Last Updated on May 20, 2025 by BVN
Overview: A Grand Jury report has revealed that Riverside County’s Larry D. Smith jail facility could have prevented the death of 24-year-old James Dennis Hirt on Christmas Day 2024, had staff followed established policies and procedures. The report also highlights issues with the county’s jail facilities, including a lack of adequate medical and mental health staff, which had previously been identified in a 2013 federal lawsuit. Meanwhile, Riverside County’s controversial sheriff, Chad Bianco, faces criticism for his management of county jails and faces a Civil Rights Pattern or Practice investigation by the Department of Justice.
S.E. Williams
24-year-old James Dennis Hirt died in Riverside County’s Larry D. Smith jail facility on Christmas Day 2024.
A newly published Riverside County Grand Jury investigation into Hirt’s death revealed it could have been prevented had the staff (under Bianco’s leadership) at the county’s Robert Presley Detention Facility followed established policies and procedures.
The Grand Jury report further includes a quote given to a local reporter by Riverside’s Trump-loving Sheriff, Chad Bianco, explaining his perception of the quality of service provided by his department at the county’s jail facilities.
“We do an industry-leading fantastic job in our corrections division and are not responsible for any of these deaths,” he proclaimed.
Yet, a 2023 Black Voice News (BVN) investigation into a spike in county jail deaths that occurred in Riverside County jails in 2022, found issues related to those deaths similar to issues revealed in a 2013 federal lawsuit that forced Riverside County to improve the care of those held at local jails as well as during its in-take procedures and other processes.
In 2023, a decade after a court-monitored settlement in the case, the jails in Riverside County had yet to meet all requirements defined under the ongoing consent decree (an agreement with the plaintiffs) in the lawsuit. At the time of BVN’s report, the county had complied with only 13 of the roughly 80 provisions detailed in the consent decree.
“A bad boss brings losses and problems to his organization.”
Bill Courtney
Although the court no longer monitors the 13 items in compliance, the 67 other provisions in the decree, including things like sustaining an adequate medical and mental health staff to care for people in custody and effectively evaluating and housing people with the most severe mental health problems remained in dispute.
The county’s controversial sheriff, aspiring Republican candidate for CA governor, and Trump Mini-me, Chad Biance now faces another barrage of unwelcome but well deserved criticism, regarding failures in his management of county jails, stemming from the public release of the Grand Jury Report earlier this month.
This follows other bad news Bianco received a bit later in March, when he learned Vem Miller, the man he apparently falsely arrested and accused of an assssination attempt on his idol, Donald Trump, had filed suit against the county. The arrest occurred during a Trump rally in Coachella Valley in October 2024.
In the lawsuit, Miller insists Bianco fabricated the claims against him in an attempt to make himself a “MAGA hero” by saving his idol from an alleged third assassination attempt.
The suit also highlights that even though Bianco was advised by both the FBI and the Secret Service that Miller was not a threat, Bianco continued to push the line that his department had prevented an assassination attempt. Miller referred to Bianco’s proclamations against him as delusional and false. To me they appear as deliberate lies–a deliberate grabbing of national headlines for a future Republican candidate for CA governor. What a way to grab national attention and set the table to fundraising.
Bianco’s rhetoric against Miller is also the type of self-promoting hyperbolic rhetoric county residents have come to expect from this “Fox and Friends Friendly” sheriff.
In the meantime, Bianco and the sheriff’s department he leads remains under a Civil Rights Pattern or Practice. In the closing days of February 2023, CA Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the investigation. According to the Department of Justice website, it typically takes 12 to 18 months for this type of investigation to complete. The website also states, however, “But every investigation is different, and we must follow the facts and law where they lead us.”
As Bianco prepares to make his run for governor. It is important that those who oppose him prepare as well in advance as possible to advocate against him. Make sure you are registered to vote. Next year, make sure you vote. Do your due diligence. Educate yourself about who this man is and what he has and hasn’t done on behalf of the people of this county and educate those around you.
Remember, if America can elect a Donald Trump, unless we start early and work to prevent it, it is not impossible for California to elect a Chad Bianco…Remember Ronald Regan? Until Donald Trump he was one of the worst Presidents in modern history for the Black man. But, before he ran for President, Californians elected him twice as governor. Before that, he was an actor. As they say, in America, anything is possible.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.
