12-16-2022 9:49am

Former San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Deputy Faces Federal Civil Rights Charge

Anita Johnson-Brown Editor

LOS ANGELES –The Justice Department announced on Friday, December 14, 2022, that Joshua Fischer, 40, of Grover Beach, a former San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputy was indicted on federal criminal charges alleging he abused a county jail inmate.

The defendant is accused of dragging the victim by the hair on the ground from one cell into another jail cell and then obstructing a federal investigation into his actions by fibbing about the incident in an official sheriff’s office statement.

The defendant is charged in a federal grand jury indictment with one count of deprivation of rights under color of law and one count of falsification of records.

As stated in the indictment returned on Tuesday, Fischer was a sworn law enforcement officer and San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office senior correctional deputy who was appointed to work in the city of San Luis Obispo at the Intake Release Center between January 2017 and December 2018.

Fischer fabricated a San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s incident report by including false statements that the victim had tossed her shirt on the ground after taking her shirt off outside her jail cell, and the victim shouted and thrashed her arms while going back into her cell and that Fischer “was in fear for the safety of the other female arrestee in the cell” because the victim was “still without her shirt, yelling and flailing her arms,” the indictment alleges.

According to the indictment, the victim did not remove her shirt while outside of her cell or throw it to the ground, and the victim was not flailing her arms around when re-entered her cell, instead, her arms were by her side, and then near her bare chest, when Fischer assaulted her.
Fischer is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment in the "in the weeks to come." at the United States District Court, located in downtown Los Angeles.

If convicted of both charges, Fischer faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison on the deprivation of rights count and 20 years in federal prison for the falsification of records count.

The FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Thomas F. Rybarczyk of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section and Frances S. Lewis of the General Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.

According to the law, An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

Written by Anita Johnson-Brown