The family of Karim Talib, an 82-year-old man with dementia who died this year in the San Diego Central Jail, says in a new federal civil rights lawsuit that sheriff’s deputies and jail medical staff ignored clear signs his health was deteriorating in the days leading up to his death. The lawsuit, filed Dec. 19, alleges violations of Talib’s constitutional rights, deliberate indifference to his needs, systemic failures and elder abuse, among other claims. It names as defendants the County of San Diego, the Sheriff’s Office and jail medical contractor NaphCare, along with doctors, nurses and mental health clinicians. Talib — who had dementia, relied on a wheelchair and was incontinent — was arrested in August 2024 after assaulting his roommate at the senior care facility where they lived. The roommate later died from the assault. Court records show Talib’s attorney raised concerns early on about his client’s mental competency. Last December, he was found incompetent to stand trial — a psychiatrist had determined he was unable to understand his charges, what was at stake or assist his attorney in his own defense. Talib was transferred to a state hospital for treatment, but after five months there, the lawsuit says, he was declared to have no substantial likelihood to gain competency — a designation known as NSL. A clinician who assessed him recommended he be placed in a mental health facility or other living situation where he would get around-the-clock assistance with basic needs and medication management. Instead, Talib was returned from the state hospital to the Central Jail on May 24, 2025. Normally, if a defendant is found unlikely to regain mental competency, the criminal case against them can’t continue, and the person must be released. But a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office said Talib qualified for a Murphy conservatorship, which would let prosecutors keep him in custody for public safety reasons. Such a finding would also deem Talib gravely disabled, meaning he was unable to provide for his basic needs due to a mental disorder. A hearing on the matter was scheduled for Aug. 6. But Talib died before that hearing could be held. From late May through July 19, Talib was held in the jail’s medical observation unit where, according to his family’s lawsuit, staff helped him eat, take his medications and change his diapers. Medical records cited in the lawsuit describe him as disoriented and unable to care for himself. But on July 19, Talib was moved from the medical unit to an administrative separation unit, where he would be held in solitary confinement. His family’s lawsuit says that move violated jail policies. “According to …  jail policy, at no point in time after an inmate returns from a state hospital should that inmate ever be housed into a segregation unit,” it says. The San Diego Union-Tribune was unable to verify whether such a policy were in place at the time. The sheriff’s current policies governing jail medical services say that all state hospital returnees “will be followed by a qualified mental health provider for the duration of Sheriff’s custody.” They also require that whenever “a segregation placement is deemed inappropriate, it must be communicated immediately to watch commander or designee by health staff completing the assessment.” In sworn declarations gathered by an attorney in a separate class-action lawsuit over jail conditions, other men housed near Talib described his rapid and visible decline. Maurice Vasquez said Talib arrived in the unit wearing only a shirt and a diaper and appeared confused. “The day after Mr. Talib entered Unit 7/E, the entire unit began to smell like feces,” Vasquez wrote. Vasquez said people in nearby cells repeatedly yelled to deputies that Talib needed help. According to Vasquez, Talib lay in his own waste, barely moved and did not respond when spoken to. “Once I was in the dayroom, I went to Mr. Talib’s cell and observed him lying down with his eyes open and his diaper filled with fecal matter,” Vasquez wrote. “Mr. Talib looked like he was dead.” Another man, Larry Lightning, said he watched staff wheel Talib out of his cell so incarcerated workers could clean it. “I saw that Mr. Talib had feces on his shirt, diaper and his wheelchair,” Lightning wrote. When Talib was returned, Lightning said, “it appeared that Mr. Talib had not been given a shower or otherwise cleaned while he was out of his cell.” Lightning said he never saw anyone change Talib’s diaper. He wrote that mental health staff tried to speak with the man, but he never responded. “Because Mr. Talib had not been speaking to anyone while he was in AdSep, I was concerned that staff would not know whether anything was wrong with him,” Lightning wrote. According to the lawsuit, mental health clinicians documented Talib’s unresponsiveness, incontinence and inability to care for himself but didn’t recommend he be returned to the medical unit. The lawsuit also says staff failed to take his vital signs, failed to recognize that he lacked the capacity to refuse food or medication and failed to return him to the medical unit or transfer him to a hospital as his condition worsened. One doctor noted that Talib was being “monitored for possible failure to thrive or grave disability,” but the physician was “unsure whether he is consuming food.” “It is unclear who and with what frequency Talib was being ‘monitored’ while housed in an administrative segregation unit with minimal monitoring,” the lawsuit says. Talib was found unresponsive in his cell on the morning of July 28. Witnesses said staff were alerted that he appeared lifeless. According to the lawsuit, more than an hour passed before anyone checked on him. When deputies entered the cell, he was already dead. His body was left in the unit for hours, visible to the other men in the unit, the lawsuit says. Earlier this month, the Medical Examiner’s Office reported that Talib died from heart disease complicated by a bacterial infection that had spread to his kidney. The autopsy provides little information about the circumstances leading up to his death. ...read more read less