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Death at the Hands of Sonoma County Law Enforcement - Again! By Karen Saari of the Stolen Lives Project

The report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was somehow leaked to the press in mid-April, the official release has yet to be announced. Since the conclusion of the hearings over two years ago, eleven people have died at the hands of Sonoma County law enforcement. The following update seems timely.

1. Drue Harris, age 37, died at the Sonoma County Jail on February 25 , 1998 (just five days after the hearings). The sheriff 's department says that his death was a suicide and occurred after he had been in the jail for only 17 hours. Apparently, minutes before his death, Drue had a very emotional conversation with his mother about his despair. Interestingly, this despair went completely unnoticed by the jail guards. Drue was in jail awaiting arraignment.

2. Carolyn Telzow, age 47, died at jail on March 9, 1998. Carolyn was in severe pain from back surgery and jail authorities had denied her repeated pleas for methadone treatment for pain. She is said to have died at her own hand by hanging. According to her family, Carolyn was in jail awaiting arraignment on charges for shoplifting a pair of earrings.

3. The following day on March 10, 1998, Paul Rodrigues, a mentally disturbed homeless person, was shot and killed by a Petaluma police officer. Paul had set off the burglar was found holding a bicycle fork at the local homeless center at around 2 am. The officer claimed that Paul was threatening his life and he shot and killed him moments after arriving on the scene.

4. Sarah Lyndall, age 33, died in a high speed car chase in the Russian River area on May 8, 1999. She was the passenger in a car being pursued by Sonoma County sheriffs. The driver of the vehicle was tried for murder; there were no consequences of any kind for the sheriffs involved.

5. Philip Medina, age 48, died of pneumonia at a local hospital on January 7, 2000. He had been an inmate at the North County Detention Facility in Sonoma County. It is likely that appropriate medical treatment was withheld and was the cause of his death.

6. On March 19, 2000, Sonoma County sheriffs responded to a call about a man behaving strangely at the Monte Vista Motel on Santa Rosa Avenue at 4:00 a.m. James Curran, age 51, was reported to be thrashing around the motel bathroom. Sheriffs claim that to prevent him from hurting himself, they handcuffed him. An ambulance took him to a local hospital; he died one hour later. Sgt. Joe Quinn, who was present when Dustin Clark died of a severe beating from sheriffs trying to "restrain" him three and a half years before, was the lead officer.

7. On February 19, 2000, Francisco Sanchez, on parole and afraid of being sent back to prison, sped away from a CHP officer trying to make a traffic stop. After some miles he abandoned his vehicle and fled from the officer on foot. He disappeared into some bushes near the rain-swollen Russian River. His body was found six weeks later; he had drowned in the river.

8. On March 6, 2000, Audra Hynes, age 28, was killed when she lost control of her car on Highway 12. She was fleeing a CHP officer in a high-speed car chase. Another woman was seriously injured in the crash.

9. On April 10, 2000, Erin McDonald, age 31, of Windsor was shot and killed by Sonoma County sheriff's deputies. According to authorities, Erin had called 911 to report a hostage situation. When police arrived she threatened them with a toy gun. They shot and killed her within moments of their arrival. Authorities claim that Erin had lured officers to her home to kill her because whe wanted to die to escape the constant severe pain she suffered from a neurological disorder.

10. At 1:00 a.m. on May 3, 2000, Rohnert Park police received several 911 calls about a man firing weapons in a trailer park. When they arrived the shooter, Robert Camacho, age 35, left the trailer park and went across the road to a nearby field. Police ordered him to drop to the ground and show his hands. Police allege that Camacho pointed both weapons he carried at them; they opened fire and shot him. Camacho suffered a serious head wound. He was taken to a local hospital and died one day later when relatives had him removed from life support.

11. The next day, on May 4, 2000, Todd Dieterle, age 37, was shot and killed by the Santa Rosa police and an officer of the Santa Rosa Junior College Police Department. Minutes before Dieterle had held up a neighborhood grocery for a few dollar bills. When Dieterle left the store, the owner called police on his cell phone to inform them of the robbery. Two times during the call the storekeeper told the dispatcher that he believed the robber had used a plastic gun. Police soon caught up with Dieterle who is allged to have pointed the gun at the officers. When he did so, they opened fire. There are reports that Dieterle was shot nine or more times. He was taken to a local hospital where he died three hours later.

In the past five months, seven people have died at the hands of Sonoma County law enforcement. It is probable that each of these deaths was preventable. At no time has any of the police agencies involved taken any responsibility for their role in these deaths. In three of the four shooting deaths in the past two years, the victims were unarmed. In each case, the victims were demonized by the police and the press to seduce the public into thinking that they were dangerous or destructive people who got what was coming to them. Since none of these deaths has been investigated by a trustworthy, independent agency, we really do not know the true circumstances.

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