Sonoma County Jail inmate dies after ‘medical emergency’
A man is dead after being taken to jail Saturday in Sonoma County.
A Sonoma County resident, the man had an unspecified medical emergency just before 5:20 p.m. in the booking area of the jail, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Juan Valencia declined to identify the man until coroner’s detectives had notified his family, which hadn’t occurred Sunday afternoon.
Santa Rosa police arrested the man Saturday and took him to jail, Valencia said. He had been in a holding cell in the booking area of the jail for several hours and had just been removed from the cell by correctional staff when the emergency occurred, Valencia said. People being booked into the jail may be placed in holding cells for a variety of reasons, such as when they require medical attention, mental health evaluation, require detoxification from drug or alcohol use or due to safety concerns, he said.
“He came out of the cell, and while he was interacting with jail staff personnel he had a medical emergency,” Valencia said.
Valencia declined to elaborate on what happened to the man. He was taken to an undisclosed hospital and pronounced dead by medical staff. Valencia also declined to provide information about the nature of his arresting charges.
The Napa County Coroner’s Office will conduct an autopsy to determine cause and manner of his death. That examination was expected to take place Monday or Tuesday.
The man’s death is the first reported at the jail since July when a man was found unconscious in a padded safety cell in the jail’s mental health unit.
The Sonoma County Jail system typically houses about 1,050 inmates, most at the main facility near the courthouse in Santa Rosa and a smaller group at a minimum security facility near the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport.
You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.










