news story / By Hank Sims

Cotton Suit Going to Trial

Family of man who died in custody looking for over $5 million in damages from city, county

(Dec. 2, 2010)  Over three years after the violent altercation with police and others that landed Martin Cotton II in Humboldt County Jail, where he died of head injuries, a lawsuit brought by his relatives is nearing trial in Oakland federal court.

The suit, which was brought by Cotton’s daughter and his father, charges that officers with the Eureka Police Department delivered the blows that ended up killing Cotton several hours later. In addition, it charges that the policemen and correctional officers employed by the Humboldt County Jail failed to get him the medical attention that could have saved his life.

Cotton’s relatives are seeking $5 million in compensation, plus an unspecified amount in punitive damages. Named as defendants in the suit are city and county government, as well as a dozen individual EPD officers and jail employees.

But the defendants have a starkly different understanding of what happened that day — Aug. 9, 2007 — when EPD officers were called to the Eureka Rescue Mission to stop a brawl that had erupted between several men, including the 26-year-old Cotton, who was later determined to be under the influence of a large amount of LSD. They say that the blow to the head that left Cotton with the fatal subdural hematoma was not delivered by police officers but one of the people who Cotton had been brawling with prior to their arrival. Furthermore, they say that county jail personnel had no way of knowing about his injury — partly due to the fact that such injuries are not evident to the naked eye, and partly due to Cotton’s advanced state of LSD intoxication.

Reached Monday at his office, local attorney Bill Bragg, who is representing county government and jail personnel in the suit, said a settlement in advance of the date that the trail is scheduled to commence — Jan. 10, 2011 — appears unlikely.

“Our position is that the county is not liable for anything anyway, so we would not consider making an offer unless it was less than the cost of defending the case, and with no admission of liability,” Bragg said.

There were many unanswered questions and oddities surrounding Cotton’s death back in 2007. His altercation at the Eureka Rescue Mission that day, when he was already deeply under the influence of psychedelic drugs, occurred just hours after he had been released from jail. Despite his brain injury, an outside medical examiner originally issued a report claiming that Cotton’s death was due an LSD overdose — a determination that was later rejected as having no basis in scientific literature. And though the Eureka Police Department has always insisted that its officers did not strike Cotton in the head, it was never clear how he would have otherwise received the fatal injury. For a time, local officials supposed that he injured himself by banging his head on the walls of his cell after he was rebooked into jail that day. (For a complete look back at the case, see “Who Killed Martin Cotton?” March 27, 2008.)

In a brief filed with the court, Los Angeles-area attorney Vicki Sarmiento, who is representing Cotton’s relatives in the suit, lays out in great detail the case she will present at trial. (Sarmiento did not return a phone call seeking comment.)

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