DUBLIN, CA – The Alameda District Attorney’s Office announced last week its Public Accountability Unit’s (PAU) review of the November, 2021, Santa Rita County Jail in-custody death of Maurice Monk has led to criminal charges filed against 11 deputies and medical staffers.
The DA said seven Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputies, two former Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputies, and two medical staffers at Santa Rita are being charged.
The PAU filed felony dependent adult abuse charges against Deputy Donall Chauncey Rowe, former Deputy Thomas Mowrer, Deputy Ross O’Halloran Burruel, Deputy Robinderpal Singh Hayer, Deputy Andre Gaston, former Deputy Troy Hershel White, Deputy Syear Osmani, Deputy Mateusz Laszuk, Sergeant Christopher J. Haendel, Alameda County Behavioral Health Dr. Neal Edwards, and Wellpath Nurse David Everett Donoho.
The maximum penalty would be four years for each charge if “convicted of felony dependent adult abuse,” said the DA Office, adding Deputy Hayer, Deputy Osmani, and former Deputy White are charged with felony falsification of an official document, and each of these three faces a five-year maximum sentence if convicted of both crimes.”
The criminal complaint alleges “defendants did, under the circumstances and conditions likely to produce great bodily harm and death, knowingly and willfully cause and permit Maurice Monk, a dependent adult, to suffer, or having care and custody of said person, willfully caused and permitted him to be placed in a situation in which his health was endangered.”
Monk, the complaint added, was arrested Oct. 11, 2021, after being accused of “disorderly conduct and refusing to exit an AC Transit bus,” and “was sent to Santa Rita Jail after failing to appear on a bench warrant for a previous, unrelated misdemeanor offense on an AC Transit bus.
A month later, noted the complaint, “deputies saw he was unresponsive in his cell and was pronounced dead” on Nov. 15, 2021.
