Officers used unnecessary force arresting a man on charges of a non-violent misdemeanor, resulting in him dying hours after he arrived at jail, according to a new federal lawsuit.
Damon Beitz, 46, was found dead at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside within hours of being booked on Sept. 14, 2023, the lawsuit says.
His arresting officers from the Riverside Police Department are accused of beating Beitz while detaining him outside a Ralphs grocery store. He wasn’t resisting or posing a threat, according to the complaint filed Sept. 27.
“His injuries to his torso were so severe that they were classified as blunt force trauma,” the complaint says.
An independent autopsy confirmed blunt force trauma on both sides of Beitz’s lower back, where two “extensive deep-seated” contusions were located, the complaint says.
Instead of taking Beitz to jail, the complaint says officers should’ve cited and released Beitz. They knew he was badly injured, but didn’t get him medical help or take him to a hospital, according to the complaint.
When Beitz arrived at the jail run by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, deputies should have recognized he was hurt, treated him or sent him to a hospital, the complaint says.
By housing Beitz in jail, the officers and jail employees put Beitz “in serious risk of harm and failed to take reasonable available measures to abate or reduce that risk,” according to the complaint.
Beitz’s death is one of several in-custody deaths in Riverside County jails in recent years, the complaint notes.
Beitz “is dearly missed by his friends and family” and was a “kind-hearted human being who was known and loved by many in the Riverside community,” the complaint says.
His sister Lisa Perry is suing the city and county of Riverside, the Riverside Police Department, the Riverside Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Chad Bianco and several others. She says the police department and the sheriff’s office are to blame for her brother’s death.
Perry raised Beitz, who had been experiencing homelessness, since he was 8 years old after their mother died, according to a GoFundMe she created to raise money for Beitz’s cremation. She planned to donate any leftover money to the homeless community, she wrote.
In an emailed statement to McClatchy News on Oct. 4, Riverside Police Officer Ryan Railback said “the city and police department have not received or reviewed this lawsuit yet, so we are unable to comment at this time.”
The county’s communications director, Brooke Federico, told McClatchy News the county hadn’t received the lawsuit as of Oct. 3.
“Once it is received by the county, it will be thoroughly reviewed to determine next steps,” Federico said.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office declined a request for comment, saying it doesn’t weigh in on pending litigation.
An increase in in-custody deaths
Beitz died months after California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened a civil rights investigation into the sheriff’s office in February 2023, citing “deeply concerning allegations” related to policing and the county’s jails, his office said in a news release.
“It is clear that — amid concerning levels of in-custody deaths and allegations of misconduct — too many families and communities in Riverside County are hurting and looking for answers,” Bonta said.
Beitz was the eighth detainee to die in a county jail in 2023 after 19 inmate deaths in 2022, a record number not seen in the previous 15 years, The Desert Sun newspaper reported.
In a news release issued the day Beitz died, the sheriff’s office said deputies were notified that Beitz was unresponsive in the jail’s intake area and that “deputies and jail medical personnel immediately administered life-saving measures.”
Then paramedics arrived and took over, but Beitz was pronounced dead .
The sheriff’s office said there were “no signs of foul play” and his death was being investigated by the Corrections Central Investigations Bureau.
“The raw data and the per capita data make clear that the Riverside County Jails are a death sentence for any pretrial detainee,” the complaint says.
Sheriff speaks out
Bianco has been outspoken about media coverage of in-custody deaths and the attorney general’s investigation.
In an Aug. 2 episode of a podcast on the Riverside County Sheriff YouTube page , which has nearly 16,000 YouTube subscribers, Bianco said the scrutiny the sheriff’s office has faced over the deaths stem from “frivolous complaints.”
He said he believes the increase in deaths are reflective of increases across the U.S.
“We do everything we can to protect our inmates, to keep them safe,” Bianco said.
He denounced the attorney general’s announcement of an investigation into the sheriff’s office as a “publicity stunt,” describing it as “dishonest” and a “disgrace to law enforcement.”
“We have absolutely nothing to hide,” Bianco said.
He said the investigation is still ongoing.
Perry’s lawsuit argues the county has a “long history” of disregarding “inmate safety” and it has failed to prevent in-custody deaths.
“By the time Damon Beitz was taken into custody and placed at the Robert Presley Detention Center, the jail was infested with endemic, ongoing and unabated risks of injury or death to inmates — risks which indeed resulted in Damon Beitz’s death,” the complaint says.
The lawsuit demands a jury trial and seeks to recover coroner fees, expenses for Beitz’s funeral and burial, and an unspecified amount in damages.
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