By Esther Frances
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
REIDSVILLE, N.C. — Two detention officers from the Rockingham County jail were charged with felony assault after an altercation earlier in the month sent a 71-year-old male inmate to a nearby hospital with significant injuries.
Officers Jonathan Montanez-Figueroa and Damion Matthew Gage Brown were both arrested on March 19 and charged with one count of felony assault inflicting serious bodily injury.
After the incident, the inmate was taken to a hospital and treated, then was returned to the Rockingham County Detention Center. It is unclear what caused the inmate’s injury.
Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, a Republican running for state Senate, called on the State Bureau of Investigation to look into the incident. The officers were initially suspended without pay as the state investigation was ongoing, The News & Observer reported.
The two officers were arrested after SBI finished its investigation. Capt. Jonathan Cheek, the commander of the criminal investigations division of the sheriff’s office as well as its public information officer, told The N&O that both officers were terminated on March 19, the same day they were arrested.
Montanez-Figueroa and Brown’s bail was set at $250,000 each. Both were held at the Caswell County jail, and both posted bond and were released.
The two cases are assigned to the Rockingham County District Court.
According to online court records, a disposition hearing for Montanez-Figueroa was scheduled for April 21 but was canceled. A disposition hearing for Brown is scheduled for April 8 .
Indigent Defense Services was appointed by the court to represent Montanez-Figueroa and Brown. IDS communications specialist Amanda Bunch said the organization does not comment on specific cases as a general rule.
Page has faced scrutiny in the past over the county jail, including the loss of its insurance coverage in 2024 after more than 10 people died there.
Cheek told The N&O on March 17 that the jail has taken steps to mitigate these issues, and that the jail is bound by state procedures and “follows those to a ‘T.’”
“If they are found to violate the law in any way, shape or form, or violate policy, we handle that appropriately,” Cheek said. “If they break the law, they’re no different from any other citizen out there.”
Page was first elected sheriff in 1998. He defeated longtime Senate leader Phil Berger in the Republican primary election.
A separate SBI investigation into Page’s handling of vending-machine revenue is still ongoing.
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