Families Of Inmates Who Die In RivCo Jails Left With Questions

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday not to separate the coroner's office from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, based on an Executive Office recommendation that was criticized by multiple members of the public.

The move follows concern about how the county is reacting to repeated public complaints that sheriff-coroner staff were unresponsive to loved ones of inmates who died in jail custody.

"With trust needing to be really shored up and rebuilt, and community trust so vital to all county services, particularly with the largest department — the sheriff — the checks and balances that we assume take place with all our governmental functions should be put in place here," former Supervisor Bob Buster told the board.

It was the first time that Buster spoke publicly in the board chamber since leaving office in 2012.

The former supervisor advocated a separation of the coroner's office from the sheriff's department by establishing a chief medical examiner position, through board appointment, and having that individual serve the county, with an independent staff, detached from the sheriff's administration.

It was one of three possible courses available to the board, according to an Executive Office report that was ordered by the supervisors in December.

Reacting to repeated public complaints that sheriff-coroner staff were unresponsive to loved ones of inmates who died in jail custody, the board requested that the EO examine the possibility of returning to a system of the county electing an independent coroner. The coroner was consolidated with the sheriff's department, along with the Office of the Public Administrator, following a mid-1990s committee report indicating that consolidation would improve efficiencies.

While Buster favored setting up an independent medical examiner's office, other speakers favored a stand-alone coroner's office, believing its personnel would not be influenced by internal sheriff's politics or biases.

"The sheriff and coroner should be separated," said Rabbi Suzanne Singer. "To send a law enforcement agency to do the job of the coroner seems to me to continue to keep this a closed process."

Individuals who lost family members while they were jailed complained that the current system is riddled with shortcomings.

"You feel the sheriff's integrity is under attack," Lisa Matus — whose son, Richard, died at the Byrd Detention Center in 2022 — told the board. "What integrity are you talking about? Over and over, we hear how we have a political agenda. When do deaths caused by people in custody become political? Families have waited well over a year for autopsy reports. We're left with suspicions without the reports. We're not going to settle for inaction regarding our loved ones."

The Executive Office determined dividing the coroner's office from the sheriff's department would invite a string of complications, including likely opposition from the nearly 70 coroner's employees — virtually the entire bureau — who are unionized and might choose to remain in the sheriff's department, leaving major gaps in coroner's operations that the county would have to rush to fill.

There was also the question of coroner's staff having future access to the sheriff's law enforcement databases and continuing to enjoy a seamless investigative work environment. The same complications might await a county-appointed chief medical examiner and his or her new staff in the event of a separation, according to the EO.

The issue of costs was not paramount, though the report noted that coroner's "overhead costs are spread across the sheriff's department's entire operation."

"This results in an economy of scale for overhead costs," the EO stated. "Creating a new department would result in a greater cost."

The report emphasized there are established procedures that generally address many complaints, particularly those relating to in-custody deaths, citing the involvement of the District Attorney's Office and the county Civil Grand Jury, as well as contract pathologists who aren't under the direct supervision of sheriff's personnel.

Whenever an unarmed civilian is killed by a sheriff's deputy, the case is automatically referred to the California Department of Justice for review.

The report acknowledged that the process of post-mortems and completing death reports can run long, but the goal is to have them available for public review after three months. However, complainants to the board have pointed to reports taking as much as 18 months to reach family of in-custody decedents.

"Barring some major exception, no one should be waiting a year to find out how a loved one died," Supervisor Kevin Jeffries said. "That's being antagonistic to the person who suffered the loss. When somebody is waiting that long, someone in the department needs to be fired."

The board voted in favor of the EO recommendation for setting up a "Family Liaison Program," staffed by sheriff's officials whose focus will be facilitating family members' needs following an in-custody death.

The supervisors also signaled support for the sheriff's plan, still in the works, to enter into contracts with the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office and the San Bernardino County Coroner's Office to handle all autopsies tied to in-custody deaths, in order to mitigate the appearance of a conflict of interest by having them done in-house.

"We're trying to create a better system for all of us," Supervisor Manuel Perez said. "I look forward to future efforts at refining this."

Forty-eight of California's 58 counties have consolidated sheriff-coroner operations.