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GUSTAVO ORTEGA
AILING AMPUTEE SPENT LAST DAYS IN L.A. JAIL LOBBY
After release, he waited on bench
The San Diego Union Tribune
LOS ANGELES – A diabetic amputee who was released from the county jail onto the streets languished for three days on a bench in the busy jailhouse lobby before he was noticed by deputies and rushed to a hospital, where he later died.
Gustavo Ortega, 50, died of coronary artery disease, with diabetes, chronic renal failure and hypertension as contributing factors, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.
Ortega, arrested March 1 for public drinking, had part of his right foot amputated in the jail ward at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center after his diabetes caused painful swelling. He returned to the jail and was released April 2 with a medical clearance and a pair of crutches. He told the medical staff that he had a doctor and that his family was coming to pick him up.
Ortega, however, never called his family and neither did jailers. When his brother, Mike, arrived the following day to visit, he learned that his brother had been released the day before.
Ortega's family scoured downtown Los Angeles for two days searching for Ortega, who had such a poor memory that he used to forget his own phone number. Deputies notified the family April 5 that they had found Ortega on a bench in the jailhouse lobby, where it appears he had been the whole time.
He was so weak he could barely move. He asked, "Can you please give me a ride home?" deputies later told his family.
The department said it followed procedures in releasing Ortega, but officials said he seemed to have slipped through the cracks in a system that processes up to 800 inmates a day.
"It's a tragedy if we didn't observe him and the public saw him and didn't do anything," said sheriff's Capt. Anthony Argott, who oversees the reception center. "This poor guy needed help."
Argott said Ortega may have been overlooked because people often linger for hours in the busy lobby, which is open 24 hours a day.
"We're not trying to get people out and make the lobby pristine. Deputies change shifts, and they may have never noticed this guy," Argott said. "Nobody's listening, but I must say we have a severe, and I must say again, a severe shortage of personnel."
Ortega's family recently asked the Board of Supervisors to investigate his death, triggering an inquiry by the Office of Independent Review, a civilian oversight agency that monitors the Sheriff's Department.
Michael Gennaco, the former federal prosecutor who heads the review office, said the case would be looked into.
"Once he's released, that is something of a gray area," Gennaco said.
Sheriff's Capt. Rod Penner, who oversees the jail's medical services bureau, said the medical staff followed the proper protocol.
"He was medically cleared by a physician prior to his release," Penner said. "He indicated that he had family coming to pick him up and that he had a doctor out in the community."
Penner says that if inmates can walk, they are permitted to leave.
Ortega's family buried him two months ago at a Montebello cemetery.
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