Just 53% of jail staff have agreed to get vaccinated
Defendant tied to sale of 6 firearms
Just 53% of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office jail staff have been vaccinated against COVID-19, in part because of ongoing hesitancy to get the shots, according to county officials.
As of late last week, 538 of the 1,023 deputies assigned to the custody bureau — which is responsible for staffing county jails — have been vaccinated, according to data obtained by this news organization. Overall, 1,215 of the office’s 2,035 total employees, or about 60%, have been vaccinated.
Those numbers may not reflect employees who went to private providers and have not yet notified the office, spokesperson Deputy Russell Davis said.
Despite educational workshops and town halls aimed at raising the totals, many deputies remain skeptical of the vaccines’ side effects and the technology used to develop it, among other concerns, said County Executive Jeff Smith. A deputies union spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
“We’re disappointed,” Smith said of the most recent numbers. “We’re doing some training, and trying to answer questions, to encourage people to get vaccinated.”
News of deputies’ refusal to receive the vaccine first surfaced in a county Public Safety and Justice Committee meeting in early February, when word that nearly 800 employees had declined the shots left supervisors reeling. In an update to the committee last week, Director of Custody Health Services Dr. Eureka Daye said that a well-attended question-and-answer session with a county health official helped to convince more deputies.
The county also operates a separate vaccination line for emergency service workers, known as the XSC Vaccine Clinic, at the mass Santa Clara County Fairgrounds site, with the goal of easing access, Smith said. Sworn personnel first became eligible in mid-January, with civilian staffers following in late February.
“Hopefully, we’re going to get more staff that are open to vaccinations — and we’ve had a slew come forward wishing to get vaccinated,” Daye told the committee.
Still, the dozens of unvaccinated correctional officers and other jail staff put incarcerated people at risk, said Santa Clara County Public Defender Molly O’Neal. All but a handful of her office’s more than 100 attorneys have been vaccinated.
Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 232 Sheriff’s Office employees and 584 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, including three deputies and one inmate who currently have the virus, according to the office’s dashboard. The largest outbreak occurred in mid-January, when the department counted 127 active cases among inmates.
Davis could not provide exact numbers of how many jail staffers are working unvaccinated but noted that those who have not provided proof of vaccination are mandated to do daily rapid testing.
“I don’t understand the anti-vaxxers, but that aside, I believe the sheriff’s department should move any deputies who refuse to be vaccinated out of the custodial facilities,” O’Neal said. “We need the deputies vaccinated … so that when people are booked in from the outside they’re not exposed to COVID-(19)-positive deputies prior to vaccination at booking, or between first and second shots, or until the person is fully vaccinated.”
The San Jose Police Department also has reported lower vaccination rates than expected, with just 59% of sworn officers having received their shots as of late February. In comparison, 588 of 677 — or about 87% — of the San Jose Fire Department personnel, including emergency medical technicians and paramedics, have gotten vaccinated.
A man who prosecutors say was caught illegally selling six guns during the course of an 18-month investigation into an “open-air drug market” on Makin Road was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison, court records show.
Darrell Murphy Jr. was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Yvonne
Gonzalez Rogers. Prosecutors asked for Murphy to receive four years, and the defense argued for a 30-month sentence.
In 2018, when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted an investigation into blatant drug and gun sales on Makin Road in Oakland, Murphy was recorded selling the six guns in four separate transactions. He netted $5,250 for the sales, prosecutors said. The guns were among 34 firearms bought by a confidential federal informant during the investigation.
Murphy’s attorney argued that his traumatic past — including coping with the slaying of two close relatives — should be taken into account during his sentencing. The defense also argued that Murphy’s life got off track because of an addiction to gambling in sidewalk dice games. Support letters by family members describe Murphy as a loving father who wants to be “a real estate agent or a sports physician.”
“Darrell may have made a mistake, but I know that my son will learn from his mistake … and make better decisions in life,” his mother wrote in one letter.
Murphy’s sentence is on the low end compared with what others have received; last year, two men linked to drug and gun sales were sentenced to five and 10 years in prison in connection with the same case. During the ATF’s 18-month investigation, it not only used confidential informants to set up controlled buys but installed cameras on nearby telephone poles, which captured men “working in shifts” to sell drugs and guns during all hours of the day, prosecutors said.