The family of Cecilia Covarrubias filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the County of Santa Barbara charging that county authorities displayed “deliberate indifference” to the care and protection of Covarrubias, who died by suicide in the jail.
Covarrubias was arrested in her car November 2024 in an intoxicated state. Arresting sheriff’s deputies alleged Covarrubias used her car as a weapon as she sought to escape.
In the lawsuit, filed late last year, the family’s attorney, Dale Galipo, noted that Covarrubias had made remarks to law enforcement officials expressing a suicidal intention. Despite this, Galip charged, she was placed in an observation cell with a telephone cord in it — a cord Covarrubias would ultimately hang herself with. Galipo argued in his brief that Covarrubias should have been placed on suicide watch and in a cell that allowed clear visible access if not continuous video contact…