Sonoma County is cleared of wrongdoing in the fentanyl overdose death of a jail inmate.
Amber Marcotte died in her cell at the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility in October of 2020. On Thursday, a federal jury deliberated for two hours, then found the county and then-Sheriff Mark Essick not liable in the civil rights lawsuit.
Marcotte’s family claimed the Sheriff’s Office failed to keep drugs out of the facility. The trial, held in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, lasted eight days.
