DA to dismiss 8 deputies, medical staff from Santa Rita Jail death
Settlement in Maurice Monk death
Private healthcare provider Wellpath has paid the children of an Oakland man left for dead at Santa Rita Jail $2.5 million, in addition to Alameda County paying those same children an unprecedented $7 million.
DUBLIN, Calif. - Eight of the 11 Alameda County sheriff's deputies and medical staff originally charged in the death of an Oakland man found languishing in his Santa Rita Jail cell for days will have their cases dismissed, KTVU has learned.
Elvira Monk, the sister of Maurice Monk, told KTVU on Wednesday that a prosecutor from the district attorney's office told her they only had enough strong evidence against three of the defendants.
She said she couldn't recall the names of those whose cases will be dismissed, but she said the two medical staffers would no longer be part of the case.
What's next:
A formal dismissal hearing is scheduled for Thursday in the courtroom of Alameda County Superior Court Judge David Pereda.
"I'm hurt," Elvira Monk said, adding that she is also glad that at least some people were being held accountable for her brother's November 2021 death.
She did say that prosecutors told her that the three defendants still being charged had seen Monk at least 40 times in the days leading up to his death and that they had a "strong" case against those three.
The original people charged in the case were: Deputies Donall Chauncy Rowe, Thomas Mowrer, Ross Burruel, Robinderpal Singh Hayer, Andre Gaston, Troy Hershel White, Syear Osmani, Mateusz Laszuk and Christopher Haendel as well as Wellpath nurse David Everett Donoho and Alameda County Forensic Behavioral Health Dr. Neal Edwards were all charged with dependent adult abuse and neglect.
Hayer, White and Osmani were also charged with falsifying documents.
Former District Attorney Pamela Price had charged all 11 in 2024 as one of her platforms for prosecuting police.
The backstory:
Monk had gone to Santa Rita Jail after missing a court appearance in October 2021 for making a threatening statement four months earlier to an AC Transit bus driver during COVID.
He had schizoaffective disorder and refused to wear a mask.
He was taken into custody on Oct. 11, after his public defender had argued unsuccessfully to let him be released, as his family couldn't afford the bail.
Monk was discovered dead in his cell on Nov. 15, 2021.
Body camera video obtained exclusively by KTVU shows that deputies and Wellpath nurses had opened the door to his cell for several days before that, but never physically entered the room or asked him if he was OK, despite his nearly catatonic state. Wellpath is a private healthcare provider contracted with Santa Rita.
He suffered from hypertensive disorder, diabetes and schizophrenia, which his sisters had tried to get him medication for in jail. But they faced bureaucratic red tape in getting him his prescriptions until it was too late.
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9 deputies, 2 medical staff charged with Santa Rita Jail death of Oakland man
The outgoing Alameda County District Attorney on Tuesday charged nine sheriff's deputies and two medical employees with the death of an Oakland man who had been languishing in his Santa Rita Jail cell for days before anyone noticed he was no longer alive.
The body camera video shows Monk had been lying there prone, half naked with a pool of urine at the foot of his bed, for days.
In fact, he had been there so long that the ink imprint of his jail shirt had stained his chest. Stacks of uneaten food trays and pills lay scattered on the floor.
An internal sheriff's investigation found that some deputies forged the wellness check timelines and failed to identify plenty of signs that Monk had been in medical distress, according to Monk's wrongful death lawsuit.
In June, Wellpath paid Monk's family $2.5 million, in addition to Alameda County paying his children an unprecedented $7 million.
In addition to that, Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez also made changes to welfare checks and how they're conducted. The jail also now has electronic key cards showing deputies' whereabouts, instead of handwritten logs.
Wellpath focus of activists
Monk's death also spurred action against Wellpath, which is currently the focus of jail reform activists who want the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to end its five-year, $250- million contract with the company in 2027 and turn to county-run medical care instead.
An independent consultant hired by the county found Wellpath is not providing the national standard of care, and paid Alameda County $2.1 million in 2024 for falling short of its contract in terms of providing adequate staffing to the jail.
The national standard in hospitals for care and service is between 90% and 95% compliance.
The audit, presented last month to a committee of supervisors, found that Wellpath has not reached that level in any of the key areas in 2025, such as tracking serious health problems, where it got 12%; providing general patient care, where it got 42%; providing chronic care like diabetes and high blood pressure, where it got 83%; or medical-legal, where it got 6%.
Cole Casey, senior vice president of operations of Wellpath, spoke at that meeting, disputing some of the auditor's data and methodology.
Ty Clarke, one of the attorneys who represents the Monk family, said he thinks getting rid of Wellpath is the right thing to do.
"I think for-profit healthcare in prisons just doesn't work in prisons and jails," he said. "It doesn't work anywhere in society, but it particularly doesn't work in jails."