OAKLAND — Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson’s office quietly dropped its case against two sheriff’s deputies, both of whom were accused of lying about how often they checked on a mentally unstable inmate in the hours before her suicide at the Santa Rita Jail.
The leader of Jones Dickson’s Public Integrity Division asked a judge on Sept. 11 to dismiss the cases against Amanda Bracamontes and Sheri Baughman, who were each charged with falsifying jail records related to the 2021 hanging death of Vinetta Martin. The request by prosecutor Casey Bates was made in the “interest of justice,” and it was granted by Alameda County Superior Court Judge David Pareda, court records show.
The move by Jones Dickson marks the latest in a string of dismissals sought by the new district attorney involving cases filed by her recalled predecessor, Pamela Price. They include charges against six current and former sheriff’s deputies, two medical clinicians, an East Bay metal recycler and multiple home and automotive insurance companies.
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The latest decision drew a rebuke by an American Civil Liberties Union spokesman, who said the organization was “deeply disappointed” in the growing trend.
“We’re deeply alarmed by the decision by DA Jones Dickson that seems to take us back to the days when law enforcement faced no accountability whatsoever for their misconduct, and potentially criminal conduct,” said Yoel Haile, director of the criminal law & immigration project at the ACLU of Northern California.
In a statement, Jones Dickson called Martin’s death “truly tragic,” yet stressed the deputies “were not criminally liable in their duties.”
“Whether charged suspects are civilians or police officers, our ethical and constitutional obligations are the same,” Jones Dickson said in her statement. “If we are unable to prove a case, we are required to dismiss it.”
The charges stemmed from Martin’s death on April 3, 2021, when deputies found her hanging in a jail cell shortly after midnight.
By that point, Martin had been held at the jail on an assault charge for nine months, while awaiting transfer to a state hospital amid concerns about her mental competency, and her ability to aid in her own defense. While in county jail, she was classified as an inmate with behavioral health needs, and placed in a cell with no bunkmates “due to her mental health history and behavioral instability,” according to court records.
Her mental state appeared to deteriorate at the jail. Three weeks before her death, Martin was moved into a “safety cell” after warning jail staff that she planned to die by suicide by “bashing her head on the cell walls and floor,” the records show.
The placement didn’t last long. At some point over the next few weeks, the jail’s staff returned Martin to her previous cell, according to court records.
In building their case, prosecutors zeroed in on deputies’ actions in the hours ahead of Martin’s death. At the time — even after being moved back to her former cell — Martin was classified as a “special management inmate.” That meant she needed “direct visual observation” by the jail’s staff every 30 minutes, according to court records.
Jail surveillance footage, however, suggested deputies allegedly broke that requirement at least four times that night, including when no one checked on Martin during the hour and 18 minutes leading up to when she was found unconscious, court documents show.
An attorney for Baughman called the two women “very conscientious deputies,” who have been “very highly thought of in this department.” The attorney, Michael Rains, added that they were made to be “scapegoats” for a jail that was poorly staffed and in need of reforms, which have since been implemented.
“That was the regrettable result of understaffing and really an absolutely nonsensical requirement of these checks, without regard to the staffing problems that were going on,” Rains said.
The case against Bracamontes and Baughman ranked among several brought by a unit formed by former District Attorney Pamela Price, following campaign promises to increase pressure on law enforcement officers accused of misdeeds. After her 2022 election victory, Price created the Public Accountability Unit and announced the re-examination of several fatal police shootings and in-custody deaths, including Martin’s.
The unit faced numerous setbacks ahead of Price’s recall election in November 2024. A judge dismissed charges against two of the three city of Alameda police officers prosecuted in the 2021 death of Mario Gonzalez, after finding that prosecutors waited too long to file the charges in violation of the statute of limitations. Prosecutors later dropped their case against the lone remaining officer, after concerns arose about a key witness.
Multiple judges also kicked Price’s office off at least two other cases handled by the unit, amid concerns about bias. In all, the unit won convictions against just two of the nearly two-dozen people known to have been prosecuted by it.
After her appointment by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, Jones Dickson reorganized the unit by swapping out its lineup of prosecutors, renaming it the Public Integrity Division and shifting its focus to include grand jury proceedings, officer-involved shootings and media relations.
Last month, Jones Dickson’s office dismissed charges against eight of the 11 Santa Rita Jail staff members charged in the death of Maurice Monk, who died in 2021 after languishing for days in his cell. The move — made after a prosecutor said the charges “cannot be supported by the evidence” — drew an immediate rebuke from Price, who complained that the county “no longer has police accountability.”
On Tuesday, Haile echoed that criticism.
“Ms. Martin should not have died while waiting for mental health treatment,” Haile said. “She deserved better, and the people of Alameda County deserve accountability from law enforcement.”
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at [email protected].