Mexicans...and some Guatemalans...
County to pay illegal immigrant $4 million in jail beating case
Orange County Register | 4/20/2009 | NORBERTO SANTANA JR. AND TONY SAAVEDRA
Posted on Monday, April 20, 2009 11:51:03 PM by South40
County officials have agreed to pay more than $4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was beaten by inmates while in custody at the Orange County jail, the man's attorney said Monday.
The settlement appears to be the largest ever paid by Orange County for an in-custody incident involving county sheriffs, according to county officials and the man's lawyer.
Fernando Ramirez, then 21, was left brain damaged by inmates in Module A at the Orange County Central Jail in June 2006. He was jailed after a 6-year-old girl told her mother a stranger touched her over her clothes on her private parts at El Salvador Park in Santa Ana. Ramirez was charged with child molestation but eventually pled guilty to the lesser charge of non-sexual battery, said his attorney, Mark Eisenberg.