Case 3:18-cv-00050-JD Document 17-11 Filed 01/31/18 Page 1 of 6

LAW OFFICES OF YOLANDA HUANG

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YOLANDA HUANG, SBN 104543
2 475 14th Street, Suite 500
Oakland, CA 94612
3 Telephone: (510) 329-2140
Facsimile: (510) 580-9410
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5 DENNIS CUNNINGHAM, SBN 112910
115A Bartlett St.
6 San Francisco, CA 94110
7 Telephone: 415-285-8091
Facsimile: 415-285-8092
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Attorneys for Plaintiffs
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10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
11 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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13 JACLYN MOHRBACHER, ERIN ELLIS,
DOMINIQUE JACKSON, CHRISTINA
No. 3:18-cv-00050
14 ZEPEDA, ALEXIS WAH, AND KELSEY
ERWIN, on behalf of themselves and others
15 similarly situated,
DECLARATION OF JACLYN
16 Plaintiffs, MOHRBACHER IN SUPPORT OF
PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR A
17 vs. PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION
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19 ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, et
al.,
20 Defendants.
21 I, JACLYN MOHRBACHER, declare:
22 1. I am one of the named plaintiffs in this case. I make this declaration of my own knowledge and
23 if asked to testify, I can and will testify as stated herein.
24 2. I am currently incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail. I entered into Santa Rita at the beginning of
25 November, and I was already pregnant. The pregnancy test administered by the jail confirmed

26 my pregnancy.
3. I am unaware of any “care plan” that Santa Rita has developed for my pregnancy. The only care
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I receive that is different than what the treatment of the other women prisoners, is that my vital
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signs are monitored three times day, including every day at 2 a.m. This means they wake me up
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every night at 2 am to take my blood pressure. The only other difference is that I am provided
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with 8 ounces of milk with meals and receive a snack with another 8 ounces of milk. Breakfast
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is at 3:30 or 4 a.m., and if I am unable to get up to go to breakfast, which is most days, then I
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must endure 18-19 hours of no food from dinner to lunch. Lunch is usually a peanut butter and
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jelly sandwich with either an apple or a cookie. The snack is the same as lunch. Dinner is rice
5 or pasta with beans and some mushy vegetable, and a few slices of bread. Everyone gets the
6 same food except that we get 8 ounces of milk.
7 4. Despite the rules of how pregnant women are to be treated, the Alameda Sheriff does not comply
8 with these rules. None of the women receive three (3) hours of outdoor recreation per week.
9 And women are denied the use of the real yard, but are left only a small concrete yard, that is

10 completely fenced in. The only portion open to the outside is the ceiling, but all other sides are
concrete or look into a jail hallway. And even then, we are only provided access to this small
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concrete yard, once every two weeks. During the entire time I was in Santa Rita, I only received
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two pregnancy walks. The only exception to this was one week, when there was a nice deputy
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assigned to our housing unit, who took all of us out to the big yard. But when she was
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reassigned, that benefit ended too.
15 5. I am housed with the other women, and it seems that not only must I undergo what the regular
16 women prisoners are forced to endure, but we pregnant women are treated worse. We are more
17 frequently placed into solitary confinement.
18 6. The regular treatment is very arduous, and difficult for someone who is pregnant. When I have
19 to go to court, the process begins at 4 a.m. First we must wait in several rounds of ice cold

20 concrete holding cells with no seating or inadequate sealing. No one gets extra clothing and I
only have a jumpsuit and a tee shirt to wear. All of us, including those of us who are pregnant
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are required to stand for long periods of time in the crowded and cold holding cells. In the first
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holding cell there are no seats. In the second holding cell there is space for maybe 5 to 8 people.
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We all take turns sitting. There are always three times the number of people as seats. So, most
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of the time, if I cannot stand, I have to sit or lie down on the cold, hard concrete floor.
25 7. In Santa Rita, the men are always processed first. Returning from court, often women prisoners
26 are not returned from court to the jail often until 4 or 5 p.m.. Once we return to the jail, we then
27 have to wait in another series of filthy, cold holding cells often until 8 p.m. Court days are 16 to
28 17 hour days.

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8. There is a woman name Lucy who provides us with some health care, but I do not like her and
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do not trust her, because she is always promoting abortions. The first time I saw her, I told her
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that I did not want an abortion, that I wanted to have this baby. Then Lucy began to tell me that
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my baby was dead and that I should have an abortion. Although I refused to consent to an
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abortion, she scheduled me for an abortion. When I refused to go, she had two men come to my
5 housing pod, trying to forcibly take me to have an abortion. When I again refused to agree to an
6 abortion, the deputies yelled at me and told me I was on drugs. From then on, their treatment of
7 me grew more abusive and worse.
8 9. Defendants Farmanian and Pope have told me that I “needed to get” an abortion. Defendant
9 Pope said I must “obviously be on drugs, which is why you refuse it [abortion]”.

10 10. From that time on, if I requested medical care, or said I was not feeling well, the housing guards,
including deputies Farmanian, Pope and Divine would all tell me that my problem was that I was
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on drugs, and they would strip me, meaning they would subject me to the humiliating and
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degrading practice of doing strip search and body cavity search. To do these searches, they
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would take me and often another pregnant woman and put us in the isolation or solitary
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confinement cells. We would have to stay there for hours. Then they would often take us to
15 another room, make us strip naked, squat, and show our vagina, our anal cavities, and our mouth.
16 11. One day, when I complained of not being well and requested a medical visit, defendant Divine
17 again accused me of using drugs, and placed me into solitary confinement. I repeatedly denied
18 using drugs and requested that defendant Divine administer a urine test to prove that I was not
19 using drugs. Defendant Divine ignore all of these repeated requests. Defendant Caine laughed

20 and scoffed at my request for a urine drug test, and the two locked me into the solitary
confinement cell.
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12. On another day, a number of guards swarmed the pod doing searches, and again placed me into
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solitary confinement. Some significant time passed and then they moved me into an outside
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holding pen. This was in December, when the weather is cold. I was there in that outside pen
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with another pregnant woman. We were dressed only in a prison jumpsuit and a tee shirt. We
25 were held in the freezing cold, outside for many hours until 1:30 a.m. before being released back
26 into the pod.
27 13. Due to the stress and abuse I suffer daily at the hands of defendant guards, I frequently bleed or
28 spot vaginally. Once when Defendant Divine demanded that I strip for a search, and when she

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saw that I was bleeding, she demanded that I wipe the blood away so she could do the search. I
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asked her for some pads or a paper towel. Defendant Divine picked up a garbage can and told
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me to use something from the garbage. I had no choice. Under the threats of reprisals and
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punishment, I used a used menstrual pad to wipe myself so that defendant Divine could conduct
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the invasive, offensive and demeaning and sadistic strip search and body cavity search.
5 14. As a result of this treatment, my clothes were soiled with blood. I requested a clean set of
6 clothing so that she could shower and clean myself. I was the first one who submitted a request
7 for clean clothing. I was one of the last to receive clean clothing. During this time, I was forced
8 to endure wet, blood stained clothing. After this incident, exhausted, I attempted to lay down
9 rest. Defendant Divine derisively yelled for everyone to hear, that I was now “coming down”

10 from my drug use and would be sleeping for a while.

15. I have seen the Santa Rita guards physically shake and assault pregnant prisoners, including
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plaintiff Erin Ellis, who is also pregnant.
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16. I have heard the guards yell at women prisoners, and tell the pregnant women prisoners that they
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don’t like us, saying that we are in trouble, and that they are going to “strip” us. These types of
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tirades happen for no apparent reason. These guards then put a number of us through the
15 humiliation of strip searches. They have not found drugs on me. They have not found that I was
16 on or using drugs. And from everything I have been able to observe, I did not see any deputy
17 find or confiscate drugs from others. Strip searching us is a way to degrade, dehumanize and
18 punish us. This gives defendants power. They force us to stand there in front of them naked.
19 These defendants do this so often, it feels like sexual harassment.

20 17. During one of these searches, defendant Divine tore apart my bunk. She took the food that I had
purchased from the commissary and using her unclean, unwashed, ungloved hands, put her
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fingers through all of my food. By doing what she was doing, defendant Divine was wasting
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that food and making me waste my money, because I could not eat food that she had run her
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fingers through. When I objected, defendant Divine sneered at me and said that her hands were
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clean.
25 18. Once, when the guards came in at 6 am and demanded that we get up and stand so they could
26 conduct another search, defendant Divine came to me and told me that I looked terrible, and she
27 thought I was dead. The guards again accused me of using drugs and again ignored my request
28 for a urine test to prove that I was not using drugs. On this occasion, I was again placed into

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solitary confinement, and defendant Divine decided to handcuff me in addition. I was forced to
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stay in solitary confinement for an extremely long period of time, with handcuffs on. Defendant
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Divine, sometime later, entered the solitary confinement cell, I am still hand cuffed, and pulls
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down my pants pulls up my shirt and looks over my body. I felt sexually assaulted. Deputy
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Divine did not remove the handcuffs.
5 19. There is no toilet paper in the bathroom, and with the hand cuffs on, I was forced to urinate
6 without the ability to maintain hygiene and forced to pull my pants up, getting wet urine on my
7 clothing.
8 20. During this period, the handcuffs started getting tighter. I tried to get the attention of a deputy to
9 request that the hand cuffs be loosened. Defendant Caine, came in to examine the handcuffs but

10 refused to remove the cuffs, and refused to even loosen the cuffs. As a result, my wrists and
hands lost circulation and became numb.
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21. After a significant amount of time, defendant Divine returned, moved me to another room and
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conducted yet another strip search. Only after this repeated strip search were the hand cuffs
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taken off. During this ordeal I was bleeding vaginally due to the stress and harassment. Deputy
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Divine stated that I was bleeding because I was “doing meth,” and although I kept saying, give
15 ne a urine test, which would prove I was not using drugs, all of the defendants refused my
16 request for a urine drug test; and failed and refused to provide me with any medical attention. I
17 believe that during or following this search, which was the third in less than a week, the bleeding
18 resulted in a miscarriage. I was never provided with medical attention.
19 22. After the lawsuit was filed, the guards intensified the harassment. Once, when most of the

20 prisoners were out of our POD, the guards moved all the other women except for two out of our
POD into other PODS. The other two could not be moved because they had to have lower
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bunks, and there were no more lower bunks. The guards were trying to isolate me, so that the
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women would not speak up against the abuse and torment we suffered. On or about January 8,
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2018, The Alameda Sheriff transferred me into federal custody.
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23. I am also concerned for the safety and health of the other women who are pregnant. From the
25 past, I know that most of the women who are in their first trimester, and many of the women in
26 their second trimester, while in Santa Rita, end up losing their baby.
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I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed January 27, 2018
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in Dublin, California.
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/s/ JACLYN MOHRBACHER______
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JACLYN MOHRBACHER
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6 Under N.D. Cal. Local Rule 5-1(i)(3), I attest that I obtained concurrence in the filing of this
7 document from JACLYN MOHRBACHER on January 27, 2018.
.
8 By: __/s/ Yolanda Huang______________
YOLANDA HUANG
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