On July 15, 2008, plaintiff’s decedent Matthew Anderson, a schizophrenic with bipolar disorder, was in front of a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant in the city of Yreka, Siskiyou County, when he began manifesting signs of his mental illness. Officers from the Yreka Police Department appeared at the scene, shot Anderson with a Taser and placed him in a four-point restraint. Anderson was then transported to the emergency room at Fairchild Medical Center. After being released from the hospital, he was booked into the Siskiyou County Jail and criminally charged. While in jail, Anderson exhibited behavior problems, but without indicating that he was suicidal. The court found him mentally incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to be transported to the Napa State Hospital for the care and treatment of the mentally disordered. He was then transported to Napa State Hospital on Sept.11, 2008. After his condition allegedly stabilized and improved, Anderson was found competent to stand trial by Napa State Hospital and he was returned to the Siskiyou County Jail on Feb. 25, 2009. The state psychiatrist also reported that Anderson was a low risk for self-harm. On March 27, 2009, the Siskiyou County Superior Court judge presiding over Anderson’s criminal case found him still mentally incompetent to stand trial. The judge subsequently ordered the Sheriff’s Department to return Anderson to Napa State Hospital for care and treatment by no later than April 3, 2009. Despite having received notice of the court’s ruling, officials at Napa State Hospital allegedly refused to comply with the order and denied him admission to the facility without referring him to another place for treatment. As a result, Anderson remained at the Siskiyou County Jail. While in custody this time, Anderson was placed on suicide watch on two occasions due to his behavior. He ultimately committed suicide on April 9, 2009. On June 1, 2009, the state court held Napa State Hospital and its executive director, Dr. Ed Foulk, in contempt of court for failing to admit Anderson to their facility, as ordered. Anderson’s mother, Mineko Swezey, acting both individually and as a successor in interest to Anderson’s estate, sued the county of Siskiyou, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department, Siskiyou Sheriff Rick Riggens, Captain James Bett, Deputy Christopher Miller, and Ronald Bortman, M.D., as well as the state of California, Napa County State Hospital, Dr. Ed Foulk, R.N. and Dana White, R.N. Swezey alleged that the defendants were deliberately indifferent to Anderson’s serious medical needs, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that the county, the Sheriff’s Department, Riggens, Miller, Bett and Bortman were involved in denying Anderson the requisite treatment while in their custody at the Siskiyou County jail. Specifically, counsel asserted that the county had allowed a single unlicensed and unqualified behavioral health technician to remove Anderson from suicide watch shortly before his death by suicide. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that the county jail psychiatrist, Bortman, had a long history of professional misconduct and medical neglect that was publicly available from the state medical board website, but that the county administrators had never checked for such information. In addition, counsel contended that Bortman was also deliberately indifferent to Anderson’s serious medical needs, and that the state, Napa State Hospital, Foulk and White refused to provide treatment to Anderson. The county’s counsel contended that it provided Anderson with adequate medical/mental health treatment through the provision of consultation with the county’s behavioral health workers and a county contract psychiatrist, who had seen Anderson on the morning he committed suicide and did not report that he was suicidal. Counsel asserted that there was, therefore, no deliberate indifference in the provision of health care. In addition, counsel contended that the county’s attempts to deliver Anderson to the Napa State Hospital pursuant to the court order, which began the day the order was signed, were rebuffed by employees of Napa State Hospital., On April 9, 2009, Anderson committed suicide. Anderson’s mother sought recovery for his wrongful death.