‘An animal in a pen at the zoo’: Father of two ignored by jailers, nurses who quipped and joked about him as he lay dying in a pool of his urine and feces, lawsuit says

Maurice Monk, inset, died in custody in a California jail and his family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. (Images from body camera video from the jail via the lawyers for the family)

Maurice Monk, inset, died in custody in the beleaguered Santa Rita Jail in California, pictured, and his family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. (Images from jail body camera video via Monk’s family lawyers)

An inmate died on his bunk in a California jail in a pool of his urine and feces as jailers and nurses ignored his medical distress and threw food and medications into his cell “like he was an animal in a pen at the zoo,” a lawsuit alleges.

Maurice Monk, 45, suffered a “slow, torturous death” at the hands of several Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies and medical staff while he was held for 34 days in 2021 at the beleaguered Santa Rita Jail, his family’s lawyers said. The jail is 40 miles east of San Francisco.

“The jail’s neglect stole Maurice from us,” Monk’s sister, Elvira Monk, said in a statement through the attorneys. “If not for their utter neglect, my brother would still be here today to go to his son’s upcoming high school graduation, hug his daughter and play with his nieces and nephews.”

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