24-year-old was left to die on jail cell floor, lawsuit says. Now family is owed $15M
Elisa Serna was seriously ill when she was booked in jail November 2019. She vomited for days, repeatedly fell, lost consciousness and had several seizures — but her symptoms went ignored, according to a newly settled lawsuit over her death.
Serna, a 24-year-old mother who was pregnant, never received the medical care she needed at Las Colinas Detention Facility in San Diego County — and was left to die following her last seizure and final fall, the lawsuit says.
Serna was “dying of dehydration” by the time a sheriff’s deputy and nurse witnessed the seizure and saw her hit her head and fall to the floor, becoming unconscious in her cell, according to the lawsuit.
The nurse stood over Serna for a moment and then, with the deputy, “turned around, closed the door and left Elisa on the floor to die,” the lawsuit says.
The jail’s surveillance footage captured her five-day stay in jail, and death across from a deputy station, according to the lawsuit, which says no one properly monitored her. The footage has since been released.
Nearly four years after Serna’s family sued San Diego County, former Sheriff Bill Gore, several deputies and the jail’s medical provider, Coast Correctional Medical Group, a settlement was reached on June 28, court records show.
“Yes, we have settled, but it is with a hard and heavy heart,” Michael Serna, Serna’s father, said in a statement.
Elisa Serna’s family is owed $15 million under the terms of a settlement agreement, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The county has agreed to pay $14 million.
“The dollar amount doesn’t matter,” Paloma Serna, Elisa Serna’s mother, told the newspaper. “These things do not change the fact that Elisa is never coming back.”
County Sheriff Kelly A. Martinez, who was the assistant sheriff when Elisa Serna died, said in a July 1 statement she “deserved better.”
“My sympathy goes to the Serna family and everyone who has been affected by this case, and I am glad that the County of San Diego and the family have reached a settlement,” Martinez said.
Martinez also said “there have been many changes and an incredible shift in priorities, approach, and processes in our jails since 2019.”
San Diego County didn’t provide a comment when contacted on July 2. Coast Correctional Medical Group didn’t respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
The outcome of the civil case is the largest wrongful death settlement involving the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, according to Eugene Iredale, one of Elisa Serna’s family’s attorneys.
The settlement “requires specific policy, training and practice changes in the Jail’s treatment of patients withdrawing from alcohol or drugs,” Iredale said in a news release.
Family was misled about her death
In 2019, Elisa Serna was detained in connection with shoplifting alcohol at a grocery store, Julia Yoo, another attorney representing the case, told McClatchy News on July 2.
When she arrived at jail on Nov. 6, 2019, she had pneumonia and “reported that she suffered from an addiction to heroin and alcohol,” according to the lawsuit.
Jail staff were aware she was “going through withdrawal,” but didn’t give Elisa Serna medication to help her symptoms until four days later, the lawsuit says.
The medical staff, including Dr. Friederike C. Von Lintig, are accused of denying her medical care.
After days of uncontrollable vomiting and seizures, Lintig accused Elisa Serna of faking her symptoms in a note when she saw Elisa Serna on Nov. 11, 2019, the day she died, the lawsuit says.
Elisa Serna fell down 18 times, had multiple seizures and vomited about 64 times that day, according to Iredale, NBC San Diego reported.
Following Elisa Serna’s death, county officials lied to her parents, telling them she “had been under constant medical care” and that their daughter had a fatal drug overdose.
Lintig and the nurse accused of leaving Elisa Serna to die, Danalee Pascua, were charged in connection with her death, according to NBC San Diego.
In February, Pascua was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter before the same charge was dismissed against Lintig, the outlet reported.
‘People continue to die’
Martinez said the settlement will provide her the opportunity to meet with Elisa Serna’s family and that she hopes “that meeting brings them further closure.”
However, Michael Serna said he feels no closure “because the County continues to act like they’ve done no wrong.”
In response to Kelly’s statement, he said “people continue to die in her jails.”
Sixteen people died in the county’s custody, including Elisa Serna, the 15th person to die, in 2019, when Sheriff Bill Gore led the sheriff’s department, according to The San Diego-Union Tribune.
Since 2020, 68 people have died in county custody, including six people in 2024, according to the sheriff’s department.
Michael Serna said the settlement “agreements are bittersweet because we will never be able to tell our daughter, sister, aunt and mother we love her nor hear her ever tell us again.
Elisa Serna was a mother to a young daughter, according to her family.
“Every time I see her daughter achieve her dreams and goals and think how proud Elisa would’ve been of her,” he said.
“I will think of how the County, Sheriff Bill Gore , Kelly Martinez, and all the command staff, the deputies, doctors and nurses never afforded her civil rights and the common decency that we human beings must show one another if any true change will ever come from this.”
This story was originally published July 3, 2024 at 10:57 AM with the headline "24-year-old was left to die on jail cell floor, lawsuit says. Now family is owed $15M."
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