Lawsuit: Transgender inmate killed after sheriff made a violent sex offender her cellmate
Lawsuit: Transgender inmate killed after sheriff made a violent sex offender her cellmate
Despite knowing Kaushal Niroula was transgender and HIV-positive, deputies made her cellmate a violent sex offender, according to a new lawsuit.
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.
The cops murdered her.
57Murrieta
That's the problem right there.
Murrieta is very much part of an island of conservativism in the rest of California. It's very much a green grass, "whites only" kind of place. Oodles of Mormons. Not exactly friendly to LGBTQ folk.
I lived there. I went to high school there. It was where I voted for the first time.
I remember in high school thinking a girl was cute and she invited me over on a Sunday morning. She picked me up for what I thought was going to be a day of just hanging out at her place - but instead, she dragged me to her Mormon church. The preacher spoke out about how proud they were that they were able to pass Prop 8 (which banned gay marriage in California), how hard they fought for it, and how evil LGBTQ folk were. I was disgusted, but at the time I couldn't drive (and thus couldn't leave). When I finally escaped, I made a point to never talk to that girl again.
That is absolutely par for the course in Murrieta (and Temecula). They live in a total bubble and refuse to acknowledge that they're part of California proper. A friendly reminder that the Temecula Valley School District (which represents both Murrieta and Temecula) is being sued by the State of California because they decided to promote racism and anti-LGBTQ sentiment within schools, in violation of state law.
Public Counsel, the nonprofit group that filed the lawsuit on behalf of Temecula students, parents and teachers, claims the policy has been used by school board members to stop teaching "any concepts that conflict with their ideological viewpoints, including the history of the LGBTQ rights movement and the existence of racism in today's society."
Murrieta-Temecula is full of bigots, all hiding under their mask. But when you live there, you see the mask slip... especially if you're a cis white male "good ol' boy" like how I present.
36I've been to Murrieta and Temecula several times but I didn't realize how bad it was there, damn
1
Stochastic murder.
8
God I fucking hate US prisons. This is the thing about my country I am the most ashamed of.
This is gonna happen again, to right-wing jan 6 insurrectionist Jessica Watkins. A trans woman who is likely to be put into a male prison for 8 years.
46This is gonna happen again, to right-wing jan 6 insurrectionist Jessica Watkins. A trans woman who is likely to be put into a male prison for 8 years.
That's exactly what she voted and insurrected for, right? A trans republican getting the taste of their anti-trans party's own medicine.
17Yes, and there's an irony to it. That doesn't change that it's cruel and absolutely not something that should be happening even to the worst people out there, regardless of how much we hate them or if it's exactly what they were pushing to make even worse.
24I'm sorry, do you want bad things to happen to trans people? Yeah, she's an insurrectionist, no, that doesn't mean she should get put in harm's way as part of her sentencing. Find your fucking heart.
18Are trans rights human rights or not? You think it's fine for a trans women to be raped and murdered in a men's prison because her politics are shit? Well, thanks for letting us know where you stand.
10No one deserves to be raped and murdered in prison. The justice system is far from perfect but we don't sentence people to be raped and then murdered. We do rarely sentence people to death, but not by vigilante shanking or beating.
8
It's so difficult to argue for a better prison system too, because a lot of people seem to think you're siding with the prisoners.
5What's so bad about siding with the "prisoners"? Not with the "criminals" mind you, just the "prisoners".
In many countries, prisons have the mandate to "reeducate and reinsert into society", and while privation of liberty is a punishment in itself, it's intended only as a way to turn criminals too dangerous to let loose, into upstanding citizens once they do their time.
Prisoners can be "citizens in the making", not just "criminals thrown in a hole". That might be the first point to try to get through.
8Exactly, a significant portion of people aren't able to argue about this in good faith and need to be walked through this long list of deep ethics questions in order to sorta meet the right answer.
2
Executed with extra steps.
31Permanently Deleted
1
Duh. Republicans and Police are all terrorists, full stop. Their supporters as well. Lock them ALL up and quash any resistence as necessary in line with appropriate escalation of force.
EDIT: Blocked the terrorist who thinks opposing the actively stated Republican goals of trans genocide is "fear porn." Same with the rest of you. IDGAF. Enjoy crying in your faschie groups how I wouldn't "engage with your arguments" (just name calling) and good fucking luck when you actually try to come for us IRL.
19Lol, what a dork. Don't cut yourself with all dat edge.
2Found the terrorist.
7
This is one of those things I don't consider a transgender issue. Jails, prisons, etc should allow each cell to have a maximum capacity of one. Fact is that not everyone convicted is guilty but many in the system are dangerous. Heck all meals should be taken in the cells and convicts should not have to go to yard time if they don't want to.
15The downside of "cells of one", is people who get suicidal. In civilized countries, new inmates get paired with a "trusted inmate" for the first couple weeks, both to show them the ropes, but also to prevent them from hanging themselves with one.
9
Here's some more info on the case (why she was in jail), for those curious.
11It's clear that she did something awful, but she doesn't deserve a greater punishment than other people convicted of the same crime, I think that's the point being made here.
27I completely agree; was just sharing context because I felt the article kind of assumed you knew the prior reporting.
I'm not, in any way, saying she deserved what happened to her or anything like that.
It's pretty clear that the guards let that happen (the whole "no one checked in on the cell for 68 minutes" thing when everyone is supposed to be checked at least once an hour), and that's not okay.
7
Jesus fucking Christ....
6