OAKLAND — Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson plans to dismiss charges against 8 of the 11 people prosecuted in the death of Maurice Monk, who died in 2021 after languishing for days in his Santa Rita Jail cell, Monk’s sister said Wednesday.
The decision — which is expected to be finalized at a court hearing Thursday morning — marks the latest instance of Jones Dickson scaling back the work of her predecessor, Pamela Price. The former district attorney filed the case just days after the November 2024 election, when voters recalled the civil rights attorney-turned-prosecutor from office.
Monk’s sister, Elvira Monk, said she was notified by Jones Dickson’s office Wednesday of the decision to dismiss cases against eight of the 11 sheriff’s deputies and jail medical staff charged in her brother’s death, citing insufficient evidence against the men. The decision came on what would have been Monk’s 49th birthday, leaving Elvira Monk feeling “bittersweet.”
“I feel it’s wrong — I feel more people should be charged, but blessed that somebody is being charged,” Elvira Monk told this news organization. “More than three people interacted with that man within a certain amount of days for all of this to happen. But I can’t complain, because at least three people are still being charged.”
“It’s been a hard fight,” she added. “But we are still fighting, that’s the good thing.”
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the development Wednesday.
Charged in the case were Alameda County sheriff’s deputies Donall Rowe, Ross Burruel, Robinderpal Hayer, Andre Gaston, Syear Osmani, Mateusz Laszuk and Christopher Haendel. Former sheriff’s deputies Troy White and Thomas Mowrer also were charged, as were WellPath nurse David E. Donoho and Alameda County Behavioral Health clinician Dr. Neal Edwards. All of them faced a single felony count of elder or dependent adult abuse. 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 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.
Monk had been held in Santa Rita Jail on $2,500 bail on a misdemeanor charge of threatening a bus driver after an argument over whether Monk should wear a face mask on the bus, court records show.
Throughout his month-long stay — and particularly over the last several days of his life — jail security footage and records showed deputies and jail staff doing little to care for Monk, such as checking on his vital signs or ensuring he received needed medications, according to his family’s lawsuit. Deputies repeatedly walked by him in the days before he was declared dead, with some wondering aloud “is (Monk) awake? Is he alive?,” the lawsuit claimed.
Barely a week after the November 2024 election — in the span between when voters cast their ballots to recall Price, and her last official day in early December — Price made the bombshell announcement that she would charge 11 people in Monk’s death.
It was not immediately clear which of the 11 defendants would remain charged in the case. Elvira Monk said she had been told that one of the people still facing charges had interacted with Monk at least 40 times in the lead-up to his death.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.