Former Southern California News Group columnist David Whiting is suing the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for the apparent in-custody suicide of his 35-year-old son in 2022.
David Whiting’s son, Sean, was mentally ill and should have been more closely monitored in jail, says the wrongful death suit filed Dec. 22 in federal court. Whiting choked to death in his cell, with parts of an orange and its peel found jammed in his throat with other food.
Less than two hours before Whiting’s death, an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered him released from jail, where he was in custody for allegedly violating a temporary restraining order. The lawsuit by David Whiting alleged his son should have been in a jail mental health ward, but instead was placed in the general population after the court hearing.
The department’s “decision to place a suicidal inmate with severe mental illness in the general population and give him a snack with an orange was outrageous and utterly negligent,” states the lawsuit. David Whiting is represented by attorneys Annee Della Donna, Eric Dubin and Diane Bass.
The Sheriff’s Department declined comment on the suit, which is standard for pending litigation.
David Whiting retired in 2019 as an award-winning metro 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.
The suit contains a troubling timeline of Sean Whiting’s mental decline, leading to his arrest on Dec. 21, 2022, and his death two days later.
Whiting had a history of mental illness and had been hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation. He would not sleep for days because of severe insomnia, resulting in hallucinations. He also had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder as well as anxiety disorder and suffered from depression, the lawsuit…
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