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Sheriff Garcia disputes prior claims about in-custody death review process at public comment
Summary
During public comment, Sheriff Garcia said investigators completed investigations by 06/01/2023 and shared materials on 07/06/2023, and that the in-custody death review panel still needs to be scheduled with state-recognized experts; he disputed a claim that the county withheld the review.
At the Aug. 26 Pacific County commissioners meeting, Sheriff Garcia used the second public-comment period to respond to statements made at a prior meeting about the county's in-custody death review process.
The sheriff said investigations related to the in-custody deaths were completed on June 1, 2023, and that investigative materials were provided to the civil attorney and the PDR department on July 6, 2023. He said the formal legislatively mandated in-custody death review panel had not yet convened and that scheduling state-recognized experts has been challenging. "There was a claim made that we sat on this review panel and didn't share it. That is false," the sheriff said.
He characterized the review-panel process as "quite in-depth" and reiterated that while investigations were finished, the formal review panel itself still needs to be completed with expert participation. The sheriff thanked commissioners for not jumping to conclusions during the earlier controversy.
No formal action followed the comment; commissioners thanked the sheriff for his remarks.
