Orange County inmate dies a week after being Tasered
Jason Jesus Gomez had been in a coma since sheriff's deputies used a stun gun on him during a confrontation in his cell.
An Orange County jail inmate who spent a week in a coma after a violent confrontation with sheriff's deputies has died, a deputy coroner said today.
Sheriff's deputies used Taser stun weapons to subdue Jason Jesus Gomez in his cell at the Intake Release Center in Santa Ana. Gomez, 35, who was in jail for a probation violation, stopped breathing after the confrontation and was resuscitated by paramedics.
He spent a week in a coma at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana. A deputy coroner who would not identify himself said today that Gomez had died. He would not say whether Gomez died last night or today and referred calls to the district attorney's office, which is investigating the incident.
The Orange County district attorney's office has opened an investigation into the violent struggle between sheriff's deputies and Gomez, who had a lengthy criminal record. The action is the latest setback to the Sheriff's Department as it struggles to recover from a series of allegations involving the treatment of inmates.
According to accounts of the March 25 incident with Gomez, , deputies confronted him after he allegedly injured a nurse by grabbing her arm as she tried to pass medication through an opening into his cell. Deputies entered Gomez's cell and a scuffle ensued.
The inmate spat at deputies and bit one of them on the finger before they used the stun weapons to subdue him, said sources familiar with the incident who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss it. Gomez stopped breathing and was resuscitated by paramedics.
Sheriff's officials referred questions about the incident to Susan Kang Schroeder of the district attorney's office. She declined an interview request.
Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson sent a memo to the Board of Supervisors this week describing the incident and the involvement of the district attorney but refused to discuss the matter with The Times and would not release the memo.
Gomez's family spent Tuesday at the hospital and also contacted a Tustin attorney, Edward Flores. "The family wants to get to the truth of the matter and determine what happened," Flores said.
Sheriff's officials did not inform the district attorney's office about the confrontation with Gomez until days later, according to sources familiar with the case. The department has been widely criticized for failing to involve the district attorney's office after a 2006 altercation in which inmate John Chamberlain was killed by fellow inmates at Theo Lacy jail in Orange. The county policy calls for the district attorney to investigate all inmate slayings.
