By Khalida Sarwari
A man facing 29 charges for allegedly attacking a Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputy with a Taser and escaping custody last month is expected to be back in court Friday for further arraignment, according to the district attorney’s office.
Maurice Ainsworth, 24, will be arraigned Friday on charges including attempted murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and assault, according to the district attorney’s office.
The charges were filed on Dec. 7 in connection with a Nov. 29 incident involving Deputy Cathy Bramanti.
Ainsworth is accused of punching and using a Taser on Bramanti at Dominican Hospital, where she had accompanied him for an MRI exam that morning, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Campos.
Armed with Bramanti’s 40-caliber service handgun, Ainsworth then led police on a five-hour manhunt as he made his way to the Secret Garden Too preschool, where he held a female teacher at gunpoint and demanded her car keys, Campos said. About four infants were in the room at the time.
From there, Ainsworth fled to the Prospect Heights neighborhood, where he moved between two neighboring homes in the 100 block of English Drive, Campos said. He briefly held two people hostage at one of the homes, but they escaped unharmed.
Ainsworth eventually surrendered to police that evening at one of the homes.
He had been in jail awaiting a jury trial scheduled to begin Jan. 10, 2011, for charges stemming from an alleged kidnapping and home invasion robbery, according to Assistant District Attorney Steve Drottar.
Sheriff Phil Wowak said the incident had prompted the department to re-evaluate its inmate transportation policy, though he said there had been no indication that Ainsworth posed an increased risk or was problematic.
Earlier this week, Wowak wrote an editorial in which he said the department had determined Ainsworth’s escape was premeditated.
“After a thorough review of our existing procedures for transporting inmates and our response to his escape, we have learned there should have been systems in place to prevent and or detect Ainsworth’s plan,” Wowak said.
In an effort to prevent future incidents, the sheriff’s office will now assign two deputies to transport high-risk inmates and require inmates to wear plastic restraints even during medical procedures, he said.
Wowak said the sheriff’s office would meet with the Superior Court, Dominican Hospital, schools, allied law enforcement agencies and the Metro Transit District to make further security recommendations.