Overview: The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of Christopher Zumwalt, who died in custody in 2020 after a confrontation with corrections officers. The incident was captured on video and medical examiners cited other contributing factors to his demise, including a lack of food and water, asphyxiation from the use of restraints and pepper spray. The county has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle the Zumwalt case while several families whose loved ones died in custody in 2022 have suits for negligence and wrongful deaths that continue working their way through the legal process.
S. E. Williams
According to reports, Christopher Zumwalt, 39, had no history of violence when he was arrested near his home in Riverside County on October 22, 2020, for public intoxication.
Zumwalt admitted to officers he’d taken methamphetamine sometime before his arrest and according to a New York Times report was slated to be released after he sobered up. However, three days later while still in custody, Zumwalt was dead.
Last week we learned that in December, 2023, county officials “quietly” settled a lawsuit filed by Zumwalt’s loved ones by agreeing to pay $7.5 million.
There is consensus among medical examiners consulted in this case that a confrontation between Zumwalt and corrections officers that occurred when they attempted to extract him from his cell, contributed to the cardiac arrest that led to his death.
The Riverside Sheriff’s Department (RSD) ultimately acknowledged Zumwalt died from what it described as a “legal” use of force by corrections officers. Meanwhile, medical examiners cited other concerning, contributing factors to his demise including a lack of food and water, as well as asphyxiation from the use of restraints and pepper spray.
The incident was captured on video where you see a cadre of deputies attempting to extract an allegedly delusional Zumwalt from his cell. Deputies are seen wearing helmets, holding shields, tossing canisters of pepper spray into Zumwalt’s cell and repeatedly shocking him.
After the altercation Zumwalt was successfully moved to another cell, strapped in a restraint chair and his face covered with a spit mask. Reports indicate Zumwalt was then left unmonitored and stopped breathing. He died in custody October 25, 2020–three days after his arrest.
Zumwalt’s in custody death was no aberration. He was among 12 deaths in Riverside County jails in 2020. Fast forward to 2022, when in custody deaths in the county surged to 19, almost four times the county average of five in custody deaths per year. In 2022, Riverside struggled with a national fentanyl crisis and an expanding mental health population.
“Every year, taxpayers in cities and counties across the country pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle lawsuits filed in response to police misconduct, lawsuits that are often settled in secret by municipalities to quietly bury criticism and controversy. In many cases, the costliest of these lawsuits are those involving civil rights violations (e.g. excessive use of force) that result in the physical injury or death of residents.”
In addition, each of the 19 who died in custody that year were awaiting trial. In other words, like Zumwalt, none were found guilty of the crimes that led to their confinement.
Like Zumwalt’s family, several families of people who died in custody in 2022 are suing the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department for a number of issues including negligence and wrongful death. Meanwhile, the state attorney general continues his investigation of the department for allegedly violating the civil rights of incarcerated people.
Despite the county settling the Zumwalt case for $7.5 million, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco stated to the press, “The facts of this case clearly show the actions of our deputies were appropriate and lawful.”
This is par for the course. He gave a similar declaration to the in custody deaths in 2022. During an interview with Black Voice News about the Riverside’s 2022 in custody deaths Bianco said, “It was extremely unfortunate, but it certainly wasn’t at the hands of our deputies. It certainly wasn’t because we weren’t trying to prevent them and stop them.”
In the meantime, inmates die and despite the department being under a decade’s long, court-monitored consent decree where the county has complied with only 13 of the approximate 80 provisions identified. Among the provisions that remain in question are whether the jails are maintaining adequate medical and mental health staff to care for people in custody and effectively evaluating and housing people with the most severe mental health problems.
Meanwhile, the county has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle the Zumwalt case while several families whose loved ones died in custody in 2022 have suits for negligence and wrongful deaths that continue working their way through the legal process and the state attorney general is investigating the department for allegedly violating the civil rights of incarcerated people.
In the meantime, homelessness in Riverside County increased 12% over 2022. This year the Board of Supervisors allocated $7.5 million to complete the Palm Springs Navigation Center campus which officials said is integral to regional efforts to address homelessness. The center will provide 80 interim housing using a a full spectrum of wrap around services. If the county was not paying $7.5 million to settle claims against the Sheriffs Department perhaps another navigation center could be provided within the region.
The county should be investing more in the needs of its citizens and less in protecting the wayward actions of its sheriffs department.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.