Alameda County sheriff’s deputies have been temporarily laid off following murder charges at the Santa Rita Jail

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(LR) Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs Andre Gaston, Mateusz Laszuk, Robinderpal Singh Hayer, Thomas Mowrer, Donall Rowe and Christopher Haendel appear in court for the first time after being charged in the death of Maurice Monk at the Santa Rita Jail . November 18, 2024.

OAKLAND, Calif. – Nine Alameda County sheriff’s deputies are now on the state’s police decertification list after the district attorney charged them in the death of an Oakland man who lay dying in his cell for days until his body was found amid a pile of bodily fluids and food scraps trays.

Ross O. Burruel, Andre Gaston, Christopher J. Haendel, Robinderpal Hayer, Mateusz Laszuk, Thomas Mowrer, Syear Osmani, Donnal Rowe and Troy Herschel White were all temporarily suspended by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training on November 21. The official reason is pending criminal proceedings for unlawful acts.

White is the only deputy who was placed on the list much earlier, in August 2023, after he was accused of physical abuse and excessive force in a matter unrelated to Santa Rita Prison.

Mower and White no longer work for the sheriff’s office.

According to POST spokeswoman Meagan Poulos, the deputies have already been placed on paid administrative leave and whether they will continue to be paid during their temporary suspension is up to the agency. A representative from the sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a question about whether the officers were still being paid.

The designation means deputies cannot “exercise the powers of a peace officer” until the suspension is lifted. They can still be employed, but not as peace officers.

The temporary suspension is contingent on the outcome of the criminal charges, which in this case stem from the death of Maurice Monk on November 15, 2021.

On Nov. 13, outgoing District Attorney Pamela Price charged the nine deputies and two medical staff members with criminal abuse and neglect of adults. Three of the 11 people were also charged with forgery, which is also a felony.

The defendants have already appeared in court for the first time but have not yet entered a plea.

Her next court date is scheduled for December 16.

Last month, Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez told KTVU in an email that she was “deeply disappointed in District Attorney Price’s decision to file charges as I do not believe they are warranted. I will continue to support our employees throughout this challenging process.”

KTVU first reported the circumstances of Monk’s death after obtaining exclusive prison body camera video that shows no one has physically examined the 45-year-old man lying half-naked on his bunk for at least three, possibly four days.

And when officers finally found Monk’s body, stacks of trays filled with uneaten food and pills lay scattered on the floor, next to an oblong puddle of urine at the foot of his bed.

When officers finally opened the door to Monk’s cell and entered, they discovered that he had been lying motionless on his bunk for so long that the red “Alameda County” print on the front of his prison-issued T-shirt had stained his chest According to an internal sheriff’s report, he mixed with fluids that had leaked from his body.

After a month in the Santa Rita prison, Monk was officially declared dead because he suffered from hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

But deputies’ accounts and a review of more than 150 body camera videos obtained as part of a civil lawsuit show that Monk was likely dead or dying several days earlier.

Last year, Monk’s daughter and son won $7 million – an unprecedented sum from the sheriff’s office.