By Brian Rokos
The Press-Enterprise
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A federal jury in Riverside on Tuesday, Aug. 25 , awarded $5.4 million to a Grand Terrace family that sued Riverside County, alleging that inmate Richard Matus Jr. died from a fentanyl overdose in 2022 when jail deputies failed to immediately respond to other inmates’ calls for help.
The total award to Lisa Matus and the son and daughter of Richard Matus was $13.5 million. But jurors, at the end of a six-day trial in U.S. District Court , found Richard Matus 60% liable for his death and the county 40% liable. Insurance will cover the first $5 million of the judgment, leaving the county paying $400,000, county spokeswoman Brooke Federico said.
The lawsuit was filed after Matus, 29, died at the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center in French Valley on Aug. 11, 2022. The lawsuit alleged that correctional deputies were negligent in responding to intercom calls from inmates who were reporting that Matus was having difficulty breathing after drinking pruno — ersatz alcohol mixed by inmates — that was laced with the powerful opioid fentanyl.
Messages were sent to the Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday seeking comment.
Jurors awarded the family $2 million for Matus’ death and $500,000 for his pain and suffering. They awarded his mother, Lisa Matus , $2 million for past damages and $1 million for future damages; and $2.5 million each for future damages and $1.5 million each for past damages to both of Richard Matus’ children, Gia Matus , 17, and Richard Matus III, 14. Those totals were proportionally reduced by the amount of liability assigned to Matus.
Their attorney, Christian Contreras , called on the Sheriff’s Department to change the system that alerts deputies to intercom calls. He described a panel in a control room that lights up when an inmate pushes a button in his cell. The panel does not reflect whether the inmate is calling about an emergency or a routine request, Contreras said.
Deputies sometimes receive as many as one call every two minutes, Contreras said Wednesday.
“The county of Riverside is not equipping its deputies, it’s not training its deputies, it’s not giving its deputies the resources to respond to emergency calls to save the lives of inmates,” Contreras, flanked by Matus family members and supporters, said at a news conference on the steps of the Riverside County Administration Center.
According to the verdict form, jurors found that Deputy Angel Rojas did not “deliberately ignore” intercom calls about Matus’ medical emergency but that he did “unreasonably ignore” the calls. They said his conduct was a “substantial factor” in causing Matus’ death and that he was negligent.
The county’s attorneys argued in a court filing that Matus’ family should not be awarded any compensation because their attorney had not proved negligence. The defense said witnesses could only speculate as to whether deputies were aware of the intercom calls before Rojas responded to one late at night.
“(Deputy) Rojas also testified that, although there was an unusual gathering of inmates outside Mr. Matus’ cell (Cell 41) at about 11:27 p.m. ,when he tried to investigate the issue by intercom query, inmates did not respond to him. And, thus, when inmates then returned to their cells without flagging him or engaging in frantic behavior, he concluded that the gathering had no indicators of any potential emergency,” defense attorneys wrote.
Such explanations have not satisfied Lisa Matus , who said she wants more accountability from the Sheriff’s Department.
“From the moment my son died, I knew there was something wrong,” Matus said. “And we’ve been fighting these last four years for answers. Something’s wrong with the system. And we need to change it. That comes from the top down.”
She said her son installed security systems and graduated from Colton High . Her son was in jail after being accused of robbery and attempted murder stemming from a holdup at a marijuana dispensary in 2018 but had not gone to trial. His brother, Raymond, was convicted of those charges in that case.
Matus, 57, has been one of the faces of attempts to separate the Sheriff’s Department from the Coroner’s Office to avoid conflicts of interest — Chad Bianco is both the sheriff and coroner — and to create a panel to oversee the Sheriff’s Department.
Matus said she has worked for the state for 20 years as a vocational therapy counselor and “became so involved because … I know we have checks, balances, in every way you can think about (in her job). And in Richard’s case, as I started getting more and more information, I just couldn’t believe it. … There’s not some type of checks and balances inside such a big department. … And I wasn’t going to let it go.”
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