County settles lawsuit over former sheriff's deputy Ebell for just under $50K

The County of Ventura will pay just shy of $50,000 to settle a lawsuit over the actions of Tyler Ebell, the former sheriff’s deputy who lost his job after an affair with a woman who had been locked up in the jail where he worked.

Nastaza Schmidt of Ventura sued Ebell and the county a little over a year ago, claiming federal civil rights violations. She accused Ebell of sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress, and said he coerced her into a relationship by promising to help her with her criminal charges. Her lawsuit claimed that after Ebell helped bail her out of jail, he stalked and harassed her and pressured her into having an abortion when she became pregnant.

Schmidt was joined in the lawsuit by another woman who said Ebell sexually harassed her while she was on probation. The two women also accused the county of negligence in hiring, training and supervising Ebell.

The county provided a copy of the settlement agreement to The Star in response to a public records request. In the agreement, the county denied any wrongdoing. The county's lead attorney, Tiffany North, declined to comment, and Ebell did not reply to a message requesting an interview.

The exact amount of the settlement is $49,999. Legal settlements of $50,000 or more must be approved by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and listed on a publicly released board agenda, while the county’s attorneys and executives can enter into smaller settlements on their own.

Ebell is not a party to the settlement and it does not call for him to make any payments, but it does release him from liability. Ron Bamieh, the attorney for Schmidt and the other plaintiff, said it's typical in a case like this for the county to only settle if its employee is released from liability.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office moved to fire Ebell in December 2022, and Ebell resigned before the order could be finalized. An internal affairs investigation concluded, in the words of his letter of dismissal, that Ebell “committed repeated acts of serious misconduct and grossly violated the foundation principles of a law enforcement officer.”

As detailed in a June 2023 article in The Star, the investigation found that Ebell put money into Schmidt's jail account; gave her grandparents cash to help pay her bail; snuck food, books and jewelry into the jail for her; used law enforcement databases to look up information on her and her friends; ignored evidence of her criminal activity; threatened to beat up her ex-boyfriend; and physically injured her on one occasion.

Schmidt died on Feb. 28, 2023, at the age of 34, more than a year after her relationship with Ebell ended. She was found that morning on the front lawn of a home in Thousand Oaks; sheriff’s detectives said she had been running away from a nearby self-storage facility after she and two men were caught trying to burglarize one of the units.

Schmidt had “a level of methamphetamine considered lethal” in her system when she died, according to the medical examiner's autopsy report. The investigator concluded that she died of “probable cardiac arrest, possibly related to drug use and over stimulation from fleeing a crime scene.”

"The tragedy of her death, and frankly of her life, weighs heavily on those who knew her and loved her," Bamieh said. "The lawsuit is rather minor compared to the loss of a life."

Schmidt and the other woman filed the lawsuit anonymously, under the names “Ms. S” and “Ms. P.” The Star does not usually identify alleged victims of sexual harassment or assault, but after her death, Schmidt’s identity was confirmed by multiple sources, including her mother, Cecilia Grigsby.

Grigsby took over Schmidt’s role as plaintiff after Schmidt died. She said she will give any proceeds from the settlement to Schmidt’s son.

"I have really bad feelings about all of it," Grigsby said. "Everybody got their money except for my grandson. It's f---in' sad."

Grigsby signed the settlement agreement two weeks ago and said she regrets it already.

"When it's presented to you that it's going to get thrown out of court, you sign," she said. "I've gone through all this, and I couldn't go through any more. There's just so much trauma."

Bamieh said the settlement is small for a case with such serious allegations because of Schmidt's death. If she were alive, he said, "this matter would have been worth millions." But as it turned out, Bamieh said his firm will end up losing money on the case.

Schmidt's death was a problem for the lawsuit because damages for things like pain and suffering and emotional distress can only be awarded to the person who suffered them, not to their heirs. And Bamieh said Schmidt would have been the most important witness if the case had gone to trial and was the only person who could have testified about most of her interactions with Ebell.

"Without Nastaza Schmidt being alive the admissibility of all that evidence is, at best, questionable," he said.

Compounding that difficulty is the fact that another potential witness, Schmidt's fiancé, is also dead. Ryan Cooper was the then-ex-boyfriend whom Ebell allegedly threatened. He and Schmidt got back together and became engaged in 2022.

Cooper was killed in a motorcycle crash in August 2022. According to the California Highway Patrol, he was driving his Kawasaki Ninja on Highway 150, west of Lake Casitas, when he crossed into oncoming traffic and was hit by an SUV.

"Our two main witnesses ... both died tragically in the middle of the case," Bamieh said. "If either had lived, we could have gone forward."

In a statement to The Star, Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said there is "no place in our agency for employee misconduct," and he is proud of the sheriff's deputies who blew the whistle when they became aware of Ebell's relationship with someone who had recently been in county jail.

The investigation that led to Ebell's dismissal began after two off-duty deputies recognized Ebell and Schmidt together at a restaurant in Ventura and immediately reported it to Ebell's supervisor.

“Public safety and public trust mean everything to me, and like me, this belief is ingrained in every member of the Sheriff’s Office," Fryhoff's statement said. "While the incident involving Mr. Ebell is highly unfortunate, I will always hold employees answerable when they fall short and continue to provide fair, transparent, and accountable policing here in Ventura County.”

Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation's Fund to Support Local Journalism.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: County settles over former sheriff's deputy Ebell for less than $50K