A manslaughter charge was dismissed Wednesday against a doctor accused in the 2019 death of a woman in a Santee jail, bringing an end to a rare instance of medical staffers charged in the death of an inmate.
Prosecutors asked El Cajon Superior Court Judge John Thompson to dismiss the sole count Dr. Friederike Von Lintig had faced a sole charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 24-year-old Elisa Serna, who collapsed and died Nov. 11, 2019, less than a week after she had been booked into Las Colinas Detention Facility.
Undated photo of Elisa Serna
(Family photo)
The decision to drop the case was not a surprise. On Friday, an El Cajon Superior Court jury deadlocked 9-3 in favor of acquitting Von Lintig, who was the doctor on duty the day Serna died. It was the only day Von Lintig had tended to Serna, and her shift ended more than three hours before Serna was found dead in her cell.
The same jury that deadlocked over Von Lintig’s case acquitted co-defendant, Danalee Pascua, a nurse who left Serna collapsed against a wall about an hour before she was found dead. The two defendants were charged a year apart — Pascua in 2021, Von Lintig in 2022 — but were tried together.
While the dismissal ends the criminal case, Serna’s family is still pursing a civil case in federal court. The next hearing in that case is set for next month.
Von Lintig’s attorney, Dana Grimes, said the doctor had been “vindicated” by the jury and the dismissal of the criminal case.
“Dr. Von Lintig is a loving and caring doctor who was devastated by the unexpected loss of Ms. Serna, who was her patient for one day at Las Colinas,” Grimes said.
The District Attorney’s Office said Serna’s death “was a tragedy that did not have to happen.”
“When our team of prosecutors and investigators reviewed the case, we determined that criminal negligence substantially contributed to her death,” the office said in a statement Wednesday.
“(W)hen a life is in the custody and care of government, it must be safeguarded and provided with the appropriate medical care,” the statement concluded.
Prosecutors argued to the jury that the doctor and nurse had each failed to act and failed in their duty to care for Serna, who was five-weeks pregnant and suffering from withdrawal of alcohol and narcotics.
When she was booked into jail, Serna told jail staff that she had used heroin within two hours of her arrest. But four days passed before she was started on a withdrawal protocol and put into the medical unit.
While there, Serna collapsed several times and had two seizures the day she died. After the second seizure, medical staff summoned Von Lintig, but the doctor did not go to the cell to check on Serna.
Hours later, Serna collapsed against a wall inside her cell while Pascua — there to check Serna’s vitals signs — was outside the door. The nurse entered but was unable to take Serna’s vital signs, and she left with Serna still slumped against the wall. An hour later, Serna was found dead in the same spot.
A deputy medical examiner with the county testified that Serna died from complications of polysubstance abuse.
