The parents of a man who died by suicide in Orange County jail by stuffing orange peels down his throat have settled their lawsuit against the county for $3 million.
David Whiting, a former columnist for the Southern California News Group, and Susan Smith recently accepted the county’s settlement offer, which was approved by the Board of Supervisors in February, the county announced Tuesday, Sept. 15. Supervisor Don Wagner dissented in the 4-1 vote.
The agreement ends a federal lawsuit alleging that Sean Whiting, 35, was mentally ill and should have been more closely monitored while in custody.
An investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, however, found no evidence of negligence on the part of jail staff.
Attorney Annee Della Donna, representing David Whiting, disagreed with the DA’s findings. Della Donna said Sean Whiting was treated in jail by a psychiatrist via a video appointment and not in person.
“Sean was holding a bag of orange peels, literally holding the bullets he used to kill himself,” Della Donna said. “They should never have a psychiatrist treating a patient who is actively suicidal on Zoom. That is crazy.”
Della Donna continued: “The family finally has a resolution and closure. Is there accountability? Probably not. Is the Orange County jail going to make any changes? Probably not.”
The Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The department, however, has made physical modifications to the Intake Release Center in recent years to prevent suicides, such as installing fencing on the upper tiers to block inmates from jumping and steel plating to cover any spaces where an inmate could tie a noose.
David Whiting retired in 2019 as an award-winning columnist for the Southern California News Group and, earlier, the Orange County Register, where he had worked for three decades. Over his 10-year tenure as a columnist, he wrote more than 1,000 pieces. Previously, he was an assistant managing editor at the Register.
Sean Whiting was arrested on Dec. 21, 2022, for violating a temporary restraining order obtained by his mother. He died two days later.
Whiting had a history of mental illness and had been previously hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation. He would not sleep for days because of severe insomnia, resulting in hallucinations, according to the lawsuit. He also had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder as well as anxiety disorder and suffered from depression.
Less than two hours before Sean Whiting’s death, an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered him released from jail.
According to the district attorney’s report, Sean Whiting made statements while in custody that he was feeling depressed, wanted to kill himself and would stab himself in the neck, cut his wrists “or I’ll figure out a way.”
He was placed in a psychiatric observation unit, in a cell with a a large observation window, at the jail’s Intake Release Center, the DA’s report said. There were security cameras inside and outside the cell.
Video recordings show deputies and jail workers checked on Whiting every 30 minutes and administered prescribed medication, according to the report. The videos also capture Whiting stuffing food down his throat, but deputies did not respond until he pounded on the glass wall in distress.
The report says Whiting was behind a privacy wall shielding the toilet when he stuffed the peels down his throat.
“There is nothing to indicate that Whiting’s death was the result of inaction or improper action of OCSD personnel or those under the supervision of OCSD,” the DA’s report said.
But Della Donna criticized the department for not watching the video monitors in real time, instead viewing the footage after Sean Whiting had died.