$10-Million Lawsuit Dismissed in Cypress Jail Hanging

More than two years after a man was found hanged in a Cypress jail cell by a noose made of socks, a federal judge dismissed a $10-million lawsuit filed by the man’s family, Cypress officials disclosed Tuesday.

In response to allegations by the family of Salvador Medina Camarena that the city was responsible for his death--whether intentionally or negligently--Senior U.S. District Judge Robert J. Kelleher ruled that the police officers’ failure to remove Camarena’s socks “cannot be found to be negligent nor . . . casually linked to the suicide.”

Police failure to remove his socks was “the nub of the case,” the judge said in a ruling handed down in late November and disclosed by city officials Tuesday.

City officials said the court ruling absolved the city of any wrongdoing in Camarena’s death. Police found Camarena dead in a jail cell about 2 a.m. Aug. 21, 1983, after arresting him the night before on a public intoxication charge.

The family of the Mexican national, 36, a security guard who was on an extended visit staying with relatives in Orange County, labeled the death as suspicious, saying Camarena had no reason to commit suicide.

Family Expresses Doubt

“To me, in my mind, and to all of us, we don’t believe (that it was a suicide),” said Camarena’s sister, Guadalupe Pastrana, of Garden Grove.

“When you’re poor, what can you do, especially when you’re fighting giants?” Pastrana asked. Family members alleged that there was a conspiracy to cover up facts in the case, especially concerning bruises found on the man’s arms and hands.

In his ruling, Kelleher noted that jail inmates have attempted suicide by stuffing socks down their throats, swallowing glass and burning themselves, among other things. “In fact, the adaptability of inmates who are intent on suicide points up the unfairness of relying on hindsight to find negligence based on what precaution could have been taken in a given case.”

The night he was arrested, Camarena had left a family party and was found by police outside a Cypress skating rink, allegedly intoxicated.

Cypress police ruled Camarena’s death a suicide five months after he was found dead--and one day after the $10-million lawsuit was filed. The timing, Cypress Police Chief Ronald Lowenberg said at the time, was “just a coincidence.”

In depositions filed in the case, Camarena’s former wife said that Camarena had attempted suicide several years earlier. But family members contend that at the time of his death Camarena was happy and had no reason to kill himself.

Allegations Termed ‘Wild’

Assistant City Manager Dave Barrett termed allegations against the Police Department as “wild and not substantiated.”

Councilman John Kanel said police arrested an inebriated Camarena to protect both him and the public. “They tried to protect him. It turned out to be a very unfortunate incident,” Kanel said Tuesday.

The Camarena case had developed an international twist in 1983 when an official in Mexico asked the Los Angeles consulate to support the family in its request for a thorough investigation. The government official had been contacted by one of Camarena’s sisters, Martha, a promotional consultant in Mexico City.