A federal jury this week awarded $13.5 million to the family of a man who died while in pre-trial custody at the Cois M. Byrd detention center in Murrieta, though the family will only receive a fraction of that amount.
“The jury determined that the county was 40% at fault,” Brooke Federico, Riverside County director of communications, said in an email to The Riverside Record. “As a result, the county is responsible for $5.4 million of the total amount.”
The jury found Richard Matus Jr., who died of a fentanyl overdose after drinking a homemade prison alcohol called Pruno, was 60% responsible. He was one of 19 people who died in Riverside County jails in 2022…