The family of a man who died from an overdose in a Sacramento County jail after being left unattended for hours have agreed to a $3.5 million settlement.
That man, David Kent Barefield Sr., 55, was dragged across a garage into the jail last May, not given a medical exam despite being visibly ill, handcuffed in a cart while awaiting booking and only offered medical aid in his final minutes, jail footage shows.
Mr. Barefield’s relatives described the neglect in a civil case filed last December against the county’s Sheriff’s Office, its health department and the City of Sacramento police. The settlement was confirmed by the family’s lawyer and by a county spokeswoman; a copy of the document shows it was signed on March 5. The case with the city is still pending.
The Sheriff’s Office investigated Mr. Barefield’s death and found that none of its employees violated any law or policy, according to a redacted report that was released to The New York Times and The Desert Sun on Thursday.
The details of Mr. Barefield’s last hours are captured in surveillance and body camera video obtained by The Times and The Sun through a records request. The organizations previously reported some of that information, citing accounts from lawyers and medical experts who investigated the death and six others in the county’s jails last year as part of a federal court monitoring program. The court had appointed those monitors in a class-action lawsuit related to broader complaints about medical care in the facilities.
Mr. Barefield, who was homeless, had been arrested on theft and trespassing charges early in the morning of May 12, 2024. The newly released footage from five cameras shows him in various stages of acute medical distress. He was never taken to a hospital during the more than three hours he spent at the main jail in Sacramento.
The Sheriff’s Office reported to the California Department of Justice that Mr. Barefield died of natural causes. But a county coroner determined that he died by overdosing on fentanyl and methamphetamine.
A spokeswoman for the county health department, which employs the medical staff at the jail, said it had reviewed the footage of Mr. Barefield’s death and found errors regarding his booking. She said the department now held emergency response drills, did randomized audits of its staff and had overhauled the medical clearance process.
The Sheriff’s Office said it had also made changes to the booking process, though both it and the city police declined to comment about details of the death captured on the video. The family also declined to comment for this article.
Incapable of standing, Mr. Barefield was pulled by a police officer about 100 feet across the concrete floor of the jail’s garage, then struggled to stay upright on a bench, the footage shows. Sacramento Police Department policy requires officers to take arrestees to a hospital if they are in need of treatment.
The arresting officer helped him drink some water but mostly left him alone while he worked on a nearby computer. He eventually placed him in a restraint cart and exited the jail about 30 minutes later.
Mr. Barefield remained in the cart, moving erratically with hands bound behind his back, for more than an hour in a far corner of the jail’s booking area. Deputies, officers and medical staff can be seen sitting at desks about 30 feet away, checking on other detainees or passing him by.
A registered nurse approached Mr. Barefield about an hour after he arrived. He leaned down with a clipboard to speak with him, but there is no audio capturing the exchange.
The nurse did not examine him or touch him, and walked away after a few minutes, the video shows. Court-appointed medical experts said the nurse falsified a document claiming he had completed a medical exam and cleared him for booking, according to their report. That nurse would eventually resign, the county health department said, though it did not say why.
About 30 minutes later, three deputies debated how to book the immobile man. One accused him of “playing games.”
They carried him to the booking camera and propped him on his knees against a wall, his bottom half partially nude. Each deputy held his head up by his hair with a gloved hand as the photo was taken. Music blared in the background.
A deputy can be heard a short while later asking questions about the purported medical exam.
“His vitals were fine,” a nurse can be heard saying. “He’s just old and homeless.”
The deputies wrenched his hand up to a machine to take his fingerprints, which they had to repeat several times. One deputy, holding Mr. Barefield’s head by the hair, asked, “Is he breathing?”
Another deputy shined a light into the man’s eyes. They dragged him to an open area and sensed a faint pulse. Nearly two hours after Mr. Barefield was brought to the jail and 15 minutes after they started to carry him through the booking process, they questioned if he might survive.
“I feel like it’s about to happen,” a deputy added soon before they began CPR. “We have a really weak pulse right now.”
As his vitals continued to fade, nurses came to aid them. Firefighters joined the effort, but Mr. Barefield was pronounced dead on the jail floor about 30 minutes later.
Mark Merin, the family’s lawyer, said the footage revealed a widespread culture of neglect at the jail.
“This shows a host of people who are supposedly experts humiliating and making fun of somebody who is in dire need of help,” Mr. Merin said.
