San Diego County will pay $4.35 million to woman who blinded herself in jail
Suarez told the Union-Tribune that she had turned to meth to cope with depression. She was arrested May 5, 2019, after accompanying her boyfriend to a San Ysidro motel room where she used the drug. San Diego police found her wandering near the hotel and arrested her.
Jail intake paperwork obtained by her attorneys notes that she was “acting bizarrely and responding to internal stimuli.” After she started clawing at her eyes, deputies cut off her clothes and her acrylic nails, leaving cracked, jagged edges. She was then placed alone in a safety cell, which is normally for people who are actively suicidal.revealed that deputy Natalie Crist, who had been involved in processing Suarez, had recommended placing her in a restraint chair so she could not harm herself. But the jail’s watch commander, Charlise Wilson, rejected that recommendation, then ordered a sergeant to remove from Crist’s report any mention that she had rejected it.Sheriff’s supervisor refused deputy’s request to restrain woman who later blinded herself When Crist realized her report had been altered, she told a department captain, triggering the internal affairs investigation. When asked by an investigator why she had ordered changes to Crist’s report, Wilson initially said she “did not want to get into further trouble because she was on probation at the time,” according to a motion filed by Pena in August that quoted from the report. Wilson later changed her story, telling investigators she assumed the report was about Suarez biting a deputy, so the information about the restraint chair was not relevant. According to Pena’s motion, Wilson was cleared by the investigation, but the sergeant who amended Crist’s report was found by investigators to have been dishonest. Pena said Wilson could have ordered that Suarez remain handcuffed or be monitored one-on-one until she was no longer under the influence. Including Suarez’s settlement, the county will have paid out $27.1 million over the last five years to settle cases involving deaths and serious injuries in jail custody.She said she is still getting used to performing everyday tasks on her own and is trying as much as she can to help her mom with chores and taking care of her two younger siblings. She would like to start her own business someday, she said, and has an interest in aromatherapy.“But we know this cannot erase the pain and trauma from this incident or the life-changing aftermath,” Lt. Amber Baggs wrote in an email. “The San Diego Sheriff’s Department sends our sincere sympathy to Ms. Suarez, her family and all who were affected by this horrific and shocking incident.” Pena said she hopes to see more accountability when recommendations that could keep an incarcerated person safe from harm are ignored. “Cpl. Crist is someone who cared and tried to do everything she could for Tanya,” Pena said. “These are the kind of people we need in our jails.”
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