$5.4 Million Jury Verdict Against Riverside County in Suit Over Jail Fentanyl Death
by Chuck Sharman
On August 26, 2026, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California returned a $13.5 million verdict against Riverside County officials in a suit brought by the survivors of Richard Matus, Jr., who died of a fentanyl overdose while incarcerated in the County jail in 2022. Because jurors also found that Matus was 60% liable for his own death, however, the payout from the County to his Estate was reduced to $5.4 million.
It was while robbing a local marijuana store in June 2018 that Matus, then 25, and his brother, Raymond, then 19, stabbed two employees and shot at a passerby who came to the victims’ aid. The brothers initially fled empty-handed before returning to recover three jars of marijuana and a backpack belonging to one of the employees. They were captured without incident the following week in San Diego. The two victims and their erstwhile protector were all treated for non-life-threatening injuries and recovered.
Just over four years later, in August 2022, Matus, Jr. was awaiting trial in the County’s Cois M. Byrd Detention Center when he drank a batch of homemade alcohol containing fentanyl, commonly known as “pruno,” attorney Christian Contreras—who later filed suit on behalf of the detainee’s Estate—told the Los Angeles Times. An hour later, Matus, Jr. was unresponsive, the complaint recalled. His cellmate alerted guards, but they dismissed the call with a demand that he “stop bugging” them. When guards finally went to the cell a half-hour later and found him, Matus, Jr. was dead.
With the aid of Contreras and his eponymous Los Angeles firm, along with fellow attorney Denisse O. Gastélum of her own eponymous practice in Long Beach, a complaint was filed in 2023 on behalf of Matus, Jr.’s Estate and his two minor children by his mother, Lisa Matus. Proceeding under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, she accused County Sheriff Chad Bianco and his jailers of failing to protect the detainee from the fentanyl overdose that killed him, in violation of his Fourteenth Amendment rights. The complaint also lodged a companion § 1983 Fourteenth Amendment claim for failing to provide prompt medical care to Matus, Jr., as well as state-law claims for his wrongful death.
The Estate also made a claim against Bianco’s office (RCSO) and the County for a pattern or practice resulting in constitutional violations, as provided under Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Svcs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978). In support, Plaintiff pointed to a spike in jail deaths in 2022—the same year that Matus, Jr. also died—which prompted an investigation by the state Department of Justice (CDOJ), as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Aug. 2024, p.1.]
Defendants asked the district court to bifurcate the case and try the Monell claims separately, but they were denied on August 9, 2024. A motion to dismiss claims against the individual guards was largely granted on June 3, 2025, however; the district court found that Plaintiff had presented evidence of a material fact issue for a jury to decide only on the claim that the cellmate’s intercom call was ignored. See: Est. of Matus v. Cty. of Riverside, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143210 (C.D. Cal.); and 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106398 (C.D. Cal.).
The case proceeded to a seven-day trial, and at its conclusion jurors found that ignoring the intercom call was a “substantial factor” causing the death. They calculated $1.5 million in past damages and $2.5 million in future damages for each of the detainee’s minor kids, G.M. and R.M., plus another $2 million in past damages and $1 million in future damages for his mother.
The Estate was credited with $500,000 in damages for the pain and suffering that Mattus, Jr. endured, plus another $2 million for his death. The total damages amount of $13.5 million was reduced to $5.4 million when he was also found 60% liable for the contribution his own negligence made to his death. See: Est. of Matus v. Cty. of Riverside, USDC (C.D. Cal.), Case No. 5:23-cv-00506.
The younger Matus was found guilty in 2024 of attempted murder, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon; with enhancements for using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony and inflicting great bodily injury, he was sentenced to 21 years in state prison, KESQ in Palm Springs reported. Now aged 27, he is held at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, awaiting a parole eligibility date in September 2030, according to state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) records.
The CDOJ investigation into RCSO remains ongoing, according to the department’s website. Meanwhile, Bianco lost his primary bid for governor in June 2026. That was three months after he seized 650,000 ballots cast in the November 2024 election, looking for widespread voter fraud. A legal challenge to that maneuver was heard by the state Supreme Court on August 24, 2026, where justices seemed dubious that Bianco had the necessary authority under the state constitution—also undercutting the main argument for his longtime membership in the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, CalMatters reported.
Additional sources: CDCR, CDOJ, CalMatters, KESQ, Los Angeles Times
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