The parents of a man who died by suicide while inside Los Angeles County jail said Thursday that they have new evidence that shows deputies failed to check on him while they were watching videos and eating when their 22-year-old son hanged himself.
The lawyers for Maxwell Aguirre’s parents said they were going public now because they want the LA County district attorney and state attorney general to consider criminal charges for the deputies involved.
In an amended complaint, they said internal video and records they have obtained while investigating the lawsuit show a group of deputies weren’t paying attention, adding that they believe the LA County Sheriff’s Department lied to them about what happened.
“His death was completely preventable,” Omar Aguirre, the deceased man’s father said, adding the death of his son would not have happened two years ago had the deputies on duty at the Twin Towers jail in downtown LA made their legally required periodic checks to see that inmates were alive and well.
“My son never even made it to court. He died in jail, and nobody cared,” Aguirre said.
The Aguirre family’s attorneys said jail security video recordings provided by the sheriff’s department in response to legal demands show the deputies on duty on Sept. 22, 2023, the day of Maxwell Aguirre’s suicide attempt, were crowded around a screen then eating around the same time Aguirre had tried to hang himself inside a cell under the deputies’ supervision.
“They were watching YouTube. They were quote unquote, celebrating. They were eating Chick-fil-A,” Denisse Gastelum, family attorney, said.
Gastelum also said a jail incident report written by a sergeant appears to confirm inmate checks were skipped or “burned” in jail language.
Aguirre’s mother, Yvette Aguirre, said the sheriff’s department wasn’t honest with her about her son’s suicide attempt or his medical condition in the days after it happened.
“What the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department calls stable, most of us call brain dead and on life support,” she said.
Maxwell Aguirre didn’t die from the hanging injuries until seven days later, becoming one of the 45 deaths in county jails in 2023.
The family said Aguirre should have been under close monitoring as he had attempted to take his own life days before the death. He had also struggled with mental health issues and asked the jailers for mental health care, the family said.
Maxwell Aguirre, an Air Force veteran, was in jail with no bail at the time of his suicide attempt after he had been charged with murder.
The lawsuit, filed more than a year ago, accuses the sheriff’s department and the deputies on duty that day of violating Aguirre’s constitutional rights, negligence and wrongful death. The family also said the deputies should be prosecuted for failing to check on inmates and lose their certifications to work as law enforcement officers. They said the case should be helpful to the state attorney general, who is suing the county over dangerous conditions inside the jails.
“We as a society should not tolerate government officials, who take on a job to care and protect incarcerated persons, and with impunity (they) do not fulfil those roles,” Gastelum said.
The sheriff’s department said in a statement that it takes its responsibility to care for inmates seriously, adding that if deputies are found to have violated policy or failed to do their job, there could be administrative penalties.
The department provided no specific information about the case.
So far this year, there have been 38 in-custody deaths in county jails.
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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