Family of man who died after a month in jail sues sheriff

The children of a man who died last year after spending a month in Riverside County Sheriff’s Department custody sued Sheriff Chad Bianco and his staff, claiming he was not provided with timely emergency medical treatment.

Clifford Mathews' five children, one a minor, filed the suit earlier this month in the U.S. District Court. It's among about 15 open suits making wrongful death claims against the department, and the county has paid more than $13 million in recent years to resolve just five such suits. With 19 deaths in 2022, the county’s jails became among the deadliest in the nation that year, more than doubling its decades-old average.