The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department announced that Indian-American Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Yash Patel was arrested in Jurupa Valley, California, on suspicion of off-duty sexual assault and false imprisonment.He was arrested earlier this month after the Sheriff’s Bureau of Special Investigations investigated the allegations.Authorities said Patel began working for the Sheriff’s Department in July 2021 and was most recently assigned to the Robert Presley Detention Center as a corrections deputy.According to the Sheriff’s Department, Patel has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an administrative investigation.“The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office holds its employees to the highest standards of professionalism and responsibility. Allegations of misconduct will be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly,” the Sheriff’s Department announced.Patel had earlier been named in a legal action filed by the families of inmates who died in the county’s jails in 2022 and 2023. The lawsuit alleges that Sheriff’s Department staff are inadequately trained and unable to prevent or unwilling to effectively intervene in medical emergencies and inmate violence. In 2022, a 41-year-old Robert Robinson died in one day at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. The lawsuit names corrections officers Yash Patel, Joshua Faneuff and Florin Blaj as defendants.
