Crime & Safety
Former Alameda Co. Sheriff's Deputy Convicted in DV Case to be Sentenced Next Week
Patrick Cohen was convicted on charges of corporal injury on a spouse and criminal threats, according to court documents.
El Cerrito, CA— A former Alameda County sheriff's deputy will be sentenced next week in Richmond after he was convicted of violently attacking and threatening his girlfriend in 2014, according to court documents.
Patrick Cohen, a 42-year-old Brentwood man who spent more than 15 years in the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, was found guilty by a jury on May 24 of charges of corporal injury on a spouse and criminal threats,
according to court documents.
The charges stemmed from a domestic violence call that Brentwood police responded to on the morning of July 14, 2014.
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A woman identified as Cohen's girlfriend called 911 after running from her Brentwood home to a neighbor's home, saying the former deputy was trying to kill her, according to court documents. Police found the woman visibly shaken and fearful, with a black eye, strangulation marks on her neck, arm abrasions and a bruise near her ear, according to court documents.
She described to investigators pleading to Cohen not to kill her as he choked her, according to court documents. She said he had access to several firearms, which were surrendered after his conviction last month.
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She had also alluded to a previous domestic violence incident involving the defendant, who allegedly struggled with alcoholism. In later interviews, the victim said on February 2014 that the
defendant "bashed her head into the ground" after she attempted to keep him from driving drunk, according to court documents.
Although she never testified during the trial, the victim later claimed that she had been secretly drugging Cohen with the man's mother, who also previously worked for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. They made plans to covertly give him Antabuse, a form of alcoholism aversion therapy that provokes unpleasant physical reactions from drinking that may include nausea, vomiting and headaches, according to court
documents.
The defense in the case tried to convince the jury that the drug could have also caused a bad reaction leading to certain mental changes, according to court documents.
The jury wasn't persuaded and found Cohen guilty. He has been remanded into custody and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 7 in court in Richmond. Cohen's defense attorney David Glenn Brown was not immediately available for comment on the case.
By Bay City News
Photo via Shutterstock
