A Sacramento man suffering from a drug overdose was neglected by a police officer, medical workers and sheriff’s deputies over the course of more than two hours before he died at a county jail last May, according to reports from court-appointed monitors. David Kent Barefield Sr., 55, was among seven detainees the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office reported dying at its facilities last year, and one of three who died at its main jail in the span of about a month. Jail staff members claimed he was faking illness. The Sheriff’s Office told the California Department of Justice that his death was from natural causes. An autopsy by the county coroner found he had overdosed on methamphetamine and fentanyl. Like many jails and prisons across the U.S., those in Sacramento County have been faulted for inadequate medical care. Details of Barefield’s last hours were captured on jail video footage, which was viewed by lawyers appointed to monitor conditions at the county jails as part of a 2020 consent decree in a federal lawsuit, the New York Times reports. The lawyers’ report described a culture of neglect for detainees in the jail system. Two medical experts, also assigned to track compliance with court-ordered reforms, asserted that there was misconduct by police officers, sheriff’s deputies and jail medical personnel in handling Barefield and others who died.
“Review of these deaths showed serious system and individual performance issues, including inadequate emergency response, inadequate medical care prior to death, and in one case, callous deliberate indifference to a man who was so obviously gravely ill that even a lay person would see that the patient needed emergent care,” the medical experts wrote. The footage — showing Barefield seemingly unable to sit, stand or lift his head, incoherent and at times passed out — was particularly troubling, according to the monitors. Barefield, who was homeless and had a history of drug abuse, was handcuffed, pulled from a police car and brought to Sacramento’s main jail around 1 a.m. on May 12. A police officer had dragged him about 100 feet over the concrete floor of the parking garage to get to the jail entrance. The police department said Barefield had been arrested on theft and trespassing charges. Two lawyers who work with the Prison Law Office, a legal group representing detainees in the federal court case — described Barefield’s condition. “He was near death and completely incapable of engaging throughout the interaction,” said lawyer Margot Mendelson, one lawyer. “He was not treated like a person who needed care. This should have been the moment to help save his life.”
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