Following his death, Washington’s widow, Tonette Washington, retrieved his belongings from the jail. Among them were several written requests, known as kites, in which her husband repeatedly requested his prescribed medications and psychiatric treatment from jail staff.
Speaking at the rally, she expressed her devastating sense of loss and the chilling realization that her husband had spent his final days pleading for medical assistance.
She read from the notes her husband had kept, stating that he basically was begging for his medication. Washington said that if custody staff had done their jobs and provided the necessary care, her husband would be alive today.
The family’s concerns also extended to the classification and screening of inmates.
Washington noted that her husband’s cellmate, who purportedly was transferred from a hospital and allegedly smuggled the lethal drugs into the cell, should have been flagged by staff.
“He would not be gone had they left him by himself [in a one-person cell],” she said. “This person [Washington’s cellmate] should never have been in there with my husband.”
Federal Civil Rights Litigation Against Sacramento County
Asaiah Washington’ family has taken legal action. The estate of Asaiah Washington, with Tonette Washington and her daughter Jadah Washington, filed a civil rights lawsuit July 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
The suit names Sacramento County, the Sacramento County Department of Health Services, Public Health Officer Eric Sergienko, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, and Sheriff Jim Cooper as defendants.
The lawsuit, managed by civil rights attorneys Mark Merin and Paul Masuhara, alleges deliberate indifference to serious medical needs, negligence, and wrongful death.
The plaintiffs argue that jail authorities failed to meet constitutional standards of care by denying Washington his prescribed life-sustaining insulin and mental health medications, despite his documented requests.
The defendants, represented by Carl L. Fessenden and Cruz Rocha of the firm Porter Scott, filed their formal answer to the amended complaint May 11, denying the allegations of liability.
Systemic Jail Conditions And Rising Custody Deaths
The Washington family’s lawsuit is one of several recent civil actions alleging systemic medical neglect inside the jail.
“He’s not the only one. There’s others; they don’t care,” Washington said at the rally.
In 2024, a separate federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of the family of Norman Fisher Jr., a 47-year-old pretrial detainee who died May 27, 2023, of septic shock and kidney failure.
That lawsuit alleges Fisher and his cellmate repeatedly used the cell’s emergency intercom button to request medical aid over a 10-day period, but were reprimanded by deputies who told them his severe illness did not qualify as an emergency. Fisher’s condition was downplayed by medical staff as a common flu, and a medical assistant allegedly falsified records claiming Fisher refused a blood pressure check when he actually was too weak to stand.
The protest at the Main Jail occurred within a broader context of elevated mortality rates and critical findings by medical examiners and grand juries. Since January 2021, at least 41 people have died in the custody of the Sacramento County jail system, according to The Sacramento Bee.