One Riverside County detainee threw another to his death while both were in custody.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected]
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The First Amendment Coalition has filed a lawsuit against Riverside County for violating state law by refusing to release public records and information sought by investigative journalist Christopher Damien about deaths in jail custody.
“When people die in the government’s custody, their relatives and the public have the right to review the government’s investigation of that death,” said Damien. “The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has withheld details about these investigations for far too long. California law is clear: These are public records.”
As a Local Investigations Fellow at the New York Times in 2024 and 2025, Damien investigated and covered deaths in custody that occurred in 2022 and 2023. In April 2024, he made two requests for public records under SB 519, a recent law passed to increase transparency about deaths in jail custody. Damien requested coroner’s reports on 46 individuals, investigation reports, and other related records and video.
The information Damien seeks is of vital public interest. Since 2022, the county’s deadliest year with 19 deaths — among the highest death rates in large jails in the country — the California Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation into the deaths, and the county has been named in 15 ongoing wrongful death lawsuits. Damien reports that more than $13.3 million in taxpayer funds have been paid to settle some of these cases.
Despite the requirement of SB 519 to disclose records within 45 days of the request, Damien has been met with stonewalling, demands for illegal fees, unexplained processing delays, and unjustified withholdings which it has not remedied even though he made both of his requests more than a year ago.
“Transparency in government is always essential to the functioning of a democracy,” said First Amendment Coalition Senior Staff Attorney Aaron Field. “But it is particularly important when it comes to deaths that occur while in the custody of law enforcement. Disclosing records about these deaths empowers the public to hold law enforcement accountable.”
The lawsuit, Damien v. County of Riverside, was filed in California Superior Court, County of Riverside.
Legal documents can be found here: https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/case/damien-v-county-of-riverside/