# ‘She is only a transient, don’t worry about it’: California cop failed to act before woman was found in ditch, investigators say > Source: > Published: 2026-06-04 12:50:53+00:00 **Getting your** [Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...An unidentified sheriff’s deputy violated department policy by failing to respond to a request for help for [Irma Espinoza,](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/01/02/family-of-woman-found-in-lemon-grove-ditch-sues-sheriffs-office/) a 43-year-old homeless woman who died [after being left in a ditch,](https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/09/15/a-woman-was-in-a-ditch-could-the-sheriffs-office-have-saved-her-life/) even after a good Samaritan repeatedly called the Sheriff’s Office for help, an independent investigation concluded. The Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, or CLERB, which provides civilian oversight of the San Diego Sheriff’s Office and Probation Department, [said in findings](https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/clerb/meetings/2026/06-04-2026/06-04-26%20Regular%20Meeting%20Agenda.pdf) released ahead of the board’s Thursday meeting that the deputy didn’t get out of the vehicle when responding to the report of a woman needing help. Second, the deputy did not activate a body-worn camera upon arriving at the scene or when placing a phone call to the man who had called for help — both violations of Sheriff’s Office policy. Richard Quinones, who lives near Main Street and Buena Vista Avenue in Lemon Grove, first alerted the Sheriff’s Office to a woman in a ditch behind his home the morning of July 29. He had seen her two days earlier and had given her two bottles of water. When he asked her if she needed help, she responded, “Yes.” Dispatch records from July 29 show Quinones called the Sheriff’s Office’s nonemergency line to report a woman “sitting in ditch” who “has not had food or water.” “She’s been sitting here for days,” he said. A deputy was dispatched to the area but reported not being able to find the woman. Quinones told The San Diego Union-Tribune [in an interview](https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/09/15/a-woman-was-in-a-ditch-could-the-sheriffs-office-have-saved-her-life/) last year that a black-and-white SUV had arrived, but its driver quickly drove away. “Quinones called SDSO dispatch again,” CLERB’s investigation says, to confirm Espinoza’s location. According to a record of the call, he was told, “she is only a transient, don’t worry about it, your (sic) going to get more transients there.” He also received a call from the deputy who told him, according to dispatch records, “that [the female] is transient and is sitting there because she has no where else to go and such is a general condition of being transient. [The female] did not display any abnormal or notable signs except sitting outside.” Quinones didn’t see Espinoza again until Aug. 1. By that point, she was half-naked and partially submerged in water. Quinones again called the Sheriff’s Office. “Deputies and EMS personnel responded and found Espinoza in the ditch, not wearing pants, with bugs crawling on her body,” CLERB’s summary of events says. “Espinoza was transported to a nearby hospital where her condition worsened and, on 08-03-25, died.” CLERB investigators recommended the board find the deputy failed “to take appropriate action on a condition deserving police attention.” On Thursday, board members are expected to examine the evidence investigators gathered and vote on whether the evidence supports that finding. A Sheriff’s Office spokesperson declined to comment on CLERB’s findings, citing pending litigation. In January, roughly six months after Espinoza’s death, her family filed [a wrongful death lawsuit](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/01/02/family-of-woman-found-in-lemon-grove-ditch-sues-sheriffs-office/) in federal court. According to the lawsuit, negligence by the Sheriff’s Office is to blame for Espinoza’s death. If the responding deputy had gotten out of the car to properly investigate the initial call, she likely would not have died, her family says. Before she was taken to the hospital, Espinoza suffered cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated. “When she arrived at the hospital, her body temperature was 24 degrees Celsius, or about 75 degrees Fahrenheit,” the lawsuit says. She was also covered in bruises. [According to the Medical Examiner’s Office](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/12/15/autopsy-raises-new-questions-about-a-woman-at-the-center-of-a-sheriffs-investigation/), Espinoza died from complications caused by chronic alcohol use, a damaged liver and an inflamed pancreas. Environmental exposure was considered a contributing factor, and the manner of death was ruled accidental. Last month, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel largely denied San Diego County’s motion to dismiss the case, allowing its core civil rights, wrongful death and negligence claims to proceed. The CLERB meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Room 310 of the County Administrative Center at 1600 Pacific Highway. The public can address the board before it convenes in closed session to consider the Espinoza findings and several other cases under review.