Mother of man suffocated with mattress at Santa Rita Jail files wrongful death suit
Yuri Brand, 39, of Oakland. Photo: Family via lawsuit
DUBLIN, Calif. - The family of a schizophrenic man who was suffocated to death at Santa Rita Jail filed a wrongful death suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court, alleging that the sheriff's office misclassified him and his cellmate and did not place him into mental health housing, which would be a violation of a federal consent decree.
Yuri Brand, 39, whose civil rights lawyers alleged he had also gone without medication for days, died Sept.13, 2023.
Despite his known mental health issues, Brand was placed in the general population and was assigned a cellmate, Bryson Levy, 33, of Oakland.
Within 45 minutes of being placed together in the cell, Levy allegedly killed Brand by using a mattress to suffocate him, according to the the lawsuit filed by Adante Pointer, Patrick Buelna and Ty Clarke of Lawyers for the People in Oakland.
The lawyers also allege that Levy has a criminal history of violence and sexual assault, and should never have been assigned Brand as his cellmate.
Levy has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, according to court documents.
"This was a tragic but foreseeable outcome given the lack of adequate supervision, mental health care and incorrectly placing these two men in a cell together," the suit states.
Plus, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office took an "inordinate amount of time" to release Brand's body to his family, the suit states.
The sheriff's office did not immediately respond for comment regarding the lawsuit.
Brand had been taken to jail five days earlier, on Sept. 8, after he was seen on home video breaking into a Piedmont home, staying there for two days and eating about $1,000 of food and drink.
After his death, Brand's family examined his body at the Chapel of the Chimes.
While at the funeral home, the suit states they were "mortified" to see that his "tongue was cut in half, length-wise from its top to its base in the back of the throat," which they provided a picture of in their suit.
The serration was jagged, the lawyers stated, and the "tongue had been stuffed into his throat."
Brand's mother, Erica Edgerly, was even more concerned when this injury was not documented in the autopsy report.
In fact, the autopsy described the tongue as having "no contusions or bite marks."
In addition, the lawsuit questions why Brand's scrotum is missing the top layer of skin.
Two experts who asked not be identified said that it's possible the coroner cut the tongue themselves in performing the autopsy, but noted that proper protocol would have been to document that.
The toxicology report also confirmed that Brand had no medication in his system despite the county being aware of his mental health condition, which is in "direct contravention" of the Santa Rita Jail consent decree, requiring deputies to provide adequate mental health care.
These injuries suggest that Brand was "subjected to not only a deadly but lengthy attack without it ever being heard or observed by any Alameda County Sheriff's Office deputies," the lawsuit states.
The autopsy did state that Brand had died of asphyxia and neck compression.
Edgerly filed the suit in the hopes of learning how her son could have suffered such a "cruel fate," the suit states.