Orange County to pay $480,000 to former inmate who miscarried after deputies stopped at Starbucks on way to hospital

Orange County has agreed to pay $480,000 to a former inmate who was pregnant but suffered a miscarriage after sheriff’s deputies stopped at a Starbucks while driving her to a hospital.

Sandra Quinones, who is no longer in custody, alleged in a federal lawsuit that sheriff’s staff delayed treatment after her water broke in the jail. County supervisors unanimously approved the payment at their meeting Tuesday, Aug. 23, but Quinones must formally accept the settlement before it becomes final.

“That’s a very good result for someone badly treated in the jail,” said Dick Herman, Quinones’ lawyer. “This poor woman, she’s in jail having a miscarriage and, instead of calling an ambulance, they take her to the hospital in a patrol car and the cops stop at Starbucks while she’s bleeding.”

Herman said Quinones is homeless and mentally ill.

This is the second time the county will pay out on allegations of failing to provide medical treatment to a pregnant inmate resulting in the death of her fetus.

In the latest case, Quinones was in her cell, six months pregnant, on March 28, 2016, when her water broke. She pushed the call button to alert a jailer, but no one responded for two hours, the suit said.

Finally, someone came, but instead of calling an ambulance, Quinones was put in a patrol car and driven to the Globe Medical Center in Anaheim, but not until deputies stopped at the coffee shop, the lawsuit alleged.

Quinones was hospitalized, but the fetus did not survive, the suit said.

Sheriff’s officials declined to comment on the settlement.

The lawsuit accused deputies of acting with “deliberate indifference” toward Quinones’ civil rights and her medical condition.

Quinones originally was part of a far-ranging class-action lawsuit by several inmates alleging mistreatment in the Orange County jail system. Her case eventually was split off.

In the larger, class-action suit, another pregnant woman alleged she was denied proper medical care by jail staff. That case also was split off from the larger suit.

County supervisors eventually approved a $1.5 million settlement in April 2021 for that inmate, who also lost her baby in childbirth.

The federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Ciera Stoelting alleged that on May 12, 2018, county employees in the jail failed to provide adequate medical care to a pregnant woman.

In court filings, county attorneys described the birth as a stillbirth, despite the contention by Stoelting’s attorney that the baby was born alive.

Stoelting alleged that she told a jail nurse she was having contractions and needed to go to a hospital. Instead, the lawsuit alleges, Stoelting was moved to an “infirmary pod” in the jail and told to drink at least eight cups of water and wait to see a doctor the following day.

Later that day, the lawsuit alleges, Stoelting began giving birth while sitting on the toilet inside the infirmary cell.

County attorneys, in a written response to the civil complaint, denied that Stoelting ever asked to go to a hospital or see a doctor. She was moved to a medical observation unit after being diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, according to the county court filing.

Staff Writer Sean Emery contributed to this report.