Reportedly Begged for Help : Inmate at County Jail Discovered Dead in Bed

A 28-year-old Orange County Jail inmate who had been in custody since Sunday was found dead in his bunk Tuesday morning, officials said.

Robert Jimenez Orozco of La Puente was found dead during a head count in the central men’s jail at 4:53 a.m., Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson said. Other inmates said Orozco complained of being severely ill Monday night.

“(Guards) called jail nurses and paramedics when it appeared that he was not breathing,” Olson said. “Paramedics confirmed that he was dead. There were no visual signs of trauma or foul play.”

One jail inmate telephoned The Times Orange County Edition on Tuesday to say that Orozco was ill on Monday and had “begged” for medication, but no one would help him.

Declined Comment

Olson declined to comment on Orozco’s state of health, saying that he did not have access to medical records.

An autopsy was being performed to determine the cause of death, Olson said.

Richard P. Herman, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said he received information from inmates in the jail that guards did not respond to Orozco’s pleas for medication.

“The information that we received said that Mr. Orozco was found dead in his cell after complaining of being gravely ill. He had pleaded with guards all night and his pleas were ignored,” said Herman, who has pressed several ACLU cases against the county for poor jail conditions.

“Over and over again we’ve raised the issue that there continues to be deaths in the Orange County Jail because of lack of medical care. Basically, all the deaths that occur in custody are unnecessary deaths. . . . They would end if inmates were treated as human beings instead of animals.”

Arrested Sunday

Orozco was arrested Sunday about 1 p.m. on suspicion of strong-arm robbery after walking out of an Albertson’s supermarket with a cartload of groceries, police said.

There were outstanding warrants for his arrest on suspicion of being under the influence of narcotics and for driving without a license, Buena Park Officer Rich McMillen said Tuesday.

Orozco was being held on $50,000 bail and was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday morning in North Orange County Municipal Court, Olson said.

As with all deaths that occur in the jail, the Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating.

Three Inmates Died

Medical care in the County Jail came under attack last year after three inmates died in the medical ward.

John Franklin Wilcox, 71, died Jan. 17, 1987, after a beating in an isolation cell he shared with Jerry Thomas Pick, 23. Arthur Oviedo, 25, was strangled Jan. 31, 1987, in another isolation cell which he also shared with Pick, according to prosecutors. Juan Ceja, 27, hanged himself March 8, 1987, after being left alone in a cell. He died a week later.

Pick is scheduled to stand trial later this year in the Wilcox and Oviedo deaths. Families of Wilcox and Oviedo have filed suit against the county, claiming negligence in the deaths. The suits are pending in Orange County Superior Court.

Medical care came under attack again in May when 41-year-old Donald Arbiso, comatose and in the last stages of liver cancer, died shackled to a bed in UCI Medical Center’s jail ward. A fellow Orange County Jail inmate subsequently filed a lawsuit against county officials in an attempt to stop sheriff’s deputies from routinely shackling sick or dying inmates to their beds while they are in locked, guarded rooms in hospital wards.

That suit by inmate Thomas Frank Maniscalco is pending in county Superior Court.