Deputies in court to face felony abuse accusations
East Bay officer choked prisoner, prosecutors say
One of four Alameda County sheriff ’s deputies charged with felonies in an inmate abuse case choked a prisoner unconscious, prosecutors said Tuesday.
A criminal complaint filed against the deputies states that an inmate at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin alleged that Deputy Erik McDermott entered his cell while he was sleeping and “assaulted him by placing pressure around his neck until he was unconscious.”
It was one of several accusations that led the Alameda County district attorney’s office to charge McDermott and fellow Deputy Justin Linn with assault under color of authority, witness intimidation and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Former Deputy Stephen Sarcos and Deputy Sarah Krause were each charged with felony assault under the color of authority, officials said.
The deputies made their first court appearance Tuesday at the East County Hall of Justice in Dublin, where a judge postponed the case to Monday, when the defendants may enter a plea. Efforts to reach their attorneys were not immediately successful.
Prosecutors requested that Linn’s bail be raised to $340,000 and McDermott’s to $320,000. The court raised the amount but gave the deputies, who are out of custody, until the next court date to post bail, said district attorney’s office spokeswoman Teresa Drenick.
Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the sheriff ’s office, said Tuesday, “We feel that we’ve done a thorough and complete investigation up to this point. The district attorney has taken that investigation and charged these four defendants as a result of our case.”
In court papers, sheriff ’s investigator Deputy Patrick Smyth detailed a series of abuse allegations that dated back to June 2016, when an inmate was allegedly choked unconscious. One inmate first alerted a staff member about mistreatment on Nov. 20, 2016, the sheriff ’s office said.
The office launched its investigation in January, officials said, and interviewed more than 40 people. Sarcos resigned following the nine-month probe, while Krause, Linn and McDermott were placed on administrative leave.
According to Smyth, a witness told jail staff in a note that Linn and McDermott had allowed an inmate to exit his cell without restraints — which is against protocol — and spray shampoo bottles of urine and feces on other prisoners, including one who was mentally ill. The act is known a gassing.
After the investigation began, Linn and McDermott pulled another inmate aside to tell him the person who initially reported the abuse was “snitching,” Smyth wrote. They purportedly asked the inmate to “take the word” to others in the jail.
In two gassing incidents from September 2016, the sheriff ’s office said, inmates reported being locked in their cells and sprayed with feces. The inmate who sprayed them later told investigators that Sarcos and Krause helped him by unlocking the door to the cells, the complaint states.
Sheriff Gregory Ahern said in a statement following the deputies’ arrests last Thursday that the alleged acts were “egregious and shocking.”
The deputies were released from custody within a day. Linn and McDermott each posted $135,000 bail before it was reset Tuesday. Sarcos and Krause posted $35,000 bail.