Alameda County DA charges mentally ill man in wheelchair with battery on an officer for allegedly spitting on deputy inside jail

DUBLIN — Alameda County prosecutors filed two misdemeanor battery charges against a 40-year-old man for allegedly spitting on a deputy during a cell transfer inside Santa Rita Jail, court records show.

The man was charged Sept. 15 with two misdemeanor counts of battery on a police officer. Court records say he spat on a deputy’s uniform after objecting to being transferred to a different module inside the jail’s behavioral health center.

The 40-year-old man was in jail in lieu of $5,000 bail, after an Aug. 17 arrest for a misdemeanor battery charge. His attorney has already declared a doubt about his mental competency and set an October hearing for a judge to evaluate whether both prosecutions can proceed.

Mentally ill defendants in criminal cases who are being bars — either because they can’t afford bail or a judge won’t set bail — face a swath of hurdles to finding treatment in California, including a statewide lack of beds by the Department of State Hospitals. It has led to a massive backlog, and sanctions against the DSH, that often keeps people in jail for months after they’ve been found mentally unfit for trial.

The Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, too, has been criticized for its lack of mental healthcare. Last February, in the face of a federal lawsuit, the jail entered into a federal consent decree that required it to improve mental healthcare and stop using “punitive” measures, like isolation or a revocation of outdoor time.