An on-duty Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy in California was found unresponsive in the restroom of the Central Division Station—with a lighter in one hand and a glass pipe on the floor next to him.
He had overdosed on fentanyl that he confiscated earlier that day, believing a guy’s lie that it was just meth! Responding deputies had to use Narcan to save him, and an internal investigation led to his termination.
In August 2023, Morales confiscated a glass narcotics smoking pipe and issued a misdemeanor citation for the possession of narcotics paraphernalia. In his report, Morales lied, according to the sheriff’s office findings, when he said he “safely disposed of the glass pipe at the Central Area Station.”
Instead, documents say Morales admitted to keeping the pipe and smoked methamphetamine residue from the pipe at his home three to four times over the course of two months.
Morales said the use of methamphetamine “gave him the ‘energy’ he needed to write in-custody reports.
On October 24, 2023, Morales conducted a suspicious suspect stop and in that encounter recovered narcotics that were believed to be methamphetamine. He issued a misdemeanor citation for possession of methamphetamine to the suspect.
Hours later, Morales is seen on security camera footage at the sheriff’s office Central Area Station entering a public bathroom, closed to the public at the time.
Moments later, another deputy finds Morales unconscious on the floor of the bathroom in possession of the suspected meth he seized earlier the same day.
The substance initially believed to be meth was fentanyl, according to the report, and Morales was suffering a fentanyl overdose.
Deputies began life-saving measures including issuing multiple doses of naloxone, or Narcon, before transporting Morales to the hospital.
CBS13 was on scene at the time outside of the station as the first reports about the incident were that Morales was exposed to chemicals, unintentionally.
In the sheriff’s internal review, it was found that Morales “used his position of authority to confiscate narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia from members of the public and held them accountable for the violations.”
