SACRAMENTO, CA – The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the firing of a sheriff’s deputy following an incident where he “(shoved) a 71-year-old woman to the ground last year,” reported in the Sacramento Bee.
The woman’s attorney, longtime civil rights lawyer Mark Merin, charged, “There has to be training, there has to be staff accountability and they have to look at people who are in custody as human beings, who need care and help and not mistreatment.”
The Bee referenced the incident video, which was released in February, showing former deputy Matthew Guirich “forcefully pushing the woman out the front door of the Sacramento County Main Jail.”
Following the commotion, Guirich was placed on administrative leave, and then fired on March 14, as stated by spokesperson Sgt. Amar Gandhi of the SC Sheriff’s Office.
The October 2024 video, the Bee explained, showed Sacramento deputies speaking to the victim, Ourania Thimmhardy. She was being released from jail after being held for two days.
The Bee wrote that the video showed the incident escalated when Thimmhardy “asked questions and refused to sign a form without clarification” before leaving the jail. This led to deputies “physically escorting her out the building,” pushing her forward out the door.
Attorney Merin is representing Thimmhardy in the lawsuit against the county, reported the Bee, and told the newspaper the victim is no longer able to “climb stairs,” and, because of her injuries, she needs the “assistance of care workers.”
While Thimmhardy was completing her three-month residential hospital recovery, Merin said “her husband suffered a heart attack and died.” Her recovery prevented her from spending her husband’s final moments with him, Merin noted.
Merin, the Bee wrote, added that this act calls for “accountability, potential criminal charges and ‘major changes’ in the jail. Time has run out for the need to make substantial changes in the way the county deals with jail inmates from the top down.”
