The Alameda County, California, law enforcement community was rocked by two scandals that brought criminal charges against three of its officers last week.
A probation officer was accused of sexually abusing an underage inmate at a juvenile facility years ago, and two sheriff’s deputies were accused of covering up a 2021 suicide at a county jail, according to criminal charges filed Friday.
The alleged inmate suicide cover-up happened in the same jail where an inmate died last month from drinking “a profuse amount of water,” the county sheriff’s office said.Â
The probation officer, 50-year-old Nicole Perales, was in a “position of trust” when she allegedly had oral sex with a 15-year-old inmate between Aug. 27, 2004 and Aug. 26, 2005, according to Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.Â
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The top prosecutor filed several felony criminal charges against the 20-year veteran of the probation department, who could spend nearly four years in jail and be required to register as a sex offender if she’s convicted.
The DA also charged two Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies — Sheri Baughman, 49, and Amanda Bracamontes, 30 — with allegedly falsifying records to cover up their alleged negligence in Vinetta Martin’s apparent suicide in the Santa Rita Jail in 2021.Â
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Both deputies are accused of doctoring logbooks to make it appear they followed procedure of direct visual observation of a suicidal inmate after Martin, 32, told jail staff she was planning to kill herself three weeks before her death.Â
On April 3, 2021, Martin was found “unconscious and slumped on the floor” of her jail cell, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price said in a statement Friday announcing the charges.
The logbooks didn’t line up with the video evidence, which allegedly showed the deputies “repeatedly” failing to…
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