Advertisement
Advertisement

Vista jail worker says she warned sheriff’s officials before inmate suicide

Records clerk says she was haunted by howls from suicidal inmate who later killed himself

Share

A records clerk at the Vista jail says she urged Sheriff’s Department officials to place a suicidal inmate into a safety cell but she was ignored and the man was then able to kill himself, a new court declaration states.

The sheriff’s employee, Jeanette Werner, also said she was threatened with retaliation at work if she told anyone about a confrontation she had with a sheriff’s sergeant over the treatment of the inmate, Heron Moriarty, who died in county custody in 2016.

Werner said she came forward about two months ago because she was concerned about the Sheriff’s Department’s response to the COVID-19 threat to jail inmates.

Advertisement

While discussing those issues with San Diego attorney Christopher Morris, she made a reference to Moriarty’s death — a suicide she said should have been prevented by Sheriff’s Department officials, the declaration states.

The records clerk did not know at the time that Morris was representing Moriarty’s widow, Michelle Moriarty, and the couple’s children in a civil lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department.

“During Mr. Moriarty’s detainment, Mr. Moriarty could be heard howling throughout the department for at least two days,” Werner said in sworn testimony that was filed with the U.S. District Court in San Diego late last month.

“He sounded like a wounded animal crying for help,” Werner said. “I was forced to plug my ears during work because Mr. Moriarty’s wailing and howling was extremely disturbing.”

Morris is asking the court to allow him to depose Werner even though the discovery phase of the civil proceeding has closed. The judge has yet to decide whether to allow the additional evidence.

In his own declaration filed with the federal court, Morris accused county officials of failing to tell him about Werner’s communication with Vista jail Sgt. Dale Weidenthaler, who he said apparently refused to move Moriarty into a safety cell despite his condition.

“Ms. Werner’s name did not appear in any of the medical, correctional or death-investigation documents produced by the county,” Morris wrote.

On Tuesday, the federal court ruled that plaintiffs in the Moriarty case may not depose Werner, but she can testify if and when the case goes to trial.

The Sheriff’s Department declined to respond to questions about the declaration, saying it does not comment on pending litigation. Department officials have said in the past they are doing everything they can to protect inmates.

In a response to Morris’s request to depose Werner, county lawyers said Werner was not in a position to recommend Moriarty be moved into a safety cell because she is a records clerk and not a medical provider.

They said Moriarty, who was 43 when he died, had twice been examined by a psychiatrist and found not to be suicidal.

County officials argued in court filings that Moriarty was homicidal rather than suicidal and that they are not responsible for his suicide.

He was arrested after suffering a mental breakdown. In the Vista jail he wrapped a T-shirt around his neck and stuffed another shirt into his mouth and suffocated.

Werner’s declaration was first reported by the Voice of San Diego.

Moriarty was featured in “Dying Behind Bars,” a multi-day series published last September by The San Diego Union-Tribune that examined the mortality rate in San Diego County jails. The six-month investigation found that San Diego has the highest death rate among the state’s six largest counties and that some inmates, like Moriarty, died after lapses in medical and mental health services in the jails.

According to the motion Morris filed seeking to depose Werner, Weidenthaler knew Moriarty was at risk of suicide but Weidenthaler didn’t want to spend the time it would take to process the transfer.

The motion quotes the sergeant as saying to Werner, “It’s my big five,” — referring to the five days off he was facing that day. “Do you want to do the paperwork?”

When Werner said she did not mind filling out the necessary forms, Weidenthaler told her to “stand down,” court records show.

After Moriarty was found dead, the sergeant warned Werner not to tell anyone about their previous conversation, Werner said.

She said she was twice interviewed by county investigators about Moriarty’s death and told them about her conversations with Weidenthaler. According to Morris, those details were not disclosed to his office.

The records clerk, who has hired her own lawyer to represent her in any future dealings with the county, said she is still haunted by her initial decision to keep quiet and continues to hear Moriarty howling in her sleep.

“I live with guilt and remorse for staying quiet, and I have thought about the Moriarty family countless times,” she wrote. “But I cannot stay quiet any longer because the county continues to put inmates at risk of serious harm.”

A mandatory settlement conference is scheduled Oct. 7.

Advertisement