SAN DIEGO — The family of 31-year-old Callen Lines has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against San Diego County, alleging that jail deputies ignored her repeated pleas for medical assistance in the hours before she was found dead at the Las Colinas detention facility in Santee on May 12, 2025.
According to the complaint, Lines used the jail intercom four separate times to report that she was experiencing seizures and vomiting. Deputies allegedly “called her a ‘liar’ and terminated the calls” even as she “screamed and begged for help, stating several times that she could not breathe.”
An autopsy by the San Diego County Medical Examiner concluded that Lines died from fentanyl and methamphetamine toxicity. The lawsuit argues that her death was preventable and that deputies had a constitutional obligation to provide medical attention to a person in their custody who was displaying clear signs of a medical emergency.
Pattern of In-Custody Deaths
The Lines case is one of multiple recent wrongful death lawsuits filed against San Diego County over deaths at its detention facilities. In a separate case filed around the same time, the parents of Corey Michael Dean sued the county after their son died at the Vista Detention Facility, alleging he should have been placed in housing designated for mentally ill detainees but was instead held in solitary confinement during the final two weeks of his life.
The Dean lawsuit alleges that his mental health issues were known to jail medical staff, yet he was not provided adequate medication or psychiatric care. The family contends that proper psychiatric housing and treatment would have prevented his death.
Together, the cases highlight what civil rights attorneys describe as a systemic failure in San Diego County’s jail system to adequately screen, monitor, and treat detainees with medical and mental health vulnerabilities.
Withdrawal Protocols Under Scrutiny
The Lines lawsuit raises pointed questions about how San Diego County jails handle inmates undergoing drug withdrawal — a population that has grown substantially as fentanyl has become the dominant illicit opioid. Experts in correctional medicine say that fentanyl withdrawal, while rarely fatal on its own, can mask symptoms of overdose and other life-threatening conditions if staff are not properly trained to distinguish between the two.
The complaint suggests that deputies dismissed Lines’s symptoms as drug-seeking behavior or routine withdrawal complaints rather than evaluating her for a potential medical emergency. Correctional health advocates have pushed for standardized withdrawal assessment protocols that require medical evaluation any time an inmate reports symptoms like vomiting, seizures, or difficulty breathing.
County Response
San Diego County has not publicly commented on the specifics of the Lines lawsuit, citing pending litigation. The county has previously stated that it takes all in-custody deaths seriously and cooperates fully with investigations by the Medical Examiner’s Office and the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board.
Civil rights attorneys representing the Lines family have indicated they will seek discovery of jail surveillance footage, intercom recordings, medical logs, and deputy training records related to the handling of medical emergencies and drug withdrawal protocols.
Broader National Trend
In-custody deaths remain one of the most persistent and undercounted problems in American jails. A 2025 investigation by The Marshall Project found that families of people who die in jail or prison often face significant obstacles in obtaining basic information about the circumstances of death, including delays in receiving autopsy reports and stonewalling by corrections officials.
San Diego County’s jail system has faced scrutiny over in-custody deaths for years, with multiple previous lawsuits resulting in settlements and policy changes that advocates say have not gone far enough to prevent future deaths.
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