Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price appears set on filing criminal charges against seven Alameda County sheriff’s deputies in the death of Maurice Monk, who died in the Santa Rita Jail after languishing for days without care or direly needed medication, according to a memo obtained by this newspaper.
Price called Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez on Friday afternoon and detailed her plans for the criminal charges, according to a memo that was subsequently sent by the sheriff to her staff. The memo, which was obtained by this newspaper, did not name any of the deputies or suggest what possible charges they could face.
The development comes just days after early ballot returns showed Price on the path to being the first district attorney in the county’s history to be recalled from office. With nearly 297,000 ballots counted Friday evening, the unprecedented recall measure was passing by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. She is expected to remain on the job until the results are certified, county leaders say.
No arrests had been made as of early Friday evening, according to Sgt. Roberto Morales, a sheriff’s spokesman who confirmed the authenticity of the memo.
In her memo, Sanchez defended the deputies.
“I must acknowledge mistakes were made in our handling of Mr. Monk; however, those mistakes do not rise to the threshold of criminal negligence,” said Sanchez, in her memo. “I am very disappointed with Price’s decision to pursue charges in this case, as I believe they are not warranted. I will continue to support our staff through this challenging process.”
Price’s office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The move comes nearly three years to the day after Monk, 45, was declared dead after being found face-down in his cell next to a puddle of urine and uneaten food on the floor, according to a lawsuit filed by his family that resulted in a $7 million settlement with the county.
His death on Nov. 15, 2021, became a flashpoint among activists seeking improved conditions in the jail, where scores of people have died over the past decade from drug overdoses, suicides and killings.
Monk had been booked into the Santa Rita Jail barely more than a month earlier and had been held on $2,500 bail while facing a misdemeanor charge of threatening a bus driver. Police arrested him after an argument over whether he should wear a face mask on a bus, court records show.
Yet jail security footage showed deputies doing little — if anything — to care for Monk, particularly during the last week and a half of his life, according to the family’s lawsuit.
Routinely, deputies threw Monk’s medication into the cell as he lay motionless and face-down on his mattress, the lawsuit said. And deputies repeatedly walked by him in the days before he was declared dead, with some wondering aloud “is (Monk) awake? Is he alive?” the family’s lawsuit claimed. In one instance, an inmate who helped distribute meals in the jail asked deputies, “Are we just waiting for him to kick the bucket?”
All the while, deputies allegedly looked past food that had been left uneaten for days in the door’s entryway, as well as a pool of brown liquid that had gathered around Monk as he laid face-down on a mattress, the lawsuit said.
Monk likely died long before deputies checked for his pulse, the lawsuit claimed. When they finally dragged his stiff body out of the cell, his mattress appeared stained by his jail uniform, the lawsuit said.
An internal affairs investigation later found that at least three deputies were found to have violated numerous policies, according to the family’s lawsuit. In numerous instances, deputies appeared to forge or falsify records detailing how often they had checked on Monk’s well-being, the lawsuit claimed.
Monk’s sister, Elvira Monk, told this newspaper that she called the jail’s staff 10 to 15 times and begged them to ensure Monk got his medications. The jail’s staff does not appear to have made any attempt to give him his necessary shot of Halidol, which was used to treat his schizophrenia, the family claimed.
“It could have been avoided,” said another sister, Tiffany Monk, 34.
David Mastagni, the attorney for the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of Alameda County, implored residents not to rush to judgment.
“Everybody’s entitled to due process,” Mastagni said. “Wait and see and let the truth surface. The truth always does surface.”
The statute of limitations in most felonies is three years — a deadline that played a key role in other charges that Price’s office pursued against law enforcement officers earlier this year.
In April, her office charged three Alameda police officers with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Mario Gonzalez, who stopped breathing as the officers piled on top of him while trying to make an arrest. Two of those cases were dismissed, however, after a judge ruled that Price’s office failed to seek the proper paperwork — in this case, an arrest warrant — before the statute of limitations expired.
Check back for updates to this developing story.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at [email protected].
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