Alameda County's District Attorney dropped charges against six current or former sheriff's deputies and two medical clinicians connected to Maurice Monk's 2021 death in a Santa Rita Jail cell. The charges had been filed nine months earlier by Pamela Price days after the November 2024 election; Price was later recalled. The District Attorney concluded evidence could not support prosecutions against most defendants while indicating the office would continue to pursue justice. Three deputies — Donall Rowe, Robinderpal Hayer and Thomas Mowrer — remain charged. Defendants faced felony counts of elder or dependent adult abuse and some falsifying-documents charges. Monk's family received a $7 million settlement and training assurances.
OAKLAND Alameda County's top prosecutor on Thursday dropped charges against six current and former Alameda County sheriff's deputies and two medical clinicians in the death of Maurice Monk, who died his Santa Rita Jail cell in 2021. District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson decided to drop the charges nine months after her predecessor former civil rights attorney Pamela Price filed the case in a bombshell announcement just days after the November 2024 election, during which Price was recalled from office.
Speaking in court Thursday, prosecutor Mark Bennett said that charges against most of the people charged by Price cannot be supported by the evidence. He added that the announcement was not meant to signal that people involved in his death were free from fault or mistake, but said his office couldn't prove the cases against them in court. Bennett added that Jones Dickson's office would continue to vigorously pursue justice in Monk's death.
Monk, 45, was declared dead on Nov. 15, 2021, after languishing for days while he lay facedown 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 Alameda County Sheriff's Office would implement new training for its deputies.
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