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Volume 172 • Issue 97 | $1.00
mtdemocrat.com
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
‘WE WANT ACCOUNTABILITY’
EDUHSD civil rights lawsuit plaintiffs speak Odin Rasco Staff writer
25, alleges the leadership at the district and El Dorado High School — including vice principal Justin Gatling, principal Elizabeth Sisson, superintendent Ronald Carruth and vice superintendent Tony DeVille — displayed “deliberate indifference” and failed to protect a minor identified as S.L. from a series of attacks
Months after filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against the El Dorado Union High School District, a local family says they are still struggling against community backlash. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of California Jan.
and harassment motivated by race and sexual orientation. Ashley Lewis filed the suit on behalf of her biracial daughter, who claims she has suffered from vision loss, headaches, light sensitivity and a loss of concentration as a result of the attacks. Lewis has expressed she feels let down by the school’s handling of her daughter’s situation.
“I have more than 60 emails from 2021 to 2023 of me subject-lining ‘racial attacks’ and asking for help, and I’d get a very vague response,” Lewis explained. “They’d say ‘oh, we’re going to look into it’ or ‘we’re going to do this,’ and then next week she’s coming home crying because somebody else is texting things to her or posting things
about her on social media, or she walks by a crowd and hears the n-word and has to walk around with her head down.” S.L., a 17-year-old, said she has experienced bullying since elementary school, but things got much worse once high school began. She n See Lawsuit, page A7
Body found near Rattlesnake Bar Krysten Kellum Editor The El Dorado County Sheriff ’s Office is investigating after a body was found Saturday afternoon in the waters of Folsom Lake. A person who was recreating in the Rattlesnake Bar area where the North Fork of the American River flows into the lake located the body of a woman and notified authorities, according to EDSO’s Sgt. Kyle Parker. A sheriff ’s team responded to the scene, assisting in recovering the Jane Doe. Parker said EDSO is leading the investigation into the woman’s death. An El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office detective takes Joshua Slaughter into custody in Roseville Aug. 15.
Courtesy photo
Suspected rapist arrested in Roseville Odin Rasco Staff writer
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A Roseville man suspected of sexual assault and domestic violence that took place in Cool was arrested Aug. 15, according to an El Dorado County Sheriff’s
Office social media post. On Aug. 14, a woman reported to EDSO she had been severely beaten, held against her will and sexually assaulted in Cool. Detectives began to investigate and secured a search warrant for multiple locations, ultimately taking Joshua Slaughter, 29, into custody at a residence in Roseville. Slaughter faces multiple counts of rape by force as well as domestic violence, making criminal threats and false imprisonment, according to inmate records. EDSO officials state Slaughter may be connected to other sexual assault cases and ask anyone with information to contact Det. Parker Driscoll at (530) 6424709 or email driscollp@ edso.org.
Mountain Democrat photos by Eric Jaramishian
The El Dorado County sheriff’s headquarters’ new sign is unveiled as it was officially dedicated the Sheriff John D’Agostini Public Safety Facility Saturday morning.
Legacy of service
public safety facility preserves D’Agostini’s vision Eric Jaramishian Staff writer
“T
he next sheriff that has to even think about what we went through isn’t born yet.” Former El Dorado County sheriff John D’Agostini uttered this conviction to close his speech Saturday morning to a crowd of community members in front of what has now been named the Sheriff John D’Agostini Public Safety Facility. Donning a buckle showcasing the years he served and a cowboy hat, D’Agostini spoke before the unveiling of a sign for the building, which could be seen glistening in the midmorning sun as it was revealed. The signage was placed high on the sheriff ’s headquarters to left of the main
Former sheriff John D’Agostini gives a speech at the sign unveiling event. The county Board of Supervisors approved renaming the facility in honor of his service in January 2023. entrance at 200 Industrial Drive. “I’m still very overwhelmed and extremely humbled by this, because I don’t believe that any single person deserves what we’re here for today,” D’Agostini said. “I want to thank everybody … all of you deserve this as much as I do right
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now.” D’Agostini’s 12 years of service as El Dorado County’s sheriff has also been immortalized on a plaque near the main entrance. “Sheriff ’s D’Agostini’s leadership and commitment to the county, our communities and his staff resulted in many
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accomplishments. Of the greatest, the public safety facility,” reads the plaque’s gold lettering. If he had it his way, every person who works at the El Dorado County Sheriff ’s Office and every community member’s name would be engraved somewhere on the foundation of the public safety facility. “In order for something of this magnitude to happen, is to start the conversations for everything to move forward,” D’Agostini recalled telling his undersheriff during the process. “It wasn’t me, the (Board of Supervisors) or staff. It was the community that had to make it happen. Without the community support,
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