Key details of a long-running investigation into a whistleblower complaint over alleged misconduct by Sonoma County sheriff’s officers spilled into public view this week when attorneys for the deputies union accidentally released sealed subpoenas issued by the county’s independent law enforcement watchdog.
The documents, which sought information on personnel, promotions and the disciplinary process in the years before Sheriff Eddie Engram took office, are central to an ongoing legal battle between the county watchdog, Engram and the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, which backed Engram’s campaign for sheriff.
They were sent to county supervisors Tuesday as part of a complaint against the watchdog agency, known as the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach, for allegedly harassing and intimidating deputies in a separate investigation into a 2022 fatal shooting by a deputy. The complaint was attached to a press release that also accused IOLERO Executive Director John Alden of leaking information about the whistleblower case to the news media.
“A previous version of the attachment contains court-ordered sealed materials,” a spokesman for the deputies union wrote in a follow-up email a few hours later. “The attorneys made an error in providing it and ask that you destroy the earlier attachment and use this redacted version.”
Jonathan Murphy, an attorney representing the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, did not return a request for comment.
IOLERO issued the...
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