Skip navigation
Prison Legal News
× You have 2 more free articles available this month. Subscribe today.

San Diego Jury Deadlocks on Charges Against Jail Doctor in Detainee’s Death, Nurse Acquitted

Loaded on May 1, 2024 published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 48
Filed under: Medical Misconduct, Drug/Alcohol Withdrawal, Medical Neglect/Malpractice. Location: California.

On February 11, 2024, a San Diego jury deadlocked on involuntary manslaughter charges against Dr. Friederike Von Lintig over a 2019 death at the county’s Las Colinas Detention Facility. Nurse Danalee Pascua, 38, was acquitted of the same charge in the incident.

As PLN reported, both were accused in the death of detainee Elisa Serna on November 11, 2019, just five days after the 24-year-old was booked into the jail on drug possession charges. Serna told them that she was addicted to heroin when she complained of fainting. But despite her abnormally low blood pressure, Von Lintig twice returned the detainee to her cell without examination or taking vital signs, noting in her file that she thought Serna was faking symptoms. Jail surveillance video later captured Pascua outside Serna’s cell, watching the detainee bang her head against the wall; rather than help, the nurse just walked away. Serna was found dead an hour later. [See: PLN, Feb. 2023, p.63.]

Prosecutors decided not to retry Von Lintig, so charges against her were dismissed on February 14, 2024. Meanwhile a civil suit filed on behalf of Serna’s estate by attorneys with Iredale & Yoo APC in San Diego remains pending in federal court for the Southern District of California. See: Est. of Serna v. Cty. of San Diego, USDC (S.D. Cal.), Case No. 3:20-cv-02096.  

 

Additional source: AP News

As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.

Subscribe today

Already a subscriber? Login

More from this issue:

  1. Aramark: Prison Food for Thought
  2. Southern California Jail Guard Arrested With 104 Pounds of Fentanyl
  3. From the Editor, by Paul Wright
  4. $500,000 Settlement for Colorado Prisoner Forced to Defecate in Bucket for 12 Days, by David Reutter
  5. Families of New Jersey Jail Suicide Victims Still Waiting for Settlement Payouts
  6. These Men Fought White Supremacists and Got Sentenced to Over 200 Years, by Victoria Law
  7. Six Deaths in Just Over Six Months at Alabama Jail
  8. Federal Watchdog Slams BOP for Lapses in Epstein Death, Pushes Back Against Rumors It Wasn’t Suicide, by Douglas Ankney
  9. Alabama Woman Jailed for “Fetal Endangerment” Sues After She Was Forced to Give Birth Alone in Jail Shower
  10. Over 5,000 Prisoners Federally Sentenced Every Month, by Douglas Ankney
  11. $32,000 Settlement for Failure to Provide Insulin to Diabetic Wisconsin Prisoner
  12. Former Illinois Prisoner Pursuing PhD After 27 Years of Incarceration
  13. $7,500 Settlement Reached After Georgia Prisoner’s Retaliation Claim Survives Summary Judgment
  14. Autistic Detainee’s Death in Pittsburgh Jail Blamed on “Culture” That Left Him “Punished Instead of Treated”
  15. HIV and Incarcerated People: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, by Douglas Ankney
  16. $6,500 Paid to Illinois Prisoner After Denied Records Request
  17. Two West Virginia Jail Guards Plead Guilty in Detainee Death, Six More Charged
  18. $125,000 Settlement for Wisconsin Prisoner’s Claim That Guards Set Him Up For Stabbing, by David Reutter
  19. Escaped Idaho Prisoner Recaptured, Three Accomplices Charged
  20. Class-Action Challenge to Medical Care at Tennessee Jail Results in $3.8 Million Settlement
  21. Prisoner-on-Prisoner Violence at California Prison Leaves One Dead, Another Stabbed
  22. Eighth Circuit Says Lower Court “Tilted the Scales Too Far” for Jailers in Missouri Detainee’s Fatal Overdose, by David Reutter
  23. Three Texas Prison Guards Among 13 Charged in Sprawling Smuggling Scheme
  24. Arizona Sheriff Accused of Misusing Detainee Funds to Buy Guns, Ammo
  25. Fourth Circuit Moves North Carolina Prisons Closer to Recognizing Nation of Gods and Earths, by Matthew Clarke
  26. Washington Superior Court Says Jail Cannot Bill Poor Detainees for Medical Care
  27. Alabama Denied Summary Judgment in Prisoner’s Suit Over Knifepoint Rape, by Matthew Clarke
  28. Fourth Circuit Reinstates HRDC’s RICO Claim Against Securus and ViaPath
  29. Ninth Circuit Refunds Filing Fee to “Struck-Out” California Prisoner Denied Indigent Status Under PLRA, by Matthew Clarke
  30. Was There a Plot to Discredit Former Missouri Sheriff Investigating Corruption?, by Douglas Ankney
  31. Pennsylvania Jail Warden Fired, Deputy Warden Resigns After Guard Assaults Detainee
  32. The Graying of American Prisons
  33. Regarding Death Penalty, Biden’s Actions Don’t Align with His Mouth, by Douglas Ankney
  34. $10 Million Reimbursed for Vacated Washington Drug Possession Convictions, by David Reutter
  35. “Third Time Is Not the Charm” For Texas Jailers Barred by PLRA from Enforcing Prior Settlement Agreement Against Prisoner in New Suit, by Matthew Clarke
  36. Migrants at New Mexico CoreCivic ICE Detention Center Forced to Clean Up Sewage with Bare Hands, by Douglas Ankney
  37. Wyoming Supreme Court Grants Immunity to DOC in Prison COVID-19 Vaccine Mix-Up, by David Reutter
  38. Three-Year Sentence for One of Four BOP Employees Charged With Ignoring Fatally Ill Federal Prisoner in Virginia
  39. FTC Orders GTL/ViaPath to Help 650,000 Customers Whose Info Was Stolen, Posted on Dark Web, by Douglas Ankney
  40. “There you go, Agent Orange!” Former South Carolina Sheriff Federally Indicted for Assaulting Jail Detainee, by Edward Lyon
  41. Dismissal Affirmed of Florida Prisoner’s Claim for Exposure to Human Waste, by David Reutter
  42. Qualified Immunity Denied to Former New Mexico Warden in Prisoner’s Sexual Abuse Claim
  43. HRDC Wins Summary Judgment in North Carolina Prison Censorship Case
  44. Pennsylvania Detainee Found Four Months After Jail Escape, Five Guards Fired
  45. BOP Guards Plead Guilty in Smuggling Ring at Closed Manhattan Lockup
  46. San Diego Jury Deadlocks on Charges Against Jail Doctor in Detainee’s Death, Nurse Acquitted
  47. Legal Noose Tightens Around Necks of CDCR Officials Whose Botched Transfer Sparked San Quentin COVID-19 Outbreak, by Douglas Ankney
  48. Virginia Supreme Court Denies New Sentence Credits to State Prisoner Serving “Mixed” Sentence, by Douglas Ankney
  49. Ohio Supreme Court Orders Records Produced for State Prisoner, by David Reutter
  50. Massachusetts Makes Calls Free From Prisons and Jails
  51. $25.2 Million Settlement for Two Connecticut Prisoners Exonerated After 35 Years, by David Reutter
  52. Seventh Circuit Lets Illinois Prisoner Proceed In Forma Pauperis, Despite Trust Account Balance Exceeding Filing Fee, by Douglas Ankney
  53. BOP Rolls Out Veterans-Only Housing at Federal Prison in Texas
  54. Eighth Circuit Upholds Key Parts of Missouri Parole Reform
  55. Second Circuit Grants New York Officials Qualified Immunity for Prisoner’s Stolen Sentence Credits, by David Reutter
  56. BOP Shrugs Off Month-Long Leavenworth Lockdown
  57. $15,000 to Virginia Prisoner Mauled by DOC K-9, by Matthew Clarke
  58. California Law Extends Involuntary Commitment and Detention to Substance Abusers
  59. “Sugar Daddy” Pennsylvania Constable Accused of Recruiting “Sugar Babies” at Jail
  60. West Virginia Supreme Court Orders Prison Officials to Develop Good-Time Credit Policy, by David Reutter
  61. Sentencing Project Proposes Remedies for Racial Disparities Behind Bars
  62. North Carolinian Left in Jail Awaiting Trial for 11 Years
  63. Ninth Circuit Affirms Class Action Consent Decree at California’s Alameda County Jail, by David Reutter
  64. Fired Alabama Guard Reinstated Despite Excessive Force Used on Prisoner Who Died, by David Reutter
  65. News in Brief

More from these topics: