DA drops charges against Alameda County sheriff’s deputies over jail suicide
OAKLAND, Calif. - The Alameda County District Attorney has dropped charges against two sheriff's deputies, both of whom were formally accused of falsifying records regarding a suicide at Santa Rita Jail.
Dismiss charges against deputies
Deputy District Attorney Casey Bates, the head of the DA's Public Integrity Division, asked Alameda County Superior Court Judge David Pareda on Sept. 11 to dismiss the charges against Amanda Bracamontes and Sheri Baughman stemming from the April 2021 suicide of Vinetta Martin, who had hung herself with a bedsheet in her cell.
Pareda granted the dismissal.
The East Bay Times first reported the news.
In an email to KTVU on Thursday, Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson said the deputies involved in Martin's death "were not criminally liable in their duties," and as a result, the case was dismissed. No other details were given.
"Whether charged suspects are civilians or police officers, our ethical and constitutional obligations are the same," Dickson said. "If we are unable to prove a case, we are required to dismiss it. Ms. Martin's death was truly tragic, and we hold her family in our thoughts."
Return to work
Attorney Michael Rains, who represents Baughman, told KTVU that Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez told him that both deputies will be welcomed back.
He said he tried five times under former DA Pamela Price, who was ousted in a recall, to show that the deputies fell victim to a system of improper logging at Santa Rita Jail, which has now been fixed because of a legal consent decree and lawsuits.
Price denied his requests.
Rains said he asked again for the case to be looked at under Dixon, who concluded it was the system's fault, not the deputies.
"It had been impossible for the deputies to comply," Rains said.
In a statement to KTVU, Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez said that as soon as the charges were dismissed, the Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training withdrew their temporary decertification suspension, which allows them to return to work.
Sanchez said she has spoken with the deputies "to ensure they are fully aware of my expectations," and that she is "confident" that when they return to work they will "perform their duties with integrity."
8 Alameda County sheriff's deputies, medical staff no longer face Santa Rita Jail charges
Six Alameda County sheriff's deputies and two medical staff were officially freed from criminal charges on Thursday, stemming from the death of a man at Santa Rita Jail who lay languishing in his cell for days – while three other deputies remain charged with his alleged negligent care.
Two-year odyssey
The dismissal of charges caps a more-than-two-year odyssey for the two deputies, both of whom were charged in 2023 by Price with falsifying jail records.
Price, who ran a campaign to hold law enforcement more accountable, charged Baughman and Bracamontes with allegedly doctoring the logbooks to make them appear as though they followed the procedure for direct visual observation.
However, video evidence showed the deputies repeatedly failed to check on Martin for extended periods, sometimes as long as one hour and 47 minutes, contrary to their certifications, according to the Price administration.
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Negligence but no crime: DA
Like Dixon, Nancy O'Malley, the DA before Price, also chose not to charge the same two deputies with any crimes.
In December 2022, at the end of her tenure, O'Malley cleared the same two sheriff's deputies involved in Martin's suicide of any criminal wrongdoing.
O'Malley stated that even though the deputies may have been "negligent in their duties," it's clear their negligence did not rise to the level of involuntary manslaughter.
Charges vs. law enforcement dropped
This is the third time in roughly a year that charges against law enforcement have been dropped, which were originally charged by Price's prosecutors.
In 2024, a judge, and then prosecutors, subsequently dismissed charges against three Alameda police officers charged with the 2021 involuntary manslaughter of Mario Gonzalez because of prosecutorial paperwork mistakes and expert witness inconsistencies that occurred during the Price administration.
And in August, Dixon dismissed charges against six Alameda County sheriff's deputies and two medical staff in a 2021 Santa Rita jail death, where the man was languishing for days without anyone providing him meaningful welfare checks. In 2024, Price had originally charged nine deputies and two medical staff for Maurice Monk's death.
To date, three deputies remain charged for Monk's death.