sheriff’s Office employees or to comment on the lawsuit.
At least two other deputies named in the suit are also no longer county employees as of Dec. 7, according to the the county’s list of employees.
The suit claims unreasonable seizure, excessive force, supervisory liability, violations of California’s Bane Act, negligence, assault and battery.
The incident happened in September, and the county has yet to release videos or records regarding it.
In 2019, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1421, which required law enforcement agencies to release documents regarding officer-involved shootings and other uses of force that caused so-called “great bodily injury.”
A fractured elbow would likely qualify as a great bodily injury under SB 1421, said David Loy, attorney with the First Amendment Coalition.
“I can’t guarantee what a court would do, but I think a fractured elbow should count, especially when considering that under the California Constitution, terms like ‘great bodily injury’ in transparency laws must be construed broadly in favor of disclosure,” Loy said.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and Sacramento Police Department have yet to release dozens of disciplinary records that fall under the law, a Sacramento Bee investigation found.
Incidents at Sacramento County jails are specifically under scrutiny right now. Since May 5, four men have died while inmates at one of the county’s two jails.
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