‘Don’t Push Me!’: California Deputy Loses Job After His Impatient Response to 71-Year-Old Woman’s Questions Ends with Her on the Pavement and Three Months of Hospitalization
John Siamoutas’ life changed last October, when he became his elderly mother’s caretaker.
Aurinia Thimmhardy, 71, had suffered a broken femur and needed surgery after she was shoved to the ground, without provocation, by a younger man. She spent three months in the hospital and was released in January. During that time, Thimmhardy’s husband became ill. He died while she was in recovery, said her attorney, Mark Merin.
Siamoutas said his mother, who has documented mental health issues, now uses a walker and lives in constant pain.
“How do you throw an old lady out… what was the mindset?” Siamoutas said.
The man who pushed her? An impatient Sacramento sheriff’s deputy, Matthew Gurich, who has been fired after several months on administrative leave. It’s unclear if he will face any criminal charges for the incident, which was caught on bodycam video released to the public in February.
“Yes, more should be terminated and more should be tried criminally for their criminal conduct,” Merin said.
The confrontation started when Thimmhardy was being processed out of the downtown Sacramento jail. She’s seen speaking with a deputy while signing multiple release forms. As she pauses between forms, the visibly frustrated deputy repeatedly asks Thimmhardy to focus on signing her name. She refuses to sign without clarification.
“She was contesting some of the statements being made to her,” Merin said. “They refused to deal with her legitimate questions.”
At one point, the deputy places a hand on her shoulder and asks her to concentrate on signing the forms.
“Please don’t touch me. Please watch your contact, okay. Pleas stand back.” Gurich appears to take offense to her position and responds, “You need to stop f***ing talking and just listen to us.”
Shocked by the deputy’s aggressiveness, Thimmhardy is heard lecturing the deputy about proper police procedure, but the deputy is only interested in having her sign the forms.
Gurich begins to ask Thimmhardy three questions she’s required to answer to facilitate her release. He immediately gets a fact wrong in his line of questioning when she interrupts for clarity. Gurich slams his hands on the desk in frustration. After a few more minutes of back and forth and another deputy on site jumping into the fray, Gurich snatches the signing pad away, signs it himself, and then appears to finalize her release on the jail computer.
He then hands over Thimmhardy’s belongings, directs her to start walking toward the exit, and then pushes her toward the exit.
“Don’t push me,” the woman states while attempting to nudge his hand off her shoulder.
“Shut the f*** up,” Gurich says while putting her arm behind her back and physically shoving her toward the exit.
“What are you doing?!” the woman exclaims.
“We’re escorting you outside because you can’t go without assaulting my partner,” another deputy responds.
“Me? I assaulted your partner?” the woman asks increduously.
“Yes, you did,” the deputy responds.
There’s no proof Thimmhardy assaulted any of the deputies present at the time.
Gurich tells her to “stop f***ing talking” and later appears to push her toward the exit. Thimmhardy is thrown onto the ground on the sidewalk outside the jail, where no one comes to her aid.
“That kind of hip injury at 71 years old, it’s probably something not easy to bounce back from,” Siamoutas said.
In the bodycam footage, Thimmhardy eludes to an incident at a grocery story where she’s accused of trespassing, but states that customers don’t trespass. No official details have been provided regarding her detainment. She had been held in custody for two days before her release.
“Her family didn’t know about it until later,” Merin said.
Merin said the family was frustrated by how long it took Sheriff Jim Cooper to fire Gurich.
“These types of actions do not uphold the values or standards of any law enforcement agency, much less the sheriff’s office,” Sgt. Amar Gandhi of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said upon the deputy’s dismissal.
Gandhi acknowledged frustration over the length of the investigation, saying, “I understand people’s thoughts of why these investigations take so long, but in the end, the result is what is important.”
Siamoutas said he hopes GuRich’s dismissal sets an example.
“Hopefully, something gets fixed at that jail,” he said. ” A lesson to learn across the country, I hope.”