Lawsuit alleges Shasta County Jail deputies covered up beatings that killed man in custody

A lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday accuses Shasta County Jail deputies of repeatedly beating a man in custody, causing his death, and then covering it up. 

The suit centers on the death of 31-year-old John Adena, one of three people who died in jail custody in September 2019. The suit claims then-Sheriff Tom Bosenko and jail leadership knew Adena's death was a result of excessive force and deliberate indifference to his medical needs. 

An attorney hired by the family, Julia Sherwin of the firm Haddad & Sherwin, said officials refused to tell Adena's parents how he died, concealing the autopsy report for more than a year after his death. Sherwin said the autopsy and photographs revealed evidence Adena was choked, stomped on, smothered and beaten while handcuffed.

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John David Adena, 31, of Redding Courtesy of Adena Family

"They killed him," Sherwin said. "For them to hide what happened to John for over a year, highlights that they know it's unacceptable." 

The lawsuit names multiple defendants, including Bosenko, former jail commander Dave Kent, several correctional deputies and Shasta County itself, as well as the jail's medical provider, Wellpath, and some of its workers. 

A reporter reached out to the jail, which referred questions to Shasta County counsel. Jim Ross, assistant county counsel, said he typically does not comment on pending litigation. A representative from Wellpath also declined to comment, citing the pending case.

The suit asks for money damages to be paid to the family, though no specific amount is listed in the complaint. Sherwin said her team will also be looking at policy and training failures that contributed to Adena's death in an effort to make changes that would help prevent a similar incident in the future. 

What the lawsuit says about how Adena died

The 44-page complaint filed Thursday describes Adena as someone close to his family who had no criminal record until August 2019, shortly after he lost his job. He soon began acting erratically and exhibiting signs of mental illness, which alarmed those close to him, according to the complaint. 

Adena was then arrested twice in four days. He was booked into jail, where staff ignored signs of his mental health illness and repeatedly engaged in uses of significant force, including unreported beatings, according to the complaint.

Through a separate jail lawsuit, Sherwin said she learned deputies would sometimes put up large magnets on cell windows before beating inmates, concealing the use of force from other witnesses. The complaint alleges deputies did that to Adena, as well. 

“We’ve never encountered a jail like this," Sherwin said. "We’re very concerned about a culture of excessive force that is being hidden." 

Ross declined to respond to the allegation, citing his previous statement about not commenting on pending litigation. 

When Wellpath medical staff learned of Adena's injuries, including a head injury that sent him to the emergency room, Sherwin said they instead attributed them to self-harm and put him alone in a safety cell, essentially in solitary confinement.

The complaint states it's well known in correctional health care that housing someone with severe mental illness in such conditions greatly increases the risk of death and suicide.

Jail policy states those in safety cells must be observed twice every 30 minutes. The complaint alleges deputies went four hours without checking on Adena on two occasions. He was discharged from his safety cell without a treatment plan the day before he died. 

Later that afternoon, he told Wellpath staff he was sick, vomiting and needed medical attention. He was never assessed, according to the complaint.

The next morning, he was found lying next to his toilet with dark foam coming out of his mouth. Deputies handcuffed him and dragged him out of the cell face down, according to the complaint. He soon turned purple. Life-saving measures were unsuccessful, and he died around 5:45 a.m. 

The complaint shows the county's autopsy report found more than 10 head and neck injuries, as well as other injuries on his torso, arms and legs. Sherwin said deputies inflicted bruises, extensive hemorrhaging and blunt force trauma injuries found in the autopsy. 

"His body doesn’t lie," Sherwin said. "It’s going to be one of the most important witnesses in the case."

The complaint calls the defendants' actions intentional, malicious, unconstitutional and objectively unreasonable. It alleges leadership was aware of a pattern of misconduct but failed to discipline those responsible. 

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Shasta County Jail on June 12, 2020 Matt Brannon/Record Searchlight

The complaint cites the jail's recent history with a relatively high number of deaths for a facility of its size, as it reported 25 deaths from 2006-2019. There have been five deaths involving the jail in 2021, according to the current jail commander, Capt. Gene Randall. 

Sherwin laid some of the blame for deaths on what she described as a culture of excessive force and a "code of silence" among law enforcement in which some uses of force go unreported. 

"Hidden, unreported beatings are one of the things that are contributing to the large number of deaths in the Shasta County Jail," Sherwin said. 

Matt Brannon covers politics, the criminal justice system and breaking news for the Record Searchlight. Follow him on Twitter @MattBrannon_RS. Support local coverage and keep up with the North State for as little as $1 a month. Subscribe today. 

[This article was originally published by Record Searchlight.]

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