Ex-cop who left woman at night near dump has California certification revoked
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- Robert Sasek’s law enforcement certification was revoked with “abuse of power” cited.
- Sasek was an Oroville police officer. His employment ended on Aug. 9, 2024.
- Sasek left a woman he arrested alone at midnight near a Butte County dump.
A California law enforcement certification was revoked for a former Oroville police officer who left a woman near a Butte County dump at midnight before she was struck by a car as she tried to walk home.
Robert Sasek was working as an Oroville police officer on Sept. 1, 2022, when he encountered Dana Marie James, who was in an altered mental status when Sasek drove her to dump and left her there. She was then struck by a car in a hit-and-run and hospitalized with life-threatening injuries for 35 days, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on her behalf against the City of Oroville.
James’ lawsuit against the city was settled in January 2024 for a $3 million payment for the Chico woman.
On April 6, Sasek was added to a list on the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training website. The list shows that Sasek’s state law enforcement certification was formally revoked two weeks ago.
The commission on July 17, 2025, held an advisory board meeting. The six advisory board members present for last summer’s meeting voted unanimously to reccommend that Sasek’s certification be revoked, ABC 7 KRCR reported.
Sasek’s last day as an Oroville Police Department employee was on Aug. 9, 2024. The basis for the revocation of his state certification is listed as an “abuse of power.”
Sasek was sworn in as a police officer at a May 2021 Oroville City Council meeting, the Chico Enterprise-Record reported, meaning he had been a police officer for about 16 months when he arrested James.
Arrested during a heat wave
The ordeal James went through occurred amid a 100-plus-degree heat wave. A Butte County sheriff’s deputy arrested the then 52-year-old woman for allegedly trespassing by taking a swim in a homeowner’s pool, according to the lawsuit filed by her attorney Robert Chalfant.
The deputy “observed that Ms. James was incoherent, had an altered mental status and was possibly under the influence of a controlled substance,” the lawsuit said.
James was taken to the Butte County Jail in Oroville, leaving her shoes behind. She was booked at the jail and released about 3 p.m. later that day. She wasn’t given shoes or a bus ticket to get her home to Chico. The two Butte County cities are 23 miles from one another.
“Ms. James was simply thrown out onto the streets of the city of Oroville,” Chalfant said in the lawsuit.
She was arrested a second time six hours later by Sasek. The police officer found her at a Home Depot “incoherent and unable to care for herself,” according to the lawsuit. Chalfant argued that Sasek believed that James was incapable of taking care of herself, so he took her back to the jail.
An intake nurse at the jail would not allow her to be booked because of her condition, according to the lawsuit. Sasek then took James to Oroville Hospital, where he had her wait in his patrol vehicle while he went inside to seek “medical clearance” for James to be booked.
James was never admitted to the hospital. Chalfant said in the lawsuit that the police officer cited and released James in the hospital’s parking lot, despite her condition. The attorney said James “was acting irrationally, had significant mental impairment including illogical and disorganized thoughts.”
Seriously injured in hit-and-run
Shortly after, a security guard at the hospital called Sasek on the officer’s cellphone. The lawsuit said the security guard asked the officer to return immediately, because James had been walking outside the hospital and trying to open locked doors. She then barricaded herself inside in a hospital bathroom, before the security got her out and back outside in the parking lot.
Chalfant said in the lawsuit that Sasek was met at the hospital by Oroville police sergeant and another officer. Sasek then put James back in his patrol vehicle and drove her to an area gas station. The other officer suggested that Sasek take James out to a remote area, about 15½ miles north, near the Neal Road Recycling and Waste Facility
“It was dark out and there were no streetlights,” Chalfant said in the lawsuit. “Ms. James had no phone, no water, no shoes, no flashlight and no idea where she was.”
James was walking along the shoulder of the road back toward town when the passing car struck her right side by a passing and sent her flying down an embankment into several large boulders, according to the lawsuit. She remained there in and out of consciousness and severely injured for about 10 hours until the following morning, when she managed to crawl up and seek help from construction workers who were nearby.
James spent the next seven days in intensive care at Enloe Medical Center in Chico. She was hospitalized for a total of five weeks. Chalfant has said he hopes the $3 million settlement in the civil rights lawsuit serves as a warning to all law enforcement agencies and officers that ‘dumping’ people in remote areas needs to immediately end.
“Ms. James is an incredibly strong woman, and it is a miracle that she survived this ordeal,” Chalfant wrote in a Janurary 2024 statement to The Sacramento Bee. “There is still a long road of recovery ahead.”
This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 2:57 PM.
