Woman Sexually Assaulted by Jail Employee Sues Santa Barbara County for ‘Policy of Inaction’

[Updated: Wed., Aug. 7, 2024, 4:10pm]

Santa Barbara County is facing a federal lawsuit on allegations that their “policy of inaction” and “deliberate indifference” paved the way for multiple female inmates to be sexually assaulted at the Santa Barbara County Main Jail by then-employee Salvador Vargas, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to two felony charges on the eve of his criminal trial.

Court records show that in August 2018, Vargas was tasked with transporting the plaintiff — identified as Jane Doe — from the Main Jail to Bethel House, a residential treatment center where she would complete her sentence. While stopped at a pharmacy to pick up Doe’s prescription medication, “Vargas assaulted, groped, and forced Doe to orally copulate him.”

Vargas was arrested in 2020 along with custody deputy Gabriel Castro after a two-year-long investigation with intertwined witnesses. Castro’s case was dismissed in December 2021 after the plaintiff, a different Jane Doe, died in a car crash. He remained an employee of the Sheriff’s Office through October 2022.

Vargas is now serving three years behind bars, and the focus has turned to the behavior of the Sheriff’s Office leading up to the assault, said Neil Gehlawat, one of Doe’s attorneys. “There is no question of whether it happened. The issue now is the county’s liability.”

Records show that Vargas had three other sexual-abuse complaints filed against him by female inmates in the years leading up to the 2018 assault on Doe. There was also an alleged incident of sexual battery by Vargas against a female social worker that year. The social worker did not file a report over fears that “she would lose access to the inmates she worked to protect.”

The deputies tasked with investigating the previous complaints did not interview two of the three inmates involved.

“My client’s assault would’ve been preventable if the county took any of these complaints seriously,” emphasized Gehlawat.

The one interviewed inmate was taken seriously by two investigating deputies, who then took the complaint up the chain of command. Upon reporting the allegations and investigation to their sergeants, they received instructions to disregard it.

“We’re concerned about this being an institutional problem,” said Gehlawat, whose firm represented the other Jane Doe in the case against Castro.

The county attempted to dismiss the case by claiming that the evidence was clear enough for the court to rule in the county’s favor without a trial. However, their motion was denied by the federal judge hearing the case. The trial is set to begin on September 9.

The county’s defense attorney, Mary Pat Barry, did not respond to requests for comment.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Salvador Vargas as a deputy; his correct title was discharge planner, which is a non-sworn position.