{"id":5726,"date":"2026-07-28T22:37:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T22:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5726"},"modified":"2026-07-28T22:37:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T22:37:57","slug":"judge-tosses-most-charges-in-death-of-maurice-monk-at-santa-rita-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5726","title":{"rendered":"Judge tosses most charges in death of Maurice Monk at Santa Rita Jail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Alameda County judge dismissed most remaining charges against three past and present<\/i><\/b>sheriff\u2019s deputies indicted in the 2021 jailhouse death of Maurice Monk, who laid motionless for days in a Santa Rita Jail cell while allegedly receiving little \u2014 if any \u2014 care.<\/p>\n

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Superior Court Judge Clifford Blakely tossed every felony charge of dependent adult abuse against the three remaining defendants in the case: Robinderpal Singh Hayer, Thomas Mowrer, and Donall Rowe. The move came after a legal challenge by the deputies\u2019 attorneys claiming prosecutors erred in presenting their case to a grand jury last year, as part of an uncommon legal maneuver.<\/p>\n

The ruling, which was delivered during a hearing Friday, leaves only one deputy still charged in a case that originally included 11 defendants and was brought just days after voters opted to recall former District Attorney Pamela Price. The only charge remaniing accuses Hayer of falsification of official document by an officer.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s subsequent district attorney, Ursula Jones Dickson, later dropped charges against eight of those original 11 defendants \u2014 six of them past and present sheriff\u2019s deputies, one of them WellPath nurse and another an Alameda County Behavioral Health clinician. That move kicked off a monthslong string of high-profile dismissals in cases brought by two of Jones Dickson\u2019s predecessors that targeted law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n

Jones Dickson\u2019s office issued a statement Friday calling the ruling \u201cdisappointing,\u201d adding that \u201cwe respect the rule of law and the court\u2019s decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Hayer\u2019s attorney said the dismissed count \u201cshould never have been brought in the first place,\u201d and signaled plans to fight the remaining charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case has always been nothing more than political virtue signaling,\u201d said the attorney, Paul Goyette.<\/p>\n

Rowe\u2019s attorney, Joshua Olander, said he agreed with the ruling but declined to comment further. Mowrer\u2019s attorney, Alison Berry Wilkinson, also declined to comment.<\/p>\n

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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 as trash and uneaten food accumulated on the floor around him.<\/p>\n

At the time, Monk had been held in the 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.<\/p>\n

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Throughout his month-long stay at the jail \u2014 and particularly over the last several days of his life \u2014 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\u2019s lawsuit. Deputies repeatedly walked by him in the days before he was declared dead, with some wondering aloud \u201cis (Monk) awake? Is he alive?,\u201d the lawsuit claimed.<\/p>\n

His family later received a $7 million in a settlement with Alameda County \u2014 along with assurances that the sheriff\u2019s office would implement new training for its deputies \u2014 and another $2.5 million from a health care company.<\/p>\n

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The case against the three remaining deputies took an unusual turn in late 2025 when Jones Dickson opted to seek indictments against the men from a grand jury. Such proceedings take place in secret, with prosecutors presenting evidence and questioning witnesses without any ability for defendants\u2019 attorneys to challenge their narratives.<\/p>\n

In doing so, prosecutors bypassed the need for a preliminary hearing, during which a judge rules on whether enough evidence exists to send the case to trial after a hearing that\u2019s open to the public.<\/p>\n

In a flurry of recent court filings, the three deputies\u2019 attorneys argued that prosecutors erred when making their case to the grand jury.<\/p>\n

The attorneys said prosecutors wrongly asserted that Monk qualified as a \u201cdependent adult\u201d \u2014 a key element of the felony charge that all three men faced \u2014 due solely to his status as a jail inmate. The attorneys instead argued the statute under which the deputies were charged \u201cwas not designed with incarcerated persons in mind,\u201d according to court filings ahead of Friday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

An attorney for Monk\u2019s family lamented the decision Tuesday, saying it \u201cleaves the community begging the question as to whether or not there\u2019s any real hope that officers who offend, violate and harm our community ever have a chance of being held accountable.\u201d He also questioned how the case could unravel so thoroughly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn law school, law students are taught on their way to becoming lawyers that a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich by way of a grand jury,\u201d said the attorney, Adante Pointer. \u201cSo it begs the question as to whether the prosecutor\u2019s heart was really in the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The ruling leaves only one charge standing against a single deputy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nJudge tosses most charges in death of Maurice Monk at Santa Rita Jail - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5726\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge tosses most charges in death of Maurice Monk at Santa Rita Jail - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ruling leaves only one charge standing against a single deputy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5726\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-28T22:37:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5726#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5726\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Judge tosses most charges in death of Maurice Monk at Santa Rita Jail\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-28T22:37:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5726\"},\"wordCount\":867,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5726#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/aac5916342abdaf6a108d53348aaed11-scaled.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5726#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5726\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5726\",\"name\":\"Judge tosses most charges in death of Maurice Monk at Santa Rita Jail - 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