Bill Inspired By Dublin Death Vetoed By Gov. Newsom

DUBLIN, CA — A bill inspired by the case of Jessica St. Louis, a 26-year-old Berkeley woman who died of an opioid overdose after she was released in the early morning hours from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, has been vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Authored by Democratic state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), SB-42 was designed to end what some lawmakers say is the dangerous practice of county jails releasing people in the middle of the night. St. Louis died of an opioid overdose on July 28, 2018 at the East Dublin BART station. She was found dead around 5:30 a.m. — about four hours after she was released from Santa Rita Jail.

Dubbed the Getting Home Safe Act, the bill was vetoed by the governor over the weekend. In his veto message, the governor agreed with the bill's author and left the door open for revisions.

"Jails should not be releasing people onto the streets during overnight hours," Newsom wrote. "This is simply an unsafe practice, resulting in many tragic and preventable outcomes over the years. At a very minimum, facilities should absolutely provide a safe place to wait and arrange safe transportation when late night discharges do occur."

However, because the bill allowed those being discharged the option of staying in jail until morning, the legislation would have created a "significant state reimbursable mandate," the governor said.

"The bill's intent can be accomplished through a more tailored approach that does not put the state treasury on the hook for local jail operations costs, which are a local responsibility," Newsom said.

Skinner's bill won approval from the state Assembly on a 65-1 vote and the state Senate on a 35-4 vote before Newsom's Oct. 12 veto.

Alameda County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly declined to comment directly on SB 42 when it was headed to the governor, but said the Dublin Santa Rita Jail is a 24-hour operation in which 40,000 people are booked every year and about 100 people are released every day.

"We try to minimize midnight releases as much as possible," he said.

After St. Louis' death last year, Kelly said St. Louis was given a BART ticket when she left the jail and that she had a cellphone and had access to phones while she was being held. She was incarcerated for 11 days for arrest warrants on various cases, according to Kelly.

Alameda County court records indicate that St. Louis was charged with felony grand theft for an offense on Nov. 16, 2017, and she entered a not guilty plea on June 15, 2018.

Court records also indicate that she was charged with two misdemeanor counts of second-degree burglary and one count each of misdemeanor grand theft and misdemeanor vandalism for offenses on Sept. 29, 2017.

Kelly said investigators found drugs inside St. Louis' body cavities and a medical exam showed no signs of foul play. A coroner's report concluded she died of an opioid overdose.

Kelly said St. Louis didn't ingest any drugs while she was at the jail and it appears that she ingested controlled substances after she left the jail and died from them.

—Bay City News contributed to this report.

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