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 From: DEMI_GOD_@SHAW.CA 
  
 Blank 
 Federal jury to hear case of county inmate's death 
  
 By: SCOTT MARSHALL - Staff Writer 
 Juan Herrera Leon lost his life in jail. 
  
 The 18-year-old Escondido man was not stabbed, beaten, strangled or shot. 
 His 
 killer, 
 according to his family's attorney, was substandard medical care in a jail 
 system 
 that had too few medical personnel, a jail staff that ignored requests for 
 help and a 
 policy of destroying written medical records that could have helped 
 supervisors 
 detect problems. 
 However, attorneys for San Diego County have countered that no shortage of 
 medical 
 staff members existed at the time Leon died, that a variety of written 
 medical 
 records were maintained, and that Leon did not seek medical care in the days 
 before 
 his death. 
  
 The question of whether the county is liable for the death in July 1999 is 
 to 
 be 
 answered by a U.S. District Court jury, which is scheduled to begin hearing 
 evidence 
 this week in the trial of a lawsuit Leon's family filed against the county, 
 the 
 Sheriff's Department, deputies and jail medical staff. 
  
 Senior Deputy County Counsel Ricky Sanchez and Senior Deputy County Counsel 
 Deborah 
 McCarthy, who represent the defendants in the lawsuit, could not be reached 
 for 
 comment last week. 
  
 Attorney Sonia Mercado, who represents Leon's father, daughter and 
 girlfriend, 
 said 
 the lawsuit aims to make the public aware of what is happening in the jail 
 system and 
 have sheriff's deputies and their supervisors follow the law. 
  
 "We are concerned that our jails not become like jails in Latin America or 
 the 
 Soviet 
 Union in the '50s and '60s, where people are in them, and nobody is aware of 
 what's 
 going on," Mercado said. 
  
 Teen collapsed in holding cell 
  
 Leon died July 28, 1999, at Tri-City Medical Center, where he was taken 
 after 
 collapsing in a court holding cell in Vista while awaiting a Superior Court 
 appearance on two cases. 
  
 Superior Court records showed Leon was charged with possessing 
 methamphetamine 
 on 
 March 26, 1999. He was allowed to remain free without posting bail on that 
 case. 
  
 He was arrested and jailed in May 1999, however, on different allegations. 
 Prosecutors charged him with illegally possessing a shotgun and ammunition 
 on 
 May 10, 
 1999. 
  
 The man pleaded not guilty to the charges in both cases. He died less than a 
 month 
 before he was scheduled to stand trial. 
  
 Mercado declined to discuss the reasons Leon was in jail, saying the lawsuit 
 is about 
 problems in the jail's medical services and not his history. 
  
 Family says illness ignored 
  
 Leon's family says in the lawsuit that Leon was sick for two weeks before 
 his 
 death, 
 becoming progressively worse with a serious but treatable illness. Leon died 
 as a 
 result of peritonitis, an abdominal infection, the lawsuit says. 
  
 Mercado said Leon had a gallon of fluid in his abdomen at the time of his 
 death. 
  
 The lawsuit alleges that deputies and jail medical staff were "deliberately" 
 indifferent to the need to provide Leon medical care. Leon and other inmates 
 repeatedly asked for medical help for him but were ignored, the lawsuit 
 says. 
  
 In excerpts of depositions filed with the court, fellow inmates tell of a 
 feverish 
 Leon lying on the floor of his cell to cool off, vomiting and defecating on 
 himself, 
 requiring other inmates to ask for clean clothes and bedding for him. 
  
 Fellow inmates asked deputies to obtain medical care for Leon to no avail, 
 his 
 family 
 alleges in court documents. 
  
 In response, the county says in court documents that one of the inmates, 
 whose 
 bunk 
 was three feet from Leon's, never saw the man vomit or have diarrhea but 
 learned of 
 those symptoms from other inmates. The county also says that the other 
 inmates 
 provided Leon clean linen without the knowledge of deputies because the 
 extra 
 linen 
 was considered "contraband." 
  
 The inmates also said in depositions that they tried to get Leon to go to 
 medical 
 services but that he did not want to, the county says in court documents. 
  
 Grand jury notes problems 
  
 The lawsuit also says that jail supervisors conspired to deprive inmates of 
 justice 
 by following a policy of verbal communication and destroying documents such 
 as 
 minutes of staff meetings, e-mails, calendars, reports of medical problems 
 and 
 memoranda. 
  
 "Our goal is to make a system look at itself and avoid this problem," 
 Mercado 
 said. 
 "This system was busy trying to cover things up." 
  
 The documents that she said were destroyed included a memorandum advising 
 the 
 Sheriff's Department of the findings of a county grand jury investigation of 
 jail 
 medical services. The grand jury's report was issued two months before 
 Leon's 
 death, 
 Mercado said. 
  
 Among the grand jury's findings were that inmate requests for medical care 
 can 
 be 
 delayed unnecessarily by guards with a minimal threat of the delay being 
 discovered. 
 In some cases, care from a doctor is not available to the degree required, 
 leading to 
 improper diagnoses and allegations of "premature death," the grand jury 
 found. 
  
 The panel's recommendations included ensuring that inmates be provided 
 prompt 
 and 
 proper medical care without unnecessary delays and maintaining medical 
 records 
 reflecting the response time for all inmate requests for medical care. 
  
 County lawyers said in a trial brief filed March 29 that the Sheriff's 
 Department 
 maintains a variety of medical records, including medical policy and 
 procedures, 
 protocols and patient charts. 
  
 Jails also undergo inspections by the California Board of Corrections and 
 the 
 grand 
 jury, and staff meetings are held on a regular basis to monitor the 
 effectiveness of 
 the medical care provided, the county said. 
  
 County disputes allegations 
  
 The county's trial brief also presented a much different view of what 
 happened 
 to 
 Leon during his time in custody. 
  
 County lawyers say there is no evidence that inmate deaths are a recurring 
 problem at 
 the George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa, where Leon was housed, 
 nor 
 is 
 there evidence that deputies or the jail's doctor obstructed the man from 
 receiving 
 medical care. 
  
 The county says that Leon was jailed May 26, 1999, about two months before 
 he 
 died. 
 On July 15 of that year, he submitted a "sick call" request because he 
 vomited 
 after 
 eating. A nurse saw him July 16 and noted no fever and that his blood 
 pressure 
 and 
 respiration were normal, the brief says. 
  
 Leon was kept in a medical cell for observation until he called and reported 
 he was 
 better and wanted to return to the cell where he was housed. 
  
 A nurse saw the man again July 18, 1999, because of a request he filed the 
 day 
 before 
 complaining of stomach pains and cramps. Leon had a fever and was given 
 Tylenol for 
  
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