SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — The family of a man who died after an arrest by Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies is now suing the County in federal court.
48-year-old Sherrano Stingley died in the hospital on Dec. 16, after an arrest by Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies in the early morning of Dec. 6 left him unconscious.
The Sheriff's Office says they were responding to a report of a man under someone's truck in a Sacramento County neighborhood near Stockton Boulevard and Gerber Road, in the 7500 block of Whisperwillow Drive.
Stingley’s family says he was having a mental health crisis and was searching for his daughter's home in the same neighborhood.
Body camera video shows he initially complied with deputies, but then a struggle started. By the fourth minute, Stingley appeared to pass out.
On Thursday, Stingley’s family and their lawyer, Sacramento-based civil rights attorney Mark Merin, filed a complaint for violations of civil and constitutional rights in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California.
They claim the deputies who arrested Stingley - and, by extension, the Sheriff's Office and County - violated Stingley's civil and constitutional rights.
“He's constantly on my mind,” Stingley’s mother Annette Hilburn told ABC10. “Constantly on my mind. So I have to get justice for my son because they didn't do him right at all, and it hurts."
Stingley’s daughter Dymin Stingley said she thinks about the loss of her father all the time.
"I'm obsessing over this, letting everybody know that what they did to my dad is hard for me. It's really hard for me every day, like, to see that he's not home,” she said.
ABC10 got confirmation of the filing of this federal civil rights complaint late Thursday afternoon. We have reached out to Sacramento County and the Sheriff's Office. A county spokesperson replied and said they are looking into our request for a response. The Sheriff’s Office also confirmed receipt of ABC10’s request.
Meanwhile, the Stingley family’s attorney Mark Merin said, “It's obvious that Sherrano's death was not an accident, but it was a result of the method by which they subdued him, restrained him, and used force against him, which - in our analysis, so far, given what we have - is clearly excessive and a violation of the federal and state constitutional provisions."
This federal civil rights complaint follows a claim Merin filed in late December against the County and Sheriff's Office. The county had 45 days to respond, which Merin said it did not, which lead to this federal complaint.
The family is also demanding more body camera video be released. As of now, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office has released just one body camera video. The family wants all of the deputies’ body camera videos released, saying it will show a fuller picture of what happened to their loved one.
For its part, the Sheriff's Office has told ABC10 they don't believe they're required to release more, and although they might in the future, they don't plan on releasing more videos any time soon.
Stingley's family is raising money for a memorial service and independent autopsy. That site is HERE.
