Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed By Mom Of Man Who Died At Otay Mesa Jail

SAN DIEGO, CA — The mother of a man who died by suicide at a San Diego County jail alleges in a lawsuit that jail staff failed to properly treat him or take measures to prevent his self-harming behavior despite being aware of his history of mental health issues.

The lawsuit filed Friday in San Diego federal court by the mother of Matthew Settles alleges sheriff's personnel were aware her son was placed in a permanent conservatorship due to his inability to care for himself. Her lawsuit alleges that despite that knowledge, jail staff allowed him to make his own medical decisions and later placed him in isolation, where he remained for about a month until his death in the summer of 2022.

Sheriff's officials declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The complaint filed by Settles' mother alleges staff at San Diego County's jails have regularly failed "to provide critical treatment to inmate- patients who jail staff knew suffered from serious mental health disorders."

In Settles' case, his status as a conservatee meant he should not have been able to refuse to take medication to treat his mental disorders, yet jail staff allegedly "allowed Matthew to `pick and choose' the psychiatric medication he took."

The lawsuit alleges that without that needed treatment, Settles "engaged in repetitive and substantial self-injurious behavior while he was incarcerated" and his "condition continued to worsen as his non-compliance with his medication regimen persisted."

In the following months, he was hospitalized several times for serious injuries stemming from self-harming behaviors, which the lawsuit argues should have had him placed in a special jail psychiatric unit for inmates with serious mental health issues.

Instead, it alleges he was transferred from the San Diego Central Jail to the George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa, which lacks such a unit. Once there, he was placed in isolation and "the effort to keep him under close observation and prevent self-injurious behavior virtually ceased," the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, outside consultants hired by the county repeatedly warned the sheriff's department about the dangers of placing mentally ill inmates in isolation. A 2018 report by Disability Rights California stated, "The extreme isolation and deprivations of solitary confinement increase suicidal ideation and self-harming behavior. Records indicate that such conditions contributed to inmates attempting suicide."

— City News Service