CLERB findings<\/a> identified one of those escort deputies as Deputy 3.<\/p>\nAt about 6 a.m. the next morning, Deputy 3 approached Patton\u2019s cell during a routine safety check. Body-worn camera footage captured Patton saying \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m having chest pain so bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the board\u2019s findings, the deputy looked into the cell, then turned away and continued toward the exit.<\/p>\n
As the deputy walked away, Patton said, \u201cPlease help me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deputy exited the module and turned off the body camera.<\/p>\n
The board concluded that this failure to act amounted to criminal negligence and sustained allegations that Deputy 3 failed to respond to a medical emergency, failed to complete a safety check and acted in a manner that created a high risk of death.<\/p>\n
Less than an hour later, another deputy encountered Patton under similar circumstances.<\/p>\n
At about 6:55 a.m., Deputy 1 conducted a safety check and briefly looked into Patton\u2019s cell while audible moaning could be heard, according to the report. The deputy then continued on without intervening.<\/p>\n
The board also sustained multiple findings against Deputy 1, including failure to recognize or respond to a medical emergency, failure to follow required count procedures and criminal negligence.<\/p>\n
During safety checks, deputies are required to check for signs of distress through \u201cdirect visual observation\u201d of people in custody, state regulations say.<\/p>\n
At 7:51 a.m., another deputy conducted a safety check. Body-worn camera footage showed Patton lying on the cell\u2019s lower bunk, groaning.<\/p>\n
That deputy finished the safety check and, roughly 15 minutes later, returned to Patton\u2019s cell, opened the door and interacted with him briefly, before leaving the module and returning a few minutes later with members of the medication-assisted treatment team and a nurse.<\/p>\n
But by then, it was too late.<\/p>\n
Deputies and the nurse attempted to take Patton\u2019s vital signs, but he soon became unresponsive.<\/p>\n
Paramedics arrived shortly after 8:30 a.m.; Patton was pronounced dead at 8:45 a.m.<\/p>\n
The board emphasized that its criminal conduct findings against Deputies 1 and 3 were based on a \u201cpreponderance of the evidence\u201d \u2014 meaning it is more likely than not that the misconduct occurred \u2014 rather than the higher \u201cbeyond a reasonable doubt\u201d standard required in criminal court.<\/p>\n
In an emailed response to questions last week, a spokesperson for the Sheriff\u2019s Office rejected the allegation that any crime occurred.<\/p>\n
Lt. David Collins said homicide investigators reviewed the case and found no evidence of criminal conduct. He noted that the county medical examiner ruled Patton\u2019s death an accident related to health complications.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore the case was not referred (by the sheriff) to the District Attorney\u2019s Office,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n
The autopsy attributed Patton\u2019s cause of death to acute bacterial bronchopneumonia complicating an influenza A infection, with methadone use as a contributing factor.<\/p>\n
Patton had been taking methadone, a treatment for opiate use disorder, under the jail\u2019s medication-assisted treatment program. He was supposed to be on a methadone taper, Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Jonathan Lucas noted in his report, but toxicology testing detected methadone at a higher concentration than expected.<\/p>\n
As a respiratory depressant, the drug likely contributed to his death, Lucas noted.<\/p>\n
While CLERB serves in an advisory role \u2014 meaning its findings don\u2019t require Sheriff Kelly Martinez to act \u2014 its criminal conduct findings could\u00a0trigger further review.<\/p>\n
State rules require law enforcement agencies to report findings of serious misconduct \u2014 including those identified by civilian oversight bodies \u2014 to the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which has the authority to suspend or revoke an officer\u2019s certification.<\/p>\n
Kalina, CLERB\u2019s executive officer, said it will be up to the Sheriff\u2019s Office to forward the findings to the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. He said he will be sharing the board\u2019s findings with the District Attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Separately, the Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s internal Critical Incident Review Board conducted its own review of Patton\u2019s death. A brief summary states that the panel identified no \u201caction items.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collins said that internal board does not make findings of misconduct and instead focuses on assessing the county\u2019s potential civil liability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that there are no \u2018action items\u2019 does not mean there were no issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
An expert who reviewed the case for The San Diego Union-Tribune said the failures described in CLERB\u2019s report are not uncommon.<\/p>\n
To George C. Klein, a former FBI researcher and criminal justice professor, the findings suggested that deputies did not follow basic safety protocols.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeputy 3 did not conduct a safety check,\u201d Klein said. \u201cIf government agencies act recklessly, intentionally or with gross negligence, they are acting with \u2018deliberate indifference\u2019 and are legally liable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Citizens\u2019 Law Enforcement Review Board has found that two San Diego County sheriff\u2019s deputies engaged in criminal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[138,23,100,74,76,75,1696,10586],"class_list":{"0":"post-254881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego-news","14":"tag-top-stories-sdut","15":"tag-watchdog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}