San Diego County taxpayers are quietly picking up a rapidly growing tab for lawsuits tied to the sheriff’s office, with the total cost now in the tens of millions. Families and attorneys say a wave of multimillion-dollar settlements exposes serious problems inside county jails, while officials counter that new medical staffing and reforms are already in motion, even as fresh lawsuits over alleged neglect and in-custody deaths keep arriving.
Payouts Climbed Sharply Over A Decade
In less than ten years, the sheriff’s legal bill has gone from worrying to eye-popping. County records show the contribution to its public-liability fund rose from roughly $8.3 million in 2015–16 to nearly $50 million this year, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. That surge has forced a rethink of budget priorities inside the sheriff’s office and at the Board of Supervisors, where courtroom losses are now a regular line item instead of an occasional hit.
Two Recent Settlements Made Headlines
County supervisors signed off in late October on a $16 million settlement over the 2022 death of William “Hayden” Schuck in jail, a deal his lawyers said was shaped in part by missing video evidence. Attorneys have called it one of the largest wrongful-death payouts in county history, a distinction few officials are eager to celebrate. That settlement was reported by local outlets including KPBS and others.
The county also resolved a separate high-profile case tied to the 2019 death of Elisa Serna at Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility with a roughly $15 million agreement. That package included a $14 million county payment plus $1 million from a contracted medical provider, as reported by Times of San Diego. Together, the two cases alone would be a huge civil docket in most counties; in San Diego, they are part of a larger, expensive pattern.
Analysis Flags Many Multimillion Payouts
The same analysis that spotlighted the rising totals also catalogued dozens of settlements and verdicts tied to the sheriff’s office. Many involve in-custody deaths, claims of medical neglect and allegations of excessive force, and a significant number have crossed into seven and eight figures. Those large checks help explain why the county’s liability contribution has climbed so steeply in recent years. As the San Diego Union-Tribune noted, the pattern of big payouts has become a central factor in the financial pressure facing the sheriff’s office.
What Is Driving The Trend
Reporters and analysts who have been tracking the numbers point to several overlapping forces. There has been an uptick in jail bookings and a larger share of people entering custody with serious medical and behavioral-health needs. Advocates say clinical failures in that environment have led straight to wrongful-death claims, while a run of high-value verdicts and settlements has raised the stakes for every new case that hits the courts.
Journalists at Voice of San Diego have documented a rise in bookings since new state rules were enforced this year. Local coverage has also traced a record number of in-custody deaths in recent years, a toll that helped fuel public outrage and calls for reform. Times of San Diego and other outlets have reported on the years with the highest death tallies and the broader audit findings that pushed county leaders to promise changes.
Sheriff’s Office Says Reforms Are Underway
Sheriff Kelly Martinez has repeatedly emphasized that she was not in office for many of the deaths now at the center of costly litigation, and she argues that the jail system people are reading about in court filings is not the one she is trying to run today. In public statements, she has pointed to policy revisions and staffing changes adopted since she took command…