Riverside County is facing three more lawsuits due to deaths of inmates in county jails.
They join five other cases that Follow Our Courts knows of.
One complaint says that Mark Spratt was fatally thrown off the second floor of the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center Jan. 12, another says that Justin Kail overdosed on fentanyl in jail May 17, and the third says that Ulysses Munoz Ayala was killed by a fellow inmate Sept. 29.
In 2022, a record 18 inmates died in Riverside county jails, passing the last record of 12 deaths in 2005. California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened a civil rights investigation into the deaths Feb. 23. The deaths include six overdoses, two homicides, three suicides, four natural causes and three deaths of an unknown cause, according to the Spratt complaint. Eleven people have died in Riverside jails this year.
“The raw data and the per capita data make clear that the county jails are a death sentence for any pretrial detainee, some of whom have died just days after being booked,” the Spratt complaint says.
The Riverside Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the complaints because they are ongoing litigation. Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco had previously commented on the state investigation in a video.
“This investigation is based on nothing but false, and misleading statements, and straight-out lies from activists, including their attorneys. This will prove to be a complete waste of time and resources,” he said.
Spratt was arrested Jan. 10, and charged with two felony counts of identity fraud. His arraignment was scheduled for Jan. 12. The complaint filed by Jennifer Spratt, Mark Spratt’s mother, says that Mark Spratt was placed in a cell with Micky Payne. In 2011, Payne pleaded guilty to spousal injury. In 2012, he reportedly assaulted a person outside a party, and did not appear at a hearing for the subsequent charge of criminal mischief. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to spousal injury, false imprisonment and defacing property. He fled Montana, where he was being prosecuted for assault, and was arrested on a fugitive warrant. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to battery against a police officer, and attempting to take the officer’s firearm. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon, and was waiting for a sentencing hearing when Spratt was placed in his cell. He complained on the jail phone that he was housed with a white inmate.
At 1:29 a.m., surveillance cameras showed movement in Payne and Spratt’s cell, and Spratt was screaming, the complaint says. At 1:31 a.m., neighboring inmates told deputies there was a fight in the cell. The deputies turned on the lights and told the inmates to “stop fighting,” according to the complaint.
The Spratts’ attorney, Brynna Popka of the McCune Law Group, said that it was not clear from the coroner’s report if the deputies came in person to tell them to stop fighting, or made a statement from the command center.
At 1:35 a.m., jail staff opened the cell door, but did not have anyone near the cell. Payne picked up Spratt, walked him out of the open door, and threw him over the second-floor railing, the complaint says.
Half an hour later, Spratt was transported to Inland Valley Medical Center, 10 miles away. He died at 6:12 a.m.
Payne faces a murder charge for Spratt’s death, but he has not yet gone to trial.
The Spratt complaint says that the county fails to report in-custody deaths by mandatory deadlines, and provides inaccurate information regarding the deaths to the Department of Justice.
Popka said that the family is devastated by the death.
“They’re saddened, they’re devastated. You have a young kid, and you certainly expect them to make mistakes, but you don’t expect to get a call that, just by going to jail, before you’re even convicted of a crime, when you’re still presumed innocent, you don’t expect to get a call that they die,” Popka said.
The Kail and Munoz Ayala complaints were both brought by Lewis Khashan of Murrieta’s Khashan Law Firm. Follow Our Courts reached out to Khashan’s law firm for additional comment. Erik Martinez faces a murder charge in Munoz Alaya’s death.
“(Kail) was a loving husband, father and son who lost his life due to the defendants’ negligence in failing to properly secure the facility and the entrance of narcotics into the jail,” the Kail complaint says.
The complaint goes on to say that there have been numerous fentanyl deaths in Riverside jails, and that the Sheriff’s Office has not been reporting them to state officials.
“(Munoz Ayala) was a 39-year-old father and son who was in care custody, and control of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department at the Cois Byrd Detention Center located in Murrieta, California, when he was brutally and viciously attacked and killed by an inmate,” the Munoz Ayala complaint says.
The complaint says that the Sheriff’s Office fails to use surveillance to monitor jails, and does not perform required welfare and safety checks on inmates. The complaint does not go into the attack’s details.
The cases bring claims of failure to protect, negligence, indifference to serious medical need, violation of the right to familial association, civil rights violation to the right to safety and life, failure to properly train and supervise, wrongful death and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Attorneys Denisse Gastélum of Long Beach’s Gastélum Law and Christian Contreras of the Los Angeles Law Offices of Christian Contreras have filed five complaints against the Sheriff’s Office. One of their cases involves Kaushal Niroula, a transgender woman awaiting trial on a murder charge, who was placed in a cell with, and reportedly killed by, Rodney Sanchez, who was awaiting trial on child sexual assault charges.
Another case is on behalf of Richard Matus’ family. Matus died from an overdose in the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center.
Read the Spratt complaint here.
Read the Kail complaint here.
Read the Munoz Ayala complaint here.
Read our previous reporting on the lawsuits:
