State Board Tells Family It Will Look Into Strangulation of Jail Inmate

The family of Arthur Oviedo, who was strangled at the Orange County Jail in January, was told Thursday by the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance that it will look into the death, a family spokesman said.

The Sante Fe Springs family last week asked the Santa Ana office of the medical board to investigate. The family has also sought an investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office.

Orange County prosecutors said that Oviedo, 25, and another man were killed by Jerry T. Pick, 23, in separate incidents when Pick was their cell mate. The other man was John Franklin Wilcox, 71, killed on Jan. 17. Oviedo’s death came two weeks later.

Pick has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder. He was bound over for trial following a preliminary hearing last month.

The state Board of Medical Quality Assurance has a standard policy of refusing to publicly acknowledge any of its investigations unless it takes action.

But Mike Madigan, a Santa Ana private investigator hired by the Oviedo family, said Thursday that they received a letter from the board confirming that it will “open a file” on Oviedo’s death.

The family alleges that some of Oviedo’s medical records are missing. They also point to information in existing medical records that Oviedo was given varying medications in different doses, which some doctors in a review of Oviedo’s medical treatment have found questionable.

The Orange County Jail medical staff contends that there was nothing wrong with the care Oviedo received at the jail and that Pick would not have been placed in Oviedo’s cell if anyone had known the circumstances surrounding Wilcox’s death.

Wilcox’s first autopsy indicated that he died of natural causes. It wasn’t until Oviedo’s death that a second autopsy was performed on Wilcox and pathologists found that he had died of bruises to his ribs.