Sacramento deputy resigned after smoking fentanyl laced meth, overdosed inside the sheriff station
By: -----
Sacramento County, CA - A Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy resigned last year after a 2023 incident in which he ingested fentanyl that had been confiscated and overdosed on it at a sheriff’s station while on duty.
Other deputies found Deputy Marvin Morales overdosing in a bathroom Oct. 24, 2023, at the sheriff’s Central Division station on 65th Street and Florin Road, according to a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office report. The deputies administered naloxone in an effort to reverse the overdose, and Morales ultimately survived after being taken to a hospital.
The Sheriff’s Office quietly uploaded documents and photos and videos about its internal investigation into Morales on its website. Videos from the incident began circulating on social media this week.
Morales told the Sheriff’s Office he ingested the drug because he wanted to die by suicide and struggled with his mental health, according to a 468-page internal investigation report.
“I’m very sorry — I’m sorry to my partner. And I’m sorry,” Morales said, according to the report. “That’s why I did it — that’s why I did it in that bathroom, ‘cause I didn’t want the public to see me.”
In the months leading up to the overdose, Morales said he confiscated a pipe while on duty and smoked methamphetamine coating the pipe three or four times. It was for a “hit of energy” while he procrastinated completing reports into his investigations, according to the documents.
But deputies investigating Morales cast doubt on the truth behind these claims, saying a drug test of his hair showed “chronic use” consistent with a person who uses drugs throughout their life, the documents say.
Sheriff’s internal investigators recommended that Morales be fired on grounds of dishonesty and informed him of this recommended discipline Jan. 4, 2024. Morales submitted his resignation Feb. 2, 2024, and it was accepted the following day, Sheriff’s Office documents show.
According to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training website, Morales voluntarily surrendered his peace officer certification in March 2024.
Morales could not be reached for comment.
It’s unclear whether Morales face criminal charges in connection to this incident. Shelly Orio, a spokesperson for the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Morales got the drugs when he stopped a man Oct. 24, 2023, at a Shell gas station on Stockton Boulevard, the report said. He had interacted with the man before, and knew he used drugs, Morales said to interviewers.
The suspect said he was smoking meth, but Morales confiscated the narcotics bundled up in tinfoil and a pipe. The drugs appeared “dirty,” so he believed they could be mixed with fentanyl, he said. He also admitted he took the drugs from the man and smoked them in the bathroom, the documents say.
A deputy, whose name is redacted in the Sheriff’s Office internal report, walked into the bathroom — which can be open to the public, but was closed to residents at that time — and saw Morales unresponsive on the bathroom floor. His lips had turned blue, and his duty belt was on the baby changing station, the deputy said to interviewers.
The deputy ran back to his car for Narcan, an opioid overdose reversal drug, and then called for help. Morales ultimately received Narcan about four times before he was taken by the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District to a hospital, according to the internal investigation.
Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, alerted the news media to a deputy who appeared to have been exposed to a chemical.
The Sheriff’s Office reflected how Morales actions could affect the community once concerned for him.
“The large-scale emergency response to Deputy Morales prompted multiple media reports of his potential chemical exposure, generating genuine concern from the community, which will ultimately result in discredit to the Sheriff’s Office when it is revealed that he was not a victim and his actions were intentional,” wrote Chief Deputy Matt Petersen in his report.
Deputies in the report said they didn’t trust Morales as a partner. Some also had to go to therapy after seeing him almost die.
“I’ve sat, and I’ve wondered continuously about is there something I missed?” a deputy, who supervised Morales, said to internal investigators. “Is there something I could have done?”
Morales said his mental health had been deteriorating from trauma he suffered while on the job and serving in the Middle East, according to the internal reports. He would cry before coming to work and isolated himself from family.
He said his actions were not in line with the Sheriff’s Office vision, mission and values. And Morales replied with one word when asked how his actions would reflect on the Sheriff’s Office.
“Horribly,” he said.