Review of Transient’s Death in Jail Ordered

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously ordered a full review of the jailhouse death of a mentally ill transient who died after being placed in restraints by sheriff’s deputies.

The supervisors asked Merrick Bobb, an attorney who monitors the Sheriff’s Department for the board, to hire outside experts and to examine the events that led to the death of Kevin Lamar Evans. Supervisors two weeks ago paid $600,000 to Evans’ survivors.

Evans, a 33-year-old transient who suffered from cerebral palsy and schizophrenia, was arrested in Palmdale in 1999 with a stolen shopping cart.

He died a day later, after as many as seven deputies attempted to restrain him when he tried to retrieve a sandwich that one of the deputies had taken from him.

Meanwhile Tuesday, law enforcement sources said a Sheriff’s Department nurse is under investigation for possibly administering a sedative to Evans after he died. The nurse, who has been relieved of nursing duties, apparently did not take Evans’ vital signs before injecting him with Ativan.

“There is a likelihood that the injection was given and he may already have expired,” said Tom Flaherty, assistant director for operations of the sheriff’s medical services bureau.

The nurse’s supervisor, Eulalia Cristobal, was found guilty in January of filing a false report in the Evans case, authorities said. She resigned from the Sheriff’s Department before that misdemeanor case was resolved. Neither Cristobal nor her attorney, Robert Ernenwein, could be reached for comment. She was sentenced in January to three years’ probation, 50 hours of community service and $100 restitution.

Sheriff’s officials said Cristobal admitted during interviews with department investigators that she had falsified extensive portions of the medical reports.

“The medical record indicated that he [Evans] was alive and that he subsequently went into arrest,” Flaherty said. “She [Cristobal] falsified the medical record extensively.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Daniel, who prosecuted Cristobal, called it “an egregious” act.

“As a supervisor, your most important responsibility is to teach your employees the right way to do things,” Daniel said. “Because she covered up what really happened, it caused the investigation to be more complicated.”

Sheriff’s officials, who have an 11-minute videotape of the events leading to Evans’ death, say the deputies called for medical help after they restrained the inmate. The deputies, officials said, may have called for assistance because Evans was having trouble breathing.

When the nurse arrived, according to a coroner’s report, she administered the sedative. Questions remain over whether Evans could have been revived had the nurse checked his pulse and other vital signs before injecting him with the drug.

Evans was placed in the restraints on the recommendation of a psychiatrist who had examined him, authorities said.

Sheriff Lee Baca has said he found the force appropriate and that no deputies have been disciplined in the case.

But Supervisor Gloria Molina, who introduced the motion Tuesday calling for the review of the case, said she is concerned about the deputies’ use of force and department training for such situations.

Before the unanimous vote, several supervisors questioned the cost of hiring outside experts. Molina replied that they should be more concerned about the county’s continuing outlays for judgments and settlements in use-of-force cases against the Sheriff’s Department.