Sonoma County Sheriff watchdog: 2 deputies left department after excessive force complaints

The first annual report by Sonoma County's year-old independent law enforcement watchdog outlines complaints of excessive force and misconduct by sworn deputies at the Sheriff's Office.

Released Monday night, the report outlines 37 investigations into complaints of deputy conduct from Jan. 1, 2016 through July 31 this year. Of the investigations 18 were for the use of excessive force, two of which led to the termination of the two deputies involved.

“My biggest takeaway is that there's a positive trend with the Sheriff's Office,” said Jerry Threet, director of the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach, who wrote the report. “On the law enforcement side, my audits show that their deputies follow policy and when policies are not followed they identify problems internally and address them.”

The report will be presented to the Board of Supervisors at a September meeting.

While the annual report outlines the number and nature of the complaints, state law prohibits the release of peace officer records, even in cases when wrongdoing has been found.

Because of this, all substantive details into investigations are confidential and can't be released by Threet or the Sheriff's Office.

One of the deputies no longer on the force is likely Scott Thorne, who faced felony assault charges for a Sept. 24, 2016 incident in Sonoma Valley where he fired a stun gun at a suspect who was laying in bed and then struck him with a baton. Citing the state law, neither Threet nor Sheriff Rob Giordano would confirm whether one of the two deputies mentioned in the report was Thorne.

IOLERO, which started in April 2016, recommends policy changes, audits investigations of deputy misconduct and creates forums for community feedback through the Community Advisory Council.

Threet, an attorney, reviews complaints from multiple sources. Of the 37 investigations, 13 complaints were filed directly to IOLERO, 17 were filed with the Sheriff's Office, three were filed with both agencies and four were initiated with supervisors in the Sheriff's Office.

Over the course of IOLERO's first 18 months, 28 audits of the Sheriff's Office's 37 investigations were completed. In four instances, Threet disagreed with the findings of a misconduct investigation at the Sheriff's Office.

The substance of the disagreements is confidential, but in two cases Threet found the investigations failed to address the original allegations. In another, he disagreed with policy over statute of limitations that limited disciplinary action.

The other nine audits remain to be completed.

Giordano said there's been a learning curve for both agencies to effectively cooperate, but he welcomes the report and the oversight.

“Overall it's gone well,” Giordano said. “The outside perspective gives us a better understanding of the effectiveness of our policies.”

Threet also found that even as the number of contacts, or interactions, between deputies and civilians has hit a nine-year high of 106,859 in 2016, the incidents of deputies using force has decreased. In 2016, 3.39 percent of arrests involved the use of force, while in 2013 5.54 percent of arrests involved use of force.

Threet attributes the decrease to better training, including “real life” scenarios and de-escalation tactics in the wake of the 2013 Andy Lopez shooting when a deputy shot and killed a 13-year-old boy carrying an airsoft BB gun resembling an AK-47.

One of Threet's complaints was that during reviews of misconduct investigations at the Sonoma County Jail, he has been given only summaries of witness interviews while receiving complete audio of interviews on the law enforcement side. The lack of access limited the depth of his audits, he said in an interview.

Giordano said he will address the issue and try to give Threet the information he needs.

“That's a great example of one of the values of this report,” Giordano said. “We'll get to the bottom of quality control and fix that problem.”

You can reach Staff Writer Nick Rahaim at 707-521-5203 or nick.rahaim@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nrahaim.

Editor's note: This article and headline have been updated to reflect that is unclear whether the two deputies who no longer work for the sheriff's office were fired or resigned.