Date: January 11th, 2025. Category: Government Corruption.
According to several lawsuits against Sonoma County, and other municipal governments within the County of Sonoma, law enforcement was engaged in a practice of torturing people from 2013 or prior, until 2018 or later.
This was official written policy until 2018. Incidents of egregious human rights violations since 2013 or prior, until today, have continued to be sponsored officially by the government supervisors, government legal counsel, District Attorney’s office (Carla Rodriguez), and State Attorney General’s Office (Rob Bonta).
One particular incident stood out among the rest. In 2015, a lawsuit was filed over systematic torture being committed without rational basis against inmates.
Government officials extracted inmates from their cells without valid reason, and then tortured them. The torture was videoed. But at least one of the videos was destroyed.
Here is a copy of the original federal complaint
https://theclarity.news/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Martinez-v-Sonoma-2015.pdf
“Under direct supervision of Sergeant Robledo[,] deputies […] attempted to fold [one inmate’s] legs toward his head, causing terrible distress to his right foot while they twisted his wrists.”
“Under command supervision of Lieutenant House and the direction of Sergeant Robledo[,] Deputy Panek stomped on the inmate’s already injured foot[.] Deputy Medeiros smashed his knee down on top of the inmate, crushing his head against the floor.”
The deputies “began applying further pain compliance holds[,] causing him to scream in pain[.] A fourth deputy grabbed his injured foot and began twisting it into impossible positions, causing further agony.” The event was “video recorded”.
Deputy Medeiros stated that they were “‘having fun'[.] Another masked deputy held a shotgun at the ready.”
“Blood was in [the inmate’s] stool for the next three weeks, and the inmate was plagued by profound headaches for at least two weeks after, and suffered symptoms consistent with traumatic brain injury.”
That was a small sample of one lawsuit.
There were other incidents. In 2013, Esa Wroth was tortured, by the method of repeated tasering. In 2017, Esa’s brother, Branch Wroth was tortured to death, using the same method that had been used on his brother 4 years prior: repeated tasering. Another person in custody (illegally, over a mistake on the part of law enforcement) alleged that they were tortured right under a camera, after being given conflicting instructions by officers, and complying. The County (i.e. internal affairs, and County legal counsel) then lied about the camera’s ability to record for 4 years, but refused to comply with the California Public Records Act, then changed their story to that paid camera-room staff just weren’t using the recording function when they received a federal court order for the records. However they continued to claim they weren’t able to provide credible documentation of any upgrades to the camera system since the incident, and the cameras are digital, and record continuously. A deputy admitted to applying a carotid artery chokehold, and the witnesses stated by consensus that the person in custody was “not resisting”, and was not even moving at any point throughout the incident. The County has been, and continues to be caught lying repeatedly to the federal court system, and repeatedly destroying evidence, and the federal court system has consistently allowed them to do so without consequence. Former Sheriff Mark Essick lied about the cameras’ ability to record in 2017 while he was captain of internal affairs. Current Sheriff Eddie Engram signed his name off on a coverup in 2018 when he was captain of internal affairs (i.e. acts of destruction of evidence, subornation of perjury, lying about what the witnesses said, and lying that an investigation had been conducted).
No Sonoma County employees have been disciplined over the 2015 incident described above, or for a variety of other incidents which constituted serious criminal acts.
The DA’s Office, Attorney General’s Office, and the FBI either refuse to take complaints about these incidents, or sabotage the complaint intake process.
Here is a list of names of the Sonoma County employees named in the lawsuit over conducting a torture ring:
Mazen Awad, Michael Merchen, David House, Brian Gallaway, Mario Robledo, Chad McMasters, Jason Squires, and Joseph Medeiros.
According to transparentcalifornia.com, Mazen Awad is now a captain. Michael Merchen is now the Assistant Sheriff. Brian Gallaway is still employed. Mario Robledo is still employed. Chad Mcmasters is a captain. Jason Squires is a lieutenant. Bogdan Panek is still employed. Joseph Medeiros was employed until at least 2019, but it isn’t clear because the Sheriff’s Office do not provide complete records, and routinely fail to comply with, or outright ignore Public Records Act requests.
Their salaries range from approximately $150-$239k a year, and their benefits range from approximately $69-89k a year. This does not seem to include pensions.
Sonoma County has repeatedly refused to comply with Public Records Act requests.
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