11 sheriff's deputies and medical professionals charged in Bay Area jail death

DUBLIN, Calif. — Eleven people at the Santa Rita Jail — including Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies and medical staffers — have been charged with felonies in connection with the death of a man who was allegedly neglected for days before he died in his cell, court records show.

The victim, Maurice Monk, died after spending days in obvious medical distress in his cell, where he was facing a misdemeanor charge with a $2,500 bail. A wrongful death lawsuit filed against the county alleges that deputies coldly dropped pills and plates into Monk’s cell — as he lay face down and unresponsive on his bed — without bothering to check if he was OK.

The defendants have been identified in court records as Neal Edwards, Donall Rowe, Thomas Mowrer, Ross Burruel, Robinderpal Hayer, Andre Gaston, Troy H. White, Syear Osmani, Mateusz Laszuk, Christopher Haendel and David E. Donoho. They have not yet entered pleas. None of them appeared in the Santa Rita Jail’s online database Tuesday afternoon.

Edwards is an Alameda County Forensic Behavior Health worker, and Donoho worked for Wellpath, a for-profit health care company that specializes in jail and prison inmate care across the United States. The remainder of the defendants are current and former deputies.

The charges — much like the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office itself — face an uncertain future. District Attorney Pamela Price appears on the verge of a successful recall effort; if the election is certified, it is unknown who will replace her. Last week, Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez acknowledged “mistakes” were made in Monk’s death but condemned the decision to file criminal charges.

Osmani, White and Hayer have all been charged with one felony count of falsifying documents. Everyone else has been charged with a felony count of elder or dependent abuse, records show.

Monk died on Nov. 15, 2021, his body found face down in his cell next to a puddle of urine and some uneaten food, the wrongful death lawsuit says. His death became a flash point among activists seeking improved conditions in the jail, which now operates under a consent decree aimed at improving mental health care and conditions for inmates after several drug overdoses, suicides and killings.

The lawsuit over Monk’s death resulted in a $7 million payout to his family, through a settlement.

At the time, Monk was facing a misdemeanor charge of threatening a bus driver who asked him to wear a mask on a bus during the COVID-19 pandemic. As he lay dying in his cell, another inmate who was helping deputies distribute food allegedly asked, “Are we just waiting for him to kick the bucket?”

Messages left with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and WellPath were not immediately returned.

Shaughn Park, president of the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of Alameda County, called the charges “unprecedented” and voiced support for the deputies, as well as “hope that they get fair due process.” He also stressed that Monk died of natural causes, adding that “our sympathy goes out out his family for this unfortunate incident.”

Park also took aim at Price’s decision, so soon after last week’s recall vote.

“She’s had contempt for law enforcement her whole time in office, all the way to her campaign,” Park said. “And now that she’s been recalled, it feels like an abuse of power.”

An attorney for the deputies’ union went further Tuesday afternoon.

“It is lawfare, and all of the deputies are going to get acquitted,” said the attorney, David Mastagni.

The charges were “a long time coming,” said Adante Pointer, the attorney for Monk’s family. He specifically hailed DA Price for taking action.

“The family is elated to know that the people involved in the death of Maurice Monk are going to have a chance of being held accountable for the tragedy that they contributed to,” Pointer said. “They lost an active participant of our community, and it went without impunity until DA Price did the right thing.”

The filing of charges just days before the three-year anniversary of Monk’s death mirrored the decision by Price’s office in another criminal case involving multiple law enforcement officers.

In April, Price’s office waited until the 11th hour to file involuntary manslaughter charges against three Alameda officers in the death of Mario Gonzalez, a man who stopped breathing while Alameda police officers piled on top of him during a 2021 arrest. The decision to wait until the deadline had wide-ranging impacts, with a judge later tossing charges against two of the officers because Price’s office failed to secure arrest warrants against the men before the statute of limitations expired.

Pointer expressed confidence in Price’s office having learned from those mistakes.

“The only concern the family has at this point is whether whoever is appointed to be the successor DA is someone who is committed to holding officers accountable, as opposed to looking the other way, which is what far too many other district attorneys were comfortable doing,” he said.

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