SAN DIEGO (CN) – Attorneys representing the family of a man who was arrested on a botched warrant and then beaten to death in San Diego County Jail argued in federal court Monday afternoon that the county and its jail staff should be held responsible for his death.
The county and three individual defendants, Lt. Desan Tyson, Deputy Daniel Cheung and Crystal Reeves, all present in court, countered that Dominique McCoy’s killing was a tragic, rare incident that could never have been predicted to happen.
McCoy, 38 at the time, was arrested on a warrant on Dec. 23, 2021, for failing to comply with probation due to clerical error. McCoy’s probation had expired three months earlier due to prison reform legislation in 2020. A judge agreed that McCoy should not have been arrested and the court ordered his release.
However, hours before his release, McCoy, who spent almost a week in custody, was placed in a small Covid-19 quarantine cell with another inmate, John Medina, then 18. Medina, who had just been arrested for assault, got into an argument with McCoy that resulted in Medina repeatedly slamming McCoy’s head into the concrete floor.
Medina pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2024.
McCoy’s the family sued San Diego County and individual staff members in 2022. Chief among their claims is a Monell violation against the county, with the family reasoning that it violated the Constitution by placing non-violent offenders with violent ones.
While McCoy was considered a level two detainer, he was housed along with Medina, who was a level four detainer, in a Covid-19 quarantine holding cell. Although this is not typical, county policy allowed mixed housing at the detention level in medical units, such as the quarantine cell.
If someone accused of drunken driving and someone accused of murder are arrested at the same time, they can both be placed in the same cell under this policy, Eugene Iredale, of Iredale & Yoo, told the court.
“You never put a level two with a four,” he said. “This imposes an unnecessary risk of the fourth level taking advantage of the less sophisticated prisoner. They cannot subject the lamb to the lion’s dubious predations.”
Iredale, which represents McCoy’s family, argued that the individual county defendants acted with deliberate indifference to McCoy’s welfare when they allowed the two men to be housed together.
“What could go wrong?” he asked the court. “I respectfully submit to anyone with a brain, what could possibly go wrong? What happened to Mr. McCoy is the inevitable result of this ill-formed policy.”
Sarah Lanham, deputy county counsel, argued that its mixed housing policy is not unconstitutional and that prisons across the US have similar policies.
“We try to make it the safest place possible, but we can’t — it’s just not possible,” she said. “This unfortunate event is a one-off.”
Medina did not appear to pose any threat to other inmates or staff, she said. During his pickup, Medina urinated in the middle of the floor, threatened to kill himself and reported hearing voices, Lanham said.
If anything, prison staff were worried about what Medina would do to himself, she said. He was eventually released for entry into the general prison population.
“Could this be negligence? Maybe, but the plaintiff didn’t allege that,” Lanham said. “It’s unfortunate that this happened, but it’s certainly not the basis of a constitutional claim and it’s certainly not a Monell claim.”
Both sides requested summary judgment from U.S. District Judge William Hayes. The George W. Bush appointee signaled he would rule in favor of the county defendants.
“The point is that prison violence is something that is going to happen, but it is essential that the authorities who run the prison try to structure the housing so that people are not willing victims of predatory individuals,” Iredale told Courthouse News after the hearing.
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