A Southern California investigative journalist filed a lawsuit Friday, Dec. 5, accusing Riverside County of violating state law by refusing to release public records about inmate deaths in the county jail system. The lawsuit was filed by the First Amendment Coalition on behalf of former Desert Sun r eporter Christopher Damien and the New York Times, which had employed Damien as an investigations fellow when he reported a series of stories on inmate deaths in Riverside County jails that occurred in 2022 and 2023. He requested coroner’s reports on 46 individuals who died in custody, as well as investigation reports and other related records and video. Despite a law passed in 2023 requiring public release of previously confidential records related to in-custody deaths at detention facilities, Damien was met with “stonewalling, demands for illegal fees, unexplained processing delays and unjustified withholdings” of requested records that has not remedied after more than a year, according to a news release by the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit defending free speech, open government and public access rights. “So today, representing Damien and the New York Times, we filed a public records act request to enforce the law and ask a court to order the full release of all records Damien requested,” said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, in the release. In April 2024, Damien made two requests for public records under SB 519, a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023 to increase transparency about deaths in jail custody. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaking at a news conference on Aug. 27, 2025. (File photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) A spate of jail deaths in 2022 and 2023 prompted a wave of wrongful death lawsuits and an attack on Sheriff Chad Bianco and the county’s correctional system by family members, civil rights groups and the state attorney general’s office, which launched a civil rights investigation into the department in February 2023 amid “concerning levels of in-custody deaths, troubling allegations of excessive force, and other misconduct.” The investigation is ongoing. Bianco, who is running for California governor in the 2026 election, declined to comment on the allegations Friday, citing the pending litigation. However, he did say, “The lawsuit is about as legitimate as the articles Chris Damien writes — fictional pieces based on his own, biased, anti-law enforcement opinions.” In response, Damien said, “My stories and reporting speaks for itself. Let the readers and the public make up their own minds.” Damien, 39, of Morongo Valley said he first started filing public records requests with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department last year. He said he was given various reasons for the delays or withholding of records. For example, an official at the coroner’s office told him they had to get approval from the Sheriff’s Department to release documents, or that requested records were confidential due to civil litigation. Counsel for the New York Times reached out to Riverside County attorneys. Some progress was made, but reports and videos were still not released, Damien said. So the Times reached out to the FAC, which took things to the next level. “They’re confident these records are public. I’m confident these records are public. We’re looking forward to getting this in front of a judge to get this ironed out and getting these records released,” said Damien, who recently left the Desert Sun after eight years and is now working as a freelance journalist. FAC senior staff attorney Aaron Field said in a statement Friday, “Transparency in government is always essential to the functioning of a democracy. But it is particularly important when it comes to deaths that occur while in the custody of law enforcement. Disclosing records about these deaths empowers the public to hold law enforcement accountable.” ...read more read less