By Vanguard Staff
OAKLAND, Calif. — Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones-Dickson announced Thursday that her office has dropped criminal charges against six county deputies and two medical clinicians in connection with the 2021 death of Maurice Monk at Santa Rita Jail, narrowing the prosecutions to three deputies who will still face trial.
Monk, 45, died on Nov. 15, 2021, after lying face down and unresponsive in his cell for at least three days before anyone entered to check on him. His death has since become a symbol of neglect and indifference inside Santa Rita Jail, drawing national outrage and placing a spotlight on both the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and Wellpath, the private health care company contracted to provide medical services at the jail.
The family of Monk, represented by civil rights attorney Adanté Pointer, issued a statement expressing disappointment in the DA’s decision. “The family of Maurice Monk is disappointed in this decision. It has been nearly four years since Mr. Monk’s deteriorating medical condition was ignored, causing his death, when all that the guards and the jail’s medical contractors needed to do was their jobs, and to consider Mr. Monk as someone whose life was valuable,” the family said.
The statement continued, “Santa Rita’s guards and the medical staff from Wellpath all failed to do that, and in their ability to even view Mr. Monk as a human who was suffering. The family looks forward to obtaining justice against the three remaining guards who still face criminal trials for their roles in Mr. Monk’s untimely death.”
In her statement, DA Jones-Dickson said that she launched a comprehensive review of the evidence after taking office. “When I was appointed to this position, I ordered a full evaluation of the evidence related to the in-custody death of Maurice Monk. This review included witness statements, body-worn cameras of the deputies involved, medical records, the reports of the pathologists on the time and cause of death, as well as the policies and procedures that control the Santa Rita Jail. What we found was very disturbing,” she said.
Jones-Dickson emphasized that the central question was whether each of the 11 defendants initially charged could be held criminally culpable. “After a comprehensive review of all the evidence, we have determined that the answer to that question is yes, as to three defendants: Deputy Donall Rowe, Deputy Thomas Mowrer, and Deputy Robin Hayer,” she said. “The DA’s office will vigorously pursue justice on behalf of Mr. Monk and his family as we prosecute this case.”
The decision comes amid ongoing legal and political battles over accountability for Monk’s death. Earlier this month, Wellpath agreed to pay $2.5 million to the Monk family to settle a federal civil-rights lawsuit, bringing the total public and private payouts in the case to $9.5 million. In 2023, Alameda County separately reached a $7 million settlement with the family and pledged reforms to improve monitoring of people in custody.
The civil case revealed disturbing details of the days leading up to Monk’s death. Body-worn camera footage and staff reports, released through litigation, showed that deputies and medical staff walked past his cell while he lay half-naked, face down on his bunk, surrounded by urine and other fluids. Meal trays and medication cups piled up untouched. Some staff dismissed the scene as “Monk being Monk,” with others speculating the liquid beneath his bunk was spilled milk. Despite his history of diabetes and schizoaffective disorder, no one intervened to provide meaningful aid.
Pointer, who has represented Monk’s children throughout the litigation, previously called Monk’s death “a moral failure and a policy failure,” pointing to systemic indifference inside Santa Rita Jail. Civil rights attorney Ty Clarke, who also worked with the family, said in 2023, “There is simply no excuse for any medical professionals, no matter the setting, to neglect their primary duties and their Hippocratic oath. Maurice Monk’s children will receive some justice for the needless death of their father. But no amount of money can account for the preventable suffering he endured.”
Santa Rita Jail has long been the subject of lawsuits and investigations over in-custody deaths, mental health practices, and alleged neglect. Advocates argue that Monk’s case illustrates a broader crisis of privatized health care and systemic failures in jail oversight. Wellpath, formerly Correct Care Solutions, has faced hundreds of lawsuits nationwide for inadequate care in jails and prisons. Its $250 million contract with Alameda County is set to expire in 2027, and activists have urged county leaders not to renew it.
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