$1.2 Million for Elderly Detainee Shoved Out the Door of Sacramento Jail by Guard
by Chuck Sharman
When an elderly detainee was released from a two-day stay in the Sacramento County Main Jail on October 7, 2024, a jailer frustrated with her evident mental confusion cursed at her. The detainee, Ourania Thimmhardy, 71, took offense to this. But jailer Matthew Gurich twisted her arm behind her back and shoved her out the door, causing her to fall on the sidewalk. He then slammed the door shut, leaving her there with a broken leg.
The entire sequence of events was touched off when Thimmhardy refused to leave a Sacramento Starbucks store while in the midst of a mental health crisis, according to the complaint later filed on her behalf. Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD) deputies were summoned, but instead of placing her on a mental health hold, they took her to the County lockup. There, she received no mental health evaluation before she was processed for release two days later to await trial.
It was during processing that tensions developed between Thimmhardy and Gurich. Jail surveillance video recorded his attempts to get her fingerprints as she alternated between a wild rant about trespassers who were domestic terrorists and questions why she would have to go to court for being a customer at the store. Another unnamed jailer provided sarcastic responses, but Gurich apparently ran out of patience and told Thimmhardy, “You need to fucking stop talking.”
After that, attempts to get her signatures on release forms were unsuccessful, and her answers to pre-release questions veered into the nonsensical—she had been injured in the abdomen while in jail, she said, by “A.I.” The jailers then ejected her from the building, Gurich twisting Thimmhardy’s arm behind her back and the unnamed fellow jailer calling out to her, “You need to keep your hands to yourself,” apparently as pretext for Gurich’s use of force.
After her fall and injury, Thimmhardy ended up in a hospital for surgery on her leg, so she was unable to visit her husband before he died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. The surgery left her unable to climb stairs, and she will need ongoing care for the remainder of her life, the complaint continued.
It was filed in May 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California by attorneys Mark E. Merin and Paul H. Masuhara of Merin’s eponymous firm in Sacramento. Proceeding under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, they made claims against SCSD Sheriff Jim Cooper and his jailers for excessive force, retaliation and unreasonable post-arrest care. Additional claims were filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. ch. 126 § 12101, et seq., and the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 701, et seq. State-law companion claims were included, plus additional state-law claims for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The parties then proceeded to reach their settlement agreement, which the district court approved on behalf of Thimmhardy, as an incompetent person, on May 4, 2026. Under its terms, the County agreed to the $1.2 million payout, including $713,630 for her, plus another $486,370 for her attorneys’ costs and fees. See: Thimmhardy v. Cty. of Sacramento, USDC (E.D. Calif.), Case No. 2:25-cv-01520.
Cooper placed Gurich on administrative leave at the end of February 2026 and fired him two weeks later. The former jailer was also charged with one count of felony assault by a public officer, KXTV in Sacramento reported. Merin told the news station that officials “should take the video from the jail surveillance cameras and use it as a training exercise.”
“When deputies are smirking because another deputy has addressed an inmate with profanity,” Merin said, that “should be circled, and [trainees] should be told, ’Hey, this is wrong.’ They should recognize it’s wrong, and there should be a correction at the superior level so that deputies don’t feel they can just get away with it.”
Additional source: KXTV
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login