The family of Cecelia Covarrubias, the 41-year-old Santa Ynez resident who hung herself last November in a county jail isolation unit located within eyeshot of the jail intake desk, filed a claim against the county “in excess of $10 million” for allowing the death of a woman who had waved numerous red flags in the days and weeks preceding her death of her abiding intention of killing herself.
“Ms. Covarrubias was on suicide watch and was being held in an observation cell,” stated the claim filed by Woodland Hills attorney Dale Galipo, who specializes in civil rights, excessive force, and wrongful death cases against law enforcement agencies. “The County and its officials at the Main Jail were on notice of the threat to Ms. Covarrubias’s life and safety, but nevertheless allowed her death to occur on their watch.” Galipo also charged jail officials were slow to respond and summon medical attention.
Covarrubias’s death aroused the outrage of this year’s Grand Jury, which wrote about her demise with incredulity and outrage that someone who had issued so many warnings could have been placed in an isolation cell with a telephone equipped with a 12-inch telephone cord. Covarrubias — arrested on November 8 while under the influence after reportedly ramming a law enforcement vehicle while attempting to escape — was found in her cell on November 13 with that cord wrapped around her neck.
Such claims are typically a preliminary formality in big-ticket cases, a mandatory step during which “administrative remedies” are exhausted prior to the filing of an actual lawsuit. Earlier this year, Galipo won a $33.4 million verdict against a Kern County officer who shot a Black motorist five times, twice in the back.
As of deadline, the county has not yet responded to the claims by the Covarrubias family. Typically, the county declines to comment on any ongoing litigation. This claim, however, is hardly the last shoe to drop in the case. The Covarrubias death is reportedly the first case statewide to be submitted to the California Bureau of Community Corrections In-Custody Death Review Panel to evaluate the adequacy of the response and to make recommendations for improvement.
Two weeks prior to her death, Covarrubias was the subject of a welfare check conducted by Sheriff’s deputies who were sufficiently alarmed by her level of agitation that they called an ambulance and had her taken to Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital. There, she shifted in and out of various personas but was not deemed an imminent threat to herself or others.
On November 8, Covarrubias was again taken to the Santa Ynez hospital, where she informed medical staff that she thought she was the devil and had to kill herself to save her children. One attending staff person wrote she needed psychiatric hospitalization. But when meeting with the staff psychiatrist, she said she no longer felt suicidal.
During her jail intake interview, Covarrubias admitted trying to choke herself the day before but stated she was no longer suicidal. After expressing concern the devil might get her kids, she was moved to an isolation room with a wall-mounted telephone with a 12-inch cord. The next day, the Grand Jury reported, she stated she wanted to hang herself. Later, she would tell jail mental health workers that her children gave her reason to live and refused to be evaluated.
