By Jakob Rodgers
Bay Area News Group
ALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif. — An Alameda County criminal grand jury indicted three current and former Alameda County sheriff’s deputies in the 2021 jail cell death of Maurice Monk, marking an unusual twist in prosecutions that began more than a year ago.
The grand jury’s findings — delivered on Nov. 7, yet only announced by Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson on Tuesday after an arraignment hearing — mirror the charges previously filed against Robinderpal Singh Hayer, Thomas Mower, and Donall Rowe.
The three men all worked at the Santa Rita Jail four years ago when Monk was pulled unconscious from his cell after having languished alone for days. Monk was later declared dead, heightening scrutiny of a jail where dozens of people had died over the previous decade amid complaints of inadequate care.
Hayer, Mower and Rowe each still face a single count of felony dependent elder abuse, Jones Dickson said in a press release. Hayer also continues to face a single count of falsification of an official document, a felony.
It is uncommon for a district attorney in Alameda County to seek a grand jury indictment against someone already criminally charged, legal observers said Tuesday.
Doing so eliminates the need for a preliminary hearing, during which a judge rules on whether enough evidence exists to send the case to trial. Such hearings are open to the public and resemble miniature trials, in that defendants’ attorneys can cross-examine witnesses.
Grand jury proceedings are vastly different — taking place in secret, with prosecutors presenting evidence and questioning witnesses without any ability for defendants’ attorneys to challenge their narratives. As a result, such proceedings are often viewed as delivering results that can be more favorable to prosecutors, said LaDoris Cordell , a retired Santa Clara County Judge and former San Jose Independent Police Auditor.
“The question is, why would the DA not want to go to prelim to prove the case?” said Cordell, adding that it suggests “the prosecutor has opted not for transparency, but for secrecy.”
Mower’s attorney, Alison Berry Wilkinson, called the district attorney’s move “strange” and “disturbing.” She recalled being told by prosecutors that the indictment was sought to hasten the case to trial — despite the fact that their preliminary hearing was scheduled for Jan. 13.
“We were not moving slowly,” Wilkinson said. “It’s perplexing — it certainly caught us by surprise.”
An Alameda County District Attorney’s Office spokesman declined to comment.
The strategy of seeking a grand jury indictment in an ongoing criminal prosecution is uncommon, but not unheard of. In San Mateo County, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe secured an indictment against Chunli Zhao , a migrant worker who had been charged in 2023 in the shooting deaths of seven people during a rampage at two Half Moon Bay mushroom farms. He later justified the move by suggesting “the victims’ families deserve to have this move along.”
The criminal case over Monk’s death has taken numerous turns over the last year.
Hayer, Mower and Rowe were originally among 11 people criminally charged in the incident. The cases were filed in November 2024 during the waning days of former District Attorney Pamela Price’s tenure, between when voters had cast their ballots to recall her from office and when local election officials could certify the election’s results.
Price’s successor, Ursula Jones Dickson, later dismissed the cases against eight of those people — six current and former sheriff’s deputies, and two medical clinicians — claiming her office didn’t have enough evidence to take the cases to trial.
The mass dismissals fit an emerging pattern by Jones Dickson of dismissing charges filed by her predecessor. The latest instance came Friday, when her office convinced a judge to toss the case against Jason Fletcher, a former San Leandro police officer charged with manslaughter in the 2020 death of Steven Taylor.
Earlier this year, Jones Dickson’s office also ended the prosecutions of two sheriff’s deputies accused of falsifying jail records in the 2021 hanging death of Vinetta Martin.
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.
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.
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.
His family later received a $7 million in a settlement with Alameda County — along with assurances that the sheriff’s office would implement new training for its deputies — and another $2.5 million from the health care company.
Attempts by this news outlet Tuesday to reach the attorneys for Hayer and Rowewere not successful.
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