$480K settlement reached for CA inmate who miscarried after police stopped for coffee en route to hospital

Orange County, California awarded a former inmate $480,000 after she lost her pregnancy in 2016 following a string of law enforcement blunders, including stopping at Starbucks on the way to the hospital.

Sandra Quinones, a former inmate in Orange County, California, was pregnant and incarcerated at the time of the incident in 2016. She pushed the call button in her cell to alert authorities of a medical emergency related to her pregnancy. According to court documents, she waited over two hours before anyone responded to her call. 

As she was being transported by officers to Anaheim Global Medical Center in a patrol car, the officers stopped to pick up coffee for themselves at a local Starbucks. Quinones arrived at the hospital bleeding, where she was told she had lost the baby.

A lawsuit was filed against Orange County, accusing the officers of “acting with deliberate indifference” toward Quinones and her pregnancy.

“That’s a very good result for someone badly treated in the jail. This poor woman, she’s in jail having a miscarriage and, instead of calling an ambulance, they take her to the hospital in a patrol car and the cops stop at Starbucks while she’s bleeding,” said Dick Herman, Quinones’ lawyer, in a statement to the Orange County Register. Herman also told the judge in court that his client is mentally ill and homeless since the 2016 incident.

Another Orange County inmate sued the County for the loss of her baby and reached a $1.5 million settlement last year.