By Sean Longoria and Jim Schultz
Record Searchlight
SHASTA COUNTY, Calif. — Charles David Berlinghoff was found hanged in his Shasta County jail cell early Saturday morning, the apparent victim of a suicide, Redding police said.
Berlinghoff, 45, accused of disappearing from Redding and having repeated sex with his now 16-year old niece for a month late last year, was charged with 87 felony counts, including felony unlawful detention of a minor, incest and lewd acts with a minor.
Police said a corrections officer at the jail was doing an hourly check at 12:12 a.m. Saturday and found Berlinghoff hanging from a bed sheet in his cell. Berlinghoff was the only person in the locked cell at the time, Redding police Sgt. Brian Barner said.
Jail medics attempted to revive Berlinghoff, who was taken to a Redding hospital and pronounced dead, Barner said.
Redding police were named lead investigators in the hanging under Shasta County’s interagency, officer-involved critical incident protocol, Barner said.
A jail receptionist referred all questions on the hanging to Redding police.
Investigators interviewed 29 inmates who had contact with Berlinghoff during the past few days, Barner said. Police were told Berlinghoff had been depressed about his current court case, although Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said Saturday he had not exhibited any signs of suicidal behavior and was not under a suicide watch.
Bosenko knew of no suicide note. The investigation is continuing.
Berlinghoff’s death comes only five days shy of the one-year anniversary of his well-known Nov. 10, 2010, disappearance with his niece.
Berlinghoff, who had been in custody since December 2010, was scheduled for a Jan. 10 trial in his sex-crime case. He faced up to 40 years if convicted, Barner said.
A San Bernardino resident who once lived in Red Bluff, Berlinghoff allegedly started a sexual relationship with his niece last fall. Although the girl’s name was widely reported while she was missing last year, the Record Searchlight is now withholding her identity because it has been alleged she is the victim of sex crimes.
Berlinghoff’s brother, Jacob Berlinghoff, 34, of Redding declined Saturday to discuss his brother’s death.
“I have no comment right now,” he said. He also said immediate family members did not want to talk about their relative’s death.
Charles Berlinghoff’s twin sister, who lives in Florida, did not reply to an email from the Record Searchlight seeking comment on the apparent suicide.
Jacob Berlinghoff is slated to begin standing trial Jan. 24 for allegedly fondling his then-13-year-old daughter three years ago.
His daughter accused him of forcing her to drink hard liquor and touching her bare breast under her shirt, as well as her inner thigh, as punishment for bringing alcohol to school in September 2008.
His daughter lodged her allegations against him after she and her uncle were found in San Francisco last year following their disappearance.
Jacob Berlinghoff, who faces a maximum of eight years in prison if convicted, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Max Ruffcorn Sr., the Shasta County senior public defender who represented Charles Berlinghoff in his sex-crime case, could not be reached Saturday for comment about his client’s death.
Charles Berlinghoff and Ruffcorn had a rocky relationship, with Berlinghoff recently filing a federal lawsuit against the attorney and the public defender’s office, claiming professional negligence and legal malpractice.
In his lawsuit, Berlinghoff claimed Ruffcorn had slandered and defamed his character, and labeled his defense attorney as a “surrogate prosecutor.”
He also claimed Ruffcorn had been trying to pressure him into taking a plea bargain “for crimes I am not guilty of and to which he has evidence of my innocence.”
Berlinghoff, who was representing himself in his civil lawsuit, was seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Shasta County District Attorney Stephen Carlton said he learned of Berlinghoff’s death late Saturday morning.
“I’m shocked,” he said. “I’m just shocked. Nobody wants that kind of outcome.”
But Carlton said he does not believe Berlinghoff’s death will have much of an effect, if any, in the case against Jacob Berlinghoff. “I can’t see it,” he said.
Deputy District Attorney Curtis Woods, who was handling both cases and learned of Berlinghoff’s death around 5:30 a.m., agreed, saying the case against Jacob Berlinghoff would not be affected. “I don’t see why it would,” he said.
Charles Berlinghoff’s suicide is the second in-custody death at the jail in two days.
Around noon on Friday, inmate Kristopher Daniel Coulombe, 33, of Redding was found unconscious in a single-occupied medical cell and was later pronounced dead at Mercy Medical Center in Redding.
Bosenko said Coulombe’s death did not appear to be a suicide. An autopsy is slated for Monday.
Coulombe was arrested Oct. 29 after a chase. He nearly ran over a California Highway Patrol officer who was on a traffic stop on Victor Avenue, officers said.
Bosenko said the sheriff’s office is investigating Coulombe’s death. Bosenko said he did not ask RPD to investigate because there were no signs of foul play.
Although Berlinghoff was involved in a minor jail fight with another inmate in July, Bosenko said he had no other reports of Berlinghoff causing trouble at the jail while in custody.
He did say, however, that Berlinghoff staged a three-day hunger strike after he was initially arrested and booked into jail last year.
“I don’t know what he was protesting,” Bosenko said.
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