Settlement in Inmate Death Sets a Record : Jails: County’s agreement to pay $650,000 in chokehold incident could eventually bring orphaned daughter $4 million.

In the largest San Diego County payout for a jail beating death, county officials have agreed to a $650,000 settlement with the orphaned 10-year-old daughter of chokehold victim Albert Varela.

The settlement is structured to guarantee Varela’s daughter, Jessica Mills, $1.9 million when the money is placed in an annuity, which could pay her a total of $4 million if she lives to be 74.

Varela died in 1988 in a struggle at the County Jail downtown with six sheriff’s deputies, one of whom applied a chokehold on the 6-foot-1, 286-pound man. The coroner’s office ruled the death a homicide but said Varela died of cardiorespiratory arrest, not the restraint itself.

Despite a storm of protest over the death, particularly from San Diego’s Latino community, the Sheriff’s Department found no wrongdoing. The district attorney’s office, in turn, did not hold any of the deputies criminally liable, but criticized them for dragging the dying man across the jail floor.

A federal grand jury began a civil rights investigation into Varela’s death in May, 1990, but prosecutors decided later that year not to indict any of the officers.

“Something is very, very wrong here,” said Tom Adler, an attorney for Varela’s family. “You have to stop (and look) at the size of this (settlement) and say this was very serious activity. Why weren’t these deputies prosecuted?”

Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller ruled in October, 1988, that the chokehold, called a carotid restraint, was proper to apply because Varela had begun fighting with deputies. Varela had been arrested for allegedly violating a court order to stay away from his family because of temper tantrums and fights.

“His large body weight, coupled with being handcuffed and in a face-down position, limited effective respiration and contributed to his demise,” Miller said.

Miller added, however, that “dragging an inmate on his face is simply inconsistent with basic humane treatment, particularly after that inmate has been restrained and controlled.”

Although Adler said the settlement proves the deputies were wrong, county attorney David Florence said the county never admitted guilt and would have won the case had it gone to trial.

The county decided to settle, Florence said, because it was forced to pay large sums to private attorneys representing two of the six deputies.

Roy DeVault, one of the deputies involved, retired on a stress disability. A second deputy, Jon Ellis, is on temporary disability and has applied for full stress disability. Florence said the county could not represent the two because they had disability claims against the county, which created a conflict.

Of the other deputies, Ronald K. Brown works for Vista patrol, Joe Rodi works in the training division, Carlos Rodriguez works for the Imperial Beach patrol and Sean Riley works as a police officer in Washington.

Florence said the case was becoming too expensive.

“What bothers me is that I would rather fight or settle based on the merits of the case rather than the economic situation,” he said. “If we weren’t paying outside attorney fees, there would have been no settlement. But what’s come about is good for the county and for county taxpayers.”

Adler called on the Sheriff’s Department to end the practice of using carotid restraints and said the agency had ignored an agreement by the medical examiner’s office to document cases in which the chokehold had been used.

Sheriff’s spokesman Dan Greenblat said no agreement had been made with Sheriff Jim Roache, although an understanding may have been reached with then-sheriff John Duffy.

He said the department will continue to use the restraint when necessary.

“It is still authorized for use,” he said. “There’s no reason not to use it. The data associated with the use of the carotid restraint is not deliberately withheld or concealed. It is placed in each and every file in instances where it occurs.”

During a news conference Wednesday to discuss the settlement, Adler described what he said were discrepancies between what deputies said in depositions involving the civil suit and what appeared on a jail videotape of the incident or the word of witnesses.

For instance, he said, the deputies described Varela as starting a fight in the jail after they threw his clothing to him and he threw it back. Adler said booking clerks at the jail disputed that version of events and said they did not see Varela start the fight.

Some deputies said Varela was carried face-up out of the jail, although he was actually dragged face-down, Adler said.

“The videotape shows two deputies holding his feet face-down, and he was handcuffed with his hands behind him,” he said. “Each had a hold of his feet, and they dragged him face-down down the hallway.”

As Adler described the scene Wednesday, Varela’s 65-year-old mother, Rose, and 38-year-old sister, Mary Kros, softly wept and held hands.

“He was a wonderful person,” Rose Varela said. “He was going through some emotional problems.”

Kros added: “He was a very caring and understanding person. He’d give you the shirt off his back. He loved his daughter.”

Last November, Albert Varela’s estranged wife, Faith Mills, was killed in an unrelated incident. Rose Varela is the guardian for Jessica Mills.

Under the terms of the settlement, the county will pay $650,000 to a Canadian insurance company for an annuity. Jessica will get an initial cash settlement of $197,470, most of which will go to legal fees.

She will get $500 a month for the next seven years and nine months, until she is 18. Once she reaches 18, Mills will get $25,000 a year for four years and $1,500 a month for seven years.

When she reaches 25, she will get $1,800 a month for the rest of her life and a $25,000 guaranteed lump-sum payment. At age 30, she will get a $50,000 payment; at 35, a $75,000 payment; at 45, a $100,000 payment; at 50, a $125,000 payment, and at 55, a $150,000 payment.

Including Wednesday’s settlement, which was approved by Superior Court Judge Michael Greer and the County Board of Supervisors, the county has paid more than $3 million in the past five years in settlements involving sheriff’s deputies accused of misconduct or brutality.

In April, the county agreed to pay $1.95 million to the widow of a man shot to death by a reserve deputy. The county is facing a $30.6-million budget deficit.