Former Sonoma Deputy Indicted for Fatal 2019 Confrontation With Car-Theft Suspect

Updated 12:15 p.m. Friday

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A former Sonoma County sheriff's deputy has been indicted in connection with a fatal confrontation last year in which he slammed the head of a disabled man into a car door frame.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat first reported Thursday that ex-Deputy Charles Blount surrendered at the Sonoma County Jail on Monday evening in response to an arrest warrant. Blount posted $50,000 bail and was released within an hour, according to a sheriff's spokesman.

A grand jury indictment unsealed Friday morning charges Blount with involuntary manslaughter and assault by a public officer, both felonies. Each charge includes an additional allegation that Blount personally inflicted great bodily harm.

Some observers welcomed news that Blount would face criminal charges, which comes almost a year after 52-year-old David Ward died after a brutal struggle with deputies.

"It's about time that something has happened to hold people accountable for the killing of David Ward," said Jerry Threet, a police accountability lawyer and former director of an independent law enforcement oversight office in Sonoma County.

Ward led deputies and Sebastopol police on a 5-mile car chase on Nov. 27, 2019 after an officer spotted him driving a suspected stolen vehicle. Deputies would later realize the vehicle belonged to Ward, who had recently recovered it.

Ward stopped at a dead end in the community of Bloomfield and was approached by deputies in an encounter captured on body camera video. Deputies Blount and Jason Little can be heard shouting commands to Ward, who was still seated in his vehicle. He raised and lowered his hands, then lowered his window.

When the driver's side door wouldn't open, Blount grabbed Ward and tried to pull him out through the window, but Ward's legs were pinned under the steering wheel and he howled in pain. Blount and Little both said Ward was biting them during the struggle.

Blount then grabbed Ward by the hair and twice slammed his head into the car's door frame, as Little fired a Taser. Blount put Ward in a neck hold through the driver's side window, and Ward appears to lose consciousness. He stopped breathing after being removed from the passenger side of the car and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Ward's death was ruled a homicide caused by cardiorespiratory collapse, blunt impact injuries, neck restraint, use of a Taser and a "physical confrontation with law enforcement," according to summary coroner's findings released in May. The coroner also found that Ward was under the influence of methamphetamine, had a history of chronic substance abuse, other chronic health issues and mental illness.

"This is ghastly, what happened to David, who was not entirely innocent in this episode, but he certainly didn't deserve to die," said Izaak Schwaiger, a former Sonoma County prosecutor and now civil attorney who is representing Ward's mother. "It is very disturbing."

Blount's attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick announced last December he was moving to fire Blount and released video of the incident. However, Blount retired in February and has presumably been collecting a pension since then, according to a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of his mother.

The Sheriff's Office had no direct comment on the criminal charges.

"We respect the independent criminal process," a sheriff's spokesman wrote in an emailed response. "We have nothing further."

A criminal investigation conducted by the Santa Rosa Police Department was completed in May, and a charging decision in the case has since rested with District Attorney Jill Ravitch.

Prosecutors in California can choose to directly file charges, which happens in the vast majority of cases, or to present potential criminal charges to the grand jury, which decides in secret whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed with a criminal charge.

In a statement issued Friday, Ravitch said that "criminal grand juries are not unprecedented in Sonoma County"

"In fact, they are frequently convened across the state, and in light of the obstacles presented with Covid-19, and the public safety issues in this case, we felt it made sense to submit this evidence to the grand jury for their consideration," Ravitch said.

The use of criminal grand juries in cases of killings by law enforcement has come under scrutiny across the nation, including in Missouri following the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, and more recently, in Kentucky following the slaying of Breonna Taylor.

"There is a certain amount of political cover that is available to an elected official by proceeding this way," said Schwaiger, the civil attorney representing Ward's mother.

Prosecutors could have pursued a far more serious charge against Blount, police accountability attorney Threet said.

"I think there is evidence to support a charge of second-degree murder," Threet said, under the doctrine of implied malice. The lawyer said the evidence showed that while the deputy may not have intended to kill Ward, his actions were intentional and there was a high risk that those actions could result in death.

"Deputy Blount clearly intended to choke out Mr. Ward and to beat his head viciously on the door frame of his own car," Threet said. "That gives you the elements of second-degree murder."

Blount is scheduled for arraignment in Sonoma County Superior Court on Nov. 12.