A California man died in jail because deputies didn’t put him in a mental health housing unit and instead assigned a “violent” convicted sex offender as his cellmate, a newly filed civil rights lawsuit says.
Yuri Brand, 39, who had schizophrenia, was jailed on a non-violent offense at the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County, where staff knew of his diagnosis and housed him with the facility’s general population, according to the lawsuit provided to McClatchy News.
During his fifth day in jail as a pretrial detainee, staff put Bryson Levy, a man with a violent criminal history, in his cell on Sept. 13, 2023, a complaint filed Sept. 5 says. At the time, Levy was experiencing a “mental health episode,” according to the complaint.
Within 45 minutes of Levy entering Brand’s cell, he attacked Brand, suffocated him with a mattress and killed him, the complaint says.
Staff “ignored Levy’s violent history and placed him into close quarters with someone he could victimize, all the while neglecting to properly supervise the two men,” attorney Adanté Pointer, who is representing Brand’s family, said in a Sept. 5 news release.
Previously, Brand had stayed in mental health housing during unrelated detentions at the Santa Rita Jail and received medication, according to the complaint. In September 2023, Brand wasn’t designated as a behavioral health inmate and didn’t receive his schizophrenia medication at the facility, the complaint says.
“We intend to find answers to why Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies at the jail housed Mr. Brand with a violent individual in the midst of a crisis, rather than in appropriate mental health housing,” Pointer, of Pointer & Buelna, Lawyers For The People, said.
Brand’s mother, Erica Edgerly, is suing Alameda County and several Alameda County sheriff’s deputies, who weren’t identified in the complaint, over her son’s death.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and the county counsel department didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment Sept. 6.
In September 2023, Brand was detained in jail after he was captured on video breaking into a home, where he ate food and drank from the residence over the course of two days, KTVU reported.
Levy was ultimately charged in Brand’s death and has since pleaded not guilty, citing insanity, according to KTVU.
Information regarding Levy’s legal representation wasn’t immediately available.
“Brand was subjected to not only a deadly but lengthy attack without it ever being heard or observed by any Alameda County Sheriff’s Office deputies or other County employees,” the lawsuit says.
Brand’s cause of death was listed as asphyxia due to neck compression in the autopsy report issued by the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau and provided to McClatchy News.
The complaint says the coroner’s office “took an inordinate amount of time to release Mr. Brand’s body to his family” and their “questions and concerns were further heightened when they received the autopsy report which described Mr. Brand’s tongue as having ‘no contusions or bite marks.’”
When the family viewed his body, they found Brand’s tongue “had a jagged serration that ran from the tip to the throat,” according to the complaint.
The autopsy report doesn’t address the cut on his tongue, the complaint says.
The complaint also states the family is “at a loss for understanding as to why” Brand’s scrotum was “missing the top layer of skin.”
The lack of answers has forced the family to file the lawsuit, according to the complaint.
Edgerly is demanding a jury trial and is seeking an unspecified amount in damages, the complaint shows.
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