A California woman filed a lawsuit against the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department and several deputies who beat her as she awaited a CT scan in the emergency room in San Leandro, California. The lawsuit was filed on Feb. 1.
According to the lawsuit, Malia Ashad was in attendance at a court hearing at the Alameda County Superior Court on Aug. 9, 2022, when a woman Ashad had a restraining order against attacked her and “repeatedly hit Ashad in the head and face with a cellphone” and her fist. Ashad grabbed the woman’s hair in an attempt to defend herself and stop the assault before sheriff’s deputies intervened.
Ashad was initially relieved that two deputies, Ryan Connolly and Collin Lenahan, stepped in to “rescue” her, but they handcuffed her instead and caused her to hit her head on a table and “temporarily lose consciousness” as she “lay lifeless on the floor, bleeding from her head and wrists,” he complaint reads.
One of her attorneys, Angel Alexander, told the Sacramento Bee that Ashad’s “relief quickly turned into confusion and panic” when she was treated as an assailant instead of the victim. One of the deputies is heard yelling on his bodycam video, “I swear to f—king God” as he detained Ashad.
“During their initial contact with Ms. Ashad, Sheriff’s Deputies hit her twice in the head
causing Ms. Ashad to fall and strike her head on a table, seize and temporarily lose consciousness,” her attorneys wrote.
Deputy Matthew Simon reportedly made no attempt to help Ashad and performed a pat down search as she lay bleeding on the floor, she says. The claim further alleges that another deputy, Sgt. Ruth Jones, later told Ashad she was under arrest for assault despite the woman who attacked Ashad admitting that she beat her. However, after the paramedics arrived on the scene, they said Ashad needed to go to the ER.
Ashad was taken to the emergency room at the Kaiser Permanente San Leandro Medical Center, and the on-staff ER physician determined that she needed a CT scan to rule out brain damage. However, Jones, who is named in the lawsuit, objected and overruled the physician and “ordered Ms. Ashad to be removed from the hospital” without a CT scan being taken, the attorneys state.
“You’re not taking her to CT,” said Jones. “We just need her cleared for incarceration.”
Ashad was shackled to the bed and began to protest after being told she needed a CT scan but would not be treated. Deputy Robinderpal Hayer then grabbed Ashad “by the throat and viciously” pinned her to the hospital bed while Lenahan “savagely punched” her in the head, “causing her to lose consciousness once again,” Ashad says.
After Ashad regained consciousness, Lenahan punched her again “in an apparent fit of rage” as she tried to remove her legs from his grip while she was put into a wheelchair. The hit knocked over the wheelchair and sent Ashad onto the floor, where her head was hit again. One of the deputies is heard on his bodycam screaming, “Don’t you dare!”
Lenahan put his foot on her back despite her losing consciousness again, and she was transported to the Santa Rita Jail.
“Instead of working to ensure she got the medical care she deserved and was entitled to, the male deputies attacked Ms. Ashad again by punching her in the head, grabbing her by the throat and slamming her onto the hospital bed, causing her to lose consciousness a second time,” reads the lawsuit. ” At the end of the ordeal, Ms. Ashad was left in debilitating head and body pain with lacerations on her wrists, and a boot imprint on her back! Perhaps, most significantly: she was taken to jail without receiving a CT scan.”
Ryan Connolly, Collin Lenahan, Robinderpal Hayer, Ruth Jones and Matthew Simon, are all named in the lawsuit with the Alameda Sheriff’s Department.
“The level of callousness, brutality and arrogance these deputies displayed is stunning even by their standards,” said Alexander.
“These roguish, thuggish deputies choke-slammed Ashad while she was handcuffed in a hospital bed,” said another attorney, Adante Pointer to KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco. “We will not rest until Ms. Ashad receives the justice.”
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office released a statement claiming that the video does not depict the entire story.
“The released clips are a limited and skewed depiction of the incident and do not represent the totality of what occurred. Beyond stating that the complainant received appropriate medical treatment during that incident, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office must reserve further comment on a lawsuit for which we have not received service.”
