Eleven Alameda County sheriff’s deputies and jail clinicians pleaded not guilty Monday to felony abuse charges in the 2021 death of Maurice Monk, who died after allegedly languishing for days inside the Santa Rita Jail with little in the way of care or attention by the jail’s staff.
The deputies’ and clinicians’ pleas came five weeks after they were each charged with a single felony count of elder or dependent adult abuse in Monk’s death, which happened amid a decade-long run of dozens of in-custody fatalities at the Santa Rita Jail.
Charged in the case were Donall Rowe, Ross Burruel, Robinderpal Hayer, Andre Gaston, Syear Osmani, Mateusz Laszuk and Christopher Haendel, all of whom remain employed with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. Former sheriff’s deputies Troy White and Thomas Mowrer also were charged, as were WellPath nurse David E. Donoho and Alameda County Behavioral Health clinician Dr. Neal Edwards.
White, Osmani and Hayer also were charged with one felony count of falsifying documents, to which they pleaded not guilty on Monday.
They all remain out of custody on $1,000 bail.
Monk, 45, was declared dead on Nov. 15, 2021, after spending days laying facedown and half-naked in his Dublin jail cell, while a pool of brown liquid oozed from beneath his body. His family later sued Alameda County and received a $7 million settlement, along with assurances that the sheriff’s office would implement new training for its deputies.
Monk had been booked into the Santa Rita Jail about a month earlier and had been held on $2,500 bail while facing a misdemeanor charge of threatening a bus driver after an argument over whether Monk should wear a face mask on the bus, court records show.
Throughout his stay — and particularly over the last several days of his life — jail security footage and records showed deputies and jail staff doing little to care for Monk, such as checking on his vital signs or ensuring he received needed medications, according to a lawsuit filed by Monk’s family after his death. Deputies repeatedly walked by him in the days before he was declared dead, with some wondering aloud “is (Monk) awake? Is he alive?”, the lawsuit claimed.
Alameda County’s now-former District Attorney Pamela Price did not release any information about the case beyond the charges themselves, and an affidavit outlining her office’s justification for seeking each arrest warrant has been sealed. Price filed the charges just days after a landslide election saw her become the first district attorney in the county’s history to be recalled from office. Her last day in office was Dec. 5.
Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez has defended her deputies while acknowledging that “mistakes were made in our handling of Mr. Monk.”