An Orange County jail inmate who fell into a coma and died after being restrained by deputies had received at least one fatal blow to the head, according to the preliminary results of a private autopsy. A pathologist hired by the family of Jason Jesus Gomez, 35, of Anaheim, has tentatively concluded that he was killed by blunt force trauma to the head, and not by the electrical charge from a stun gun, said the family's attorney, Stephen Bernard.

"The bottom line is he was beaten to death," said Bernard. Gomez's death was the latest problem to hit a Sheriff's Department battered by the indictment of its sheriff and a grand jury report that found rampant misconduct and inmate abuse at Theo Lacy jail in Orange.

Prosecutors conducting an official investigation into Gomez's death as well as Orange County sheriff's officials declined comment Monday. Results of the county autopsy are pending. The family last week filed a wrongful death claim against the county, the first step toward a lawsuit. But sister-in-law Christina Clark said they are seeking retribution, not money. "There's no amount of money that will satisfy us. The family is not going to settle. We want punishment," Clark said.

Gomez, a construction worker, had turned himself over to Orange County Jail to serve a 90-day sentence for violating probation on a marijuana charge. Sheriff's officials he was confronted by deputies March 25 after, they allege, he grabbed the arm of a nurse who was giving him medication through an opening in the cell door.
Authorities also say he bit and spat on deputies, who used physical force and a Taser gun to subdue him. Gomez stopped breathing and was taken by ambulance to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was later removed from life support by his family after being diagnosed as brain dead.

Gomez's father, Jesus, said in a recent news conference that his son telephoned on the eve of the confrontation, fearing for his life.

"Prior to the incident, the Orange County Sheriff's Department was on notice that deputies working at the jail used force, violence and pain illegally as a method to intimidate, to try to control and punish inmates," said the family's claim.

Attorney Bernard also represents former inmate Matthew Ryan Fleuret, who was stunned with a Taser after he had been strapped to a chair in March 2006. [MORE]