A federal judge in San Diego has ordered that dozens of video recordings, interviews and other evidence from Elisa Serna’s 2019 in-custody death be released, despite claims by attorneys defending San Diego County that disclosing this material would put the public at risk.
Judge Larry A. Burns issued his decision from the bench after a hearing Friday afternoon. A written decision is expected to be released next week.
The decision came as lawyers for the Serna family, the San Diego Union-Tribune and CBS 8 News argued that the public has a right to see the evidence, some of which was presented in a criminal case filed against a doctor and a county jail nurse.
Burns said the order affects more than 100 pieces of evidence, but will not apply to internal records of the Sheriff’s Department’s Critical Incident Review Board that remain in dispute in a separate proceeding in the 9th District Court. appeal from the United States.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys and news organizations argued that there was no legal reason to withhold public release of these documents.
“Defendants referenced only vague privacy concerns and potential harm to defendants as a basis for sealing 20 pleadings and approximately 114 exhibits,” attorney Grace Jun wrote in a case filed before Friday’s hearing.
County attorneys defending a civil suit filed by surviving members of Serna’s family objected to the public being able to view video of Serna collapsing to her death in her cell at the Las Women’s Prison Colinas in 2019.
They argued in court that revealing the evidence would harm the defense at trial and also unduly burden the county’s case at trial. They also claimed in court documents that some of the material could be personally embarrassing to county employees or others.
Serna was 24 when she died, five days after being arrested on robbery and drug charges.
When she was taken into custody, she told jail staff that she had used heroin and alcohol in the two hours before her arrest, which meant the sheriff’s department should have treated her according to its rules. withdrawal protocols.
But jail medical records and the medical examiner’s office report showed Serna did not receive proper medical care.
At one point, she collapsed in her cell and collapsed to the ground in front of prison staff, accused of failing to intervene on her behalf during the nurse’s criminal trial earlier this year Danalee Pascua and doctor Friederike Von Lintig.
Pascua and Von Lintig were charged by prosecutor Summer Stephan with involuntary manslaughter. Pascua was acquitted at his trial earlier this year and the jury deadlocked in the case against the prison doctor. Prosecutors declined to file new charges against her.
The Union-Tribune and CBS 8 sought to intervene in the case earlier this week on the grounds that the material should be included in the public record.
Burns allowed news organizations to intervene in the matter before issuing his ruling.
San Diego attorney Tim Blood, who represented both news organizations, said he expected Burns to make his decision official next week.
“The court recognized that these are court records that belong to the public and that the public is entitled to them unless there are compelling reasons to keep them secret,” Blood said. “The county and sheriff’s department have been unable to offer any compelling reason why the information should not be made public.”
California Daily Newspapers
