If San Diegans who follow the news have a sense of déjà vu when it comes to one of the region’s biggest ongoing stories, that’s no surprise. On Sunday, the Sheriff’s Department disclosed the fifth death this year of someone in custody at the county jails the department runs. Two days later, U-T Watchdog reporter Jeff McDonald wrote about the department’s latest attempt to keep hidden details on why the county has had a disproportionate number of such deaths for more than a decade. According to federal court filings by attorneys suing the department over jail practices, Sheriff Kelly Martinez has for several weeks declined to be formally deposed on her knowledge of key jail policies — and whether they are actually implemented. Martinez did not answer a request for a response.
Martinez was elected in November 2022 after she vowed to finally bring change to a jail culture gone haywire. Instead, after taking office in January, she almost immediately backed away from a key campaign promise: that she would release the findings of the department’s Critical Incident Review Board on in-custody deaths. After years of the public getting misleading or incorrect s of how people died under Sheriff Bill Gore, her predecessor, this would have been real progress. Instead, she also chose to release the bare minimum of details.
Why wouldn’t she want to talk under oath? Because if she were candid, she would have to acknowledge the gap between promises to fix jails and the deadly reality — and the documented fact the department has a long history of covering up its egregious actions. The cover-up continues, and in plain sight.
