SAN DIEGO — San Diego County will pay nearly $15 million to settle a lawsuit by the family of a 24-year-old pregnant woman who died in jail after a sheriff’s deputy and a medical worker watched her collapse in a cell five years ago.
“The dollar amount doesn’t matter,” said Elisa’s mother, Paloma Serna, who plans to continue to advocate for other men and women in sheriff’s custody. “These things do not change the fact that Elisa is never coming back.” Serna, who was five weeks pregnant, was booked into the jail five days before her death. She was suffering from alcohol and drug withdrawals and had told the jail staff that she had used heroin hours before her arrest, prosecutors said.and left her on the floor of her cell for about an hour before returning with deputies to begin “futile lifesaving measures,” prosecutors said.