Family of Slain Jail Inmate to Get $700,000

The family of a Los Angeles County jail inmate who was strangled in his cell while waiting to testify in a murder trial has accepted a $700,000 settlement from the county, according to a federal court document made public this week.

Raul Tinajero, 20, a convicted car thief, was found dead last year in a general-population cell. Five weeks earlier, a judge had ordered that he be separated from other inmates and kept in protective custody.

Authorities said Santiago Pineda, 23, the murder suspect Tinajero was to testify against, slipped into the cellblock and strangled him.

Tinajero’s family brought a $35-million federal lawsuit accusing Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and the department of violating Tinajero’s civil rights, failing to properly supervise the jailhouse staff, negligence and other acts of official misconduct.

Tinajero was one of five county inmates slain during a six-month period.

A task force assembled by Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley after Tinajero’s slaying faulted the Sheriff’s Department, which operates the jail system, for serious security lapses.

The task force recommended that the department establish a witness protection unit responsible for identifying, classifying, housing and transporting inmates who needed to be protected from reprisals by other inmates.

Sheriff’s spokesman Stephen Whitmore said Thursday that the department has tightened internal security procedures since the slayings.

“There’s no doubt that it’s working because we haven’t had an inmate murdered since that time,” he said.