The parents of a woman who was beaten to death at a county jail last year are suing the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, alleging failures by several of its leaders and deputies allowed her to be killed by her cellmate.
Chief among the failures, the lawsuit says: Deputies gave Kaushal Niroula, who was transgender, a sex offender cellmate with a violent past.
The new filing adds to the cascade of similar suits over inmate deaths that have been recently against the department, which is also being investigated by the state attorney general over the deaths and other allegations of misconduct and civil rights violations.
A record 18 inmates died in the jails in 2022.
The suit states that the department acted negligently and in violation of both the constitution and state law by allowing Niroula to be housed in a cell with Ronald Sanchez, a man who was a convicted sex offender and had a history of violent behavior. The sheriff’s department manages all jails in Riverside County.
The suit states that sheriff’s personnel knew Sanchez posed an imminent threat to Niroula, who was particularly vulnerable because she was transgender and HIV-positive, and yet the sheriff’s department allowed the two to be housed together at the Cois Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.