Jury Gets Case in Lawsuit Against Jailers

Attorneys representing Chuck Castro, a 40-year-old Oceanside man who says he was beaten at the County Jail in Vista in 1987, causing partial paralysis, stress that no amount of money can ever relieve his suffering.

But they say $81,524 in medical bills, $1.175 million for past pain and suffering, $500,000 for future pain and disability, $250,000 for past emotional distress, $150,000 for future emotional distress and $200,000 for civil rights violations would be a good start.

Besides the nearly $2.4 million for Castro, attorneys recommended to a federal jury Wednesday that Castro’s wife, Maria, who has bathed, clothed and fed her husband since his November, 1987, injury, should also be compensated.

For the 4 1/2 years he has been incapacitated so far, she should get $150,000, attorney Eugene Hooser said.

Hooser made his recommendations during closing arguments Wednesday in the eighth day of a federal trial in which Castro is suing San Diego County and Sheriff’s Deputies Pat O’Brien and Tom Vrabel, alleging excessive force, negligence and failing to get Castro proper medical care in time.

Jurors began deliberating Wednesday and are expected to continue today.

The deputies say they did not harm Castro and don’t even remember him being in the jail. But the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department does acknowledge that he was sent to the hospital while incarcerated and ended up partly paralyzed.

An inebriated Castro, celebrating a Monday night football victory by the Washington Redskins, was found banging on cars in downtown Vista when he was arrested.

He was taken to the Vista jail and handed off to O’Brien and Vrabel, both seven-year officers who Castro said shoved him into the wall of a 6-by-6-foot padded cell.

After falling to one knee, Castro said, he told the officers that he was a Christian and wouldn’t fight, adding, because he is part American Indian: “You took our land away. What more do you want?”

It was at that instant, his attorney said, that “all hell broke loose,” when the deputies allegedly pulled Castro to his feet, and rammed his neck with a forearm, causing him to pass out.

The next morning, Castro said, he was naked from the waist down and couldn’t move his hands and legs while sewage from the cell washed onto him.

Defense attorney Morris Hill, appearing for the county counsel’s office, called Castro’s story, “a fable, a story, a made-up thing written by someone who is not a very good script writer,” particularly his allusions to deputies becoming infuriated at Castro’s acknowledging that he is part American Indian.

“Here is the Indian asserting his heritage before he is beaten by the bullying Anglo bigots,” Hill told the jurors. “Now, doesn’t that sound like a bad movie?”

The deputies do not remember Castro, Hill said, because the night in question was no different than hundreds of graveyard shifts in the Vista jail. With three-quarters of a gallon of beer and a pint of peppermint schnapps in him, Castro was in no position to remember much of anything, Hill said.

Castro had no bruises when a nursing supervisor ordered that he be taken to the hospital for observation after his night in jail, Hill said.

Although both sides agreed that Castro required two operations for injuries to his spinal cord, Hill said the injuries could have occurred any time during the evening, not necessarily while he was in the jail.

Hill speculated in court Wednesday that Castro could have been beaten while banging on cars before he was arrested or, because he had a heroin habit, might have been struck after fighting with a drug dealer.

Hill urged jurors, in considering their verdict, to be certain that Castro’s attorneys had proved that his injuries came from deputies in the jail and not during a 1973 construction accident or during a 1985 car accident.

“Don’t be buffaloed,” he said. “In this country, we don’t punish people unless someone proves they should be punished. An officer’s worst nightmare is to be confronted on charges like this, which he can’t even remember being part of.”

During closing arguments, Castro sat behind his attorneys next to his wife. As Hooser described the night Castro was arrested, Castro clutched his wife’s hand and held a copy of the New Testament, while both he and his wife sobbed.

During a break in the proceedings, Castro’s pastor attempted to calm him by reading passages from the Bible.

Hooser painted a picture of sheriff’s deputies in the Vista jail as a group of cold, uncaring officers who referred to detainees as “fish” and filled out “fish slips” to record occasions when inmates are placed in safety cells.

As Hooser dropped to his knees before the jury to describe how Castro was allegedly attacked, deputy Vrabel rolled his eyes. Later, Vrabel labeled Hooser’s characterization of the deputies’ actions as “libelous.”

In his one-hour summation, Hooser said deputies purposely allowed the toilet in Castro’s cell to back up, laughing when he complained, saying to “let the pig wallow in it.” The deputies deny having the capacity to make the toilets overflow.

“It is a hideous, sickly kind of conduct,” Hooser said. “These are sick, sick minds at work.”

Pointing to a hand-written chart filled with dollar figures, Hooser said Castro should be compensated $81,524 for medical bills, including two operations for a herniated cervical disk that has left him partly paralyzed.

In addition, the attorney said, his past pain and suffering from Nov. 24, 1987 until the present amounts to $1.175 million and, at $50,000 a year for the past five years, his past suffering for emotional distress should amount to $250,000.

Assuming that the 40-year-old man lives another 40 years, he should be paid $500,000 for his inability to work and $150,000 for future emotional distress, Hooser said. If the jury decides his civil rights were violated--by excessive force and purposely backing up the sewage, he should get an additional $200,000, he said.

“We are not not looking for sympathy,” he said. “He’s had buckets full of sympathy for years. What we want is empathy.”

Several inmates over the past few years have claimed abuse in the Vista jail, including Jim Butler, a 61-year-old former Navy chaplain, who won a $1.1-million jury verdict after he alleged was beaten in January, 1985. Butler has attended each day of the Castro trial.