Sheriff Dumps Hurt Inmate to Avoid Paying Medical Bill

SALINAS, Calif. — A suspected burglar critically injured during a Monterey County Jail attack was abruptly released from custody so the Sheriff’s Department wouldn’t have to pay for his medical expenses.

After he was attacked Tuesday by an unknown inmate, Kim Velasquez, 45, of Aromas was airlifted to San Jose Medical Center. He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Salinas on a burglary charge.

But prosecutors, at the request of the sheriff, asked Superior Court Commissioner Tim Roberts to drop Velasquez’s $60,000 bail so he could be released on his own recognizance. Roberts granted the motion.

“People’s motion on behalf of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department to release the defendant on his own recognizance to relieve them from any further hospital costs is granted,” the order said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis LaBarbera said Thursday that he’d been told that if Velasquez remained in custody, the county would have to pay for his medical expenses.

“It’s quite uncommon,” he said of the financially motivated request to release a suspect. “But then again it’s uncommon that we have someone arrested and then beaten up in the jail.”

Velasquez was described only as stable, hospital spokeswoman Miesha Hardy said Thursday. When inmates are released on their own recognizance, their medical bills are no longer covered by the Sheriff’s Department.

Hardy said the private hospital usually ends up footing the cost of unpaid out-of-county admissions, unless the patient can pay the bill himself.