DUBLIN — Ten of the 11 Alameda County sheriff’s deputies and jail clinicians charged in the 2021 death of Maurice Monk have turned themselves in to authorities, Santa Rita Jail records show.
All of the men booked at the Santa Rita Jail — the site of Monk’s death three years ago, amid a decade-long run of in-custody fatalities that numbered in dozens — have since been released from custody after posting $1,000 bail, the county’s online jail registry showed Friday morning, according to sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Roberto Morales.
The only defendant whose status remained unclear Friday afternoon was Troy H. White, a former sheriff’s deputy who was fired by the sheriff’s office, and whose state law enforcement certification was temporarily suspended in August 2023 by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. In an email Friday afternoon, Morales said White “is aware of the charges and agreed to cooperate with the process,” but that he had not been booked at Santa Rita Jail.
White and the 10 other defendants have all been charged with a single felony count of elder or dependent adult abuse. They include deputies Donall Rowe, Ross Burruel, Robinderpal Hayer, Andre Gaston, Syear Osmani, Mateusz Laszuk and Christopher Haendel. Also charged are former deputy Thomas Mowrer, as well as WellPath nurse David E. Donoho and Alameda County Behavioral Health clinician Dr. Neal Edwards.
White, Osmani and Hayer also were charged with one felony count of falsifying documents.
Monk, 45, was declared dead on Nov. 15, 2021, after languishing for days while he lay facedown and half-naked in his Dublin jail cell, a pool of brown liquid oozing from beneath his body. His family later sued Alameda County and received a $7 million settlement along with assurances that the sheriff’s office would implement new training for its deputies.
All of the current deputies have since been placed on administrative leave, according to Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez, who has defended her deputies while acknowledging that “mistakes were made in our handling of Mr. Monk.”
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price had not released any information about the case beyond the charges themselves as of Friday morning, including any affidavits outlining her office’s justification for seeking each arrest warrant.
Her office filed an amended complaint Thursday that alleged each of the felony abuse charges fell under a statute allowing prosecutors to file charges within five years of the alleged crimes — more than the typical three-year timeline for most felonies in California.
Price’s office has previously seen cases crumble after failing to file charges within the statute of limitations. Last month, a judge dismissed the cases against two of the three Alameda police officers charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 death of Mario Gonzalez, who stopped breathing while officers piled on top of him during an arrest. In that instance, the judge found Price’s office failed to secure the necessary arrest warrants for the men before the three-year anniversary of Gonzalez’s death.
Price also vowed changes last month after more than 1,000 cases at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in downtown Oakland appeared languish past the state’s one-year statute of limitations for misdemeanor cases.
The decision by Price’s office to file charges in Monk’s death came just days after a landslide election that saw Price become the first district attorney in the county’s history to be recalled from office. The Associated Press called the election on Monday evening, with the recall measure leading by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, with roughly 430,000 votes counted.
