Federal suit against Santa Maria Police moves to trial in case of teen’s attempted hanging

Oct. 19--A five-year-old federal lawsuit alleging that Santa Maria Police Department policies and practices resulted in failure to prevent an attempted suicide by a teen taken into custody, is headed for a jury trial after settlement talks between the city and teen's family failed.

In December 2012, 19-year-old detainee Shane Horton was arrested on suspicion of vandalism and taken into a holding cell at the old Santa Maria Police Department headquarters, where he was left unsupervised.

While in the cell, Horton took off the belt he was allowed to keep, looped it around the cell bars and attempted to hang himself.

Nearly 27 minutes passed before Horton was discovered by police, who revived him by using a defibrillator and providing CPR.

Horton, now 25, was left with severe brain damage from lack of oxygen during the incident and is nonverbal. He is a resident of the subacute care unit at St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo and will require constant medical care for the remainder of his life.

The lawsuit was filed in August 2014 on Horton's behalf by his mother, Yvonne Horton. It alleges that the police department's policies and practices demonstrated it was "deliberately indifferent" to Horton's mental health and safety and violated his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

Santa Maria City Attorney Thomas Watson said he could not comment on the suit because it is still pending.

The city of Santa Maria's attempts to get the lawsuit thrown out were squashed earlier this year when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals largely left in place a district court ruling allowing the case to move forward. After the ruling, city officials and attorneys for Yvonne Horton attempted to resolve the case through private mediation but were unable to come to an agreement on a settlement.

Attorneys for Yvonne Horton have not specified how much they are seeking in damages but have noted that Horton's medical bills, which are paid through a combination of private insurance and Medi-Cal, have totaled several million dollars since the incident.

A jury trial is scheduled to begin in federal district court in Los Angeles in February.

On Dec. 29, 2012, Horton was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor vandalism after he allegedly slashed the tires of a car following a physical altercation with his girlfriend, according to court records.

Officer Duane Schneider transported Horton to the old police station on Cook Street. There, he confiscated Horton's wallet and iPod before placing the teen into a temporary holding cell.

While at the station, Horton had a 20-minute conversation with Schneider, and told the officer he felt anxious and wanted "someone to talk to."

Before leaving, Schneider told Horton to wave at the security camera if he needed anything, and that Officer Andrew Brice would arrive within a few minutes.

When Brice arrived, he took Horton to a separate room to interview him and informed Horton that his charge was being upgraded to felony domestic violence and that he would be transported to the County Jail.

After being returned to his cell, Horton called his mother to ask if she could post bail. While on the phone, Yvonne Horton spoke to Brice and asked to speak to him privately.

Officer Brice then went to a separate room to call Yvonne Horton, who told him that her son had attempted suicide two weeks earlier and was placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold that was lifted after an official with CARES, which responds alongside law enforcement to mental health emergencies, determined her son's behavior was drug-induced.

According to Yvonne's Horton's deposition, she told Brice that her son was depressed and suicidal and that she disagreed with the CARES official.

In Brice's deposition, he denies that Yvonne Horton ever used the word "suicidal" on the call.

Brice's conversation with Horton's mother lasted 10 to 15 minutes. During the first few minutes of that conversation, Horton removed the belt he was wearing and attempted to hang himself from the bars of his cell.

After the phone call, Brice went to complete the paperwork necessary to transport Horton to the County Jail. About 15 minutes after the call ended, Brice returned to Horton's cell and found him hanging.

Horton's suicide attempt was the first suicide attempt by a detainee in the Santa Maria Police Department's custody, according to court records.

In court records, attorneys for Yvonne Horton allege the city is liable for a constitutional violation because the department does not confiscate belts from pretrial detainees as a matter of policy.

At the time of Horton's attempted suicide, the policy on holding pretrial detainees stated officers "should" remove belts, which was intended to be a recommendation but give officers discretion on whether or not to remove belts, lawyers for the Santa Maria Police Department said in court filings.

Horton's injuries were self-inflicted and beyond the control of the police department or any of its employees, the city of Santa Maria argued in court.

After Horton's attempted suicide, former Police Chief Ralph Martin revised the department's policies to require mandatory removal of belts from detainees, according to court records.

Mack Staton, an attorney for Yvonne Horton, also noted that though two security cameras were pointed at the holding cell, and one officer told Horton to wave at the cameras if he needed anything, no police department employees appeared to be responsible for monitoring them.

"It doesn't appear that they had any schedule or protocol for how those should be monitored," he said.

Attorneys for Yvonne Horton claim the department did not have adequate written policies on how to identify and respond to mentally disordered detainees and that there was a failure to adequately train officers on how to deal with those suffering from mental illness.

Under a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision, municipalities can be liable for constitutional injuries that are tied to the implementation of an official policy, a failure to train or a pervasive or widespread practice.

As evidence of Santa Maria Police's allegedly inadequate practices, Yvonne's Horton's attorney's pointed to an independent two-year audit of Santa Maria Police Department practices and policies that was completed in 2014. The audit found many "police members had only a passing knowledge of department policies" and training for dealing with potentially suicidal suspects was nonexistent.

The audit was commissioned by former City Manager Rick Haydon months before Horton's attempted suicide in response to several officer-involved shootings, including one in which Santa Maria Police Officer Alberto Covarrubias Jr., who allegedly had a sexual relationship with an underage Police Explorer, was killed by a fellow officer.

The city also moved to adopt the recommendations included in the audit.

Schneider and Brice both remain employed by the Santa Maria Police Department.

The five-year-old suit, which was on appeal at the Ninth Circuit for over three years, might soon have a resolution.

A jury trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 25 in Los Angeles.

Staton said he's hoping that there will be no more delays and that the trial will move forward as scheduled after more than 2,400 days since Horton's attempted suicide.

"It's been a long, long time to get to this state," he said.

Yvonne Horton has been by her son's side for at least a few hours nearly every day since early 2013, when he entered the subacute care unit at St. John's, Staton said. "She is a remarkable woman -- it's just an astounding dedication she has for her son's care and how he's doing.

"We're just glad to move forward and resolve the case," he said.

Razi Syed covers Santa Maria City Government for Lee Central Coast Newspapers. Follow him on Twitter @razisyed

___

(c)2019 Santa Maria Times, Calif.

Visit Santa Maria Times, Calif. at http://www.santamariatimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.