OAKLAND — Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced Monday that she intends to file misdemeanor charges against one of her former prosecutors — and loudest political critic — for allegedly interfering with the prosecution of ‘a San Leandro police officer who killed a man.
In an email to his staff, DA Price announced that he will prosecute Amilcar “Butch” Ford, current San Francisco DA and former Alameda County Assistant District Attorney, on a misdemeanor charge. Price said Ford “violated various professional rules and codes of conduct” by providing “confidential work product information” to the attorney for Jason Fletcher, a former San Leandro officer with a pending manslaughter charge by the Death of Steven Taylor in 2020.
“It hurts everyone in our community when people who swear to uphold the law break it,” Price wrote in the email. “Butch Ford broke the public trust and betrayed our office and the people of Alameda County. . . . No one in our profession, our office or our justice system is above the law.”
The privileged communication allegedly included information about the DA’s legal strategy against Fletcher, who was charged with voluntary manslaughter by Price’s predecessor, Nancy O’Malley.
Fletcher is awaiting trial but the judge in his preliminary hearing expressed doubts that a jury would ever convict him. A judge earlier denied a defense motion to recuse the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office from the case on the grounds that Price was unfair to law enforcement officers.
In the email to staff, Price did not say whether he would recuse his office from prosecuting Ford, given his personal connection to many Alameda County prosecutors and his frequent public criticism of Price since taking office. The California attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to questions about whether Price tried to pass the charging decision on to state prosecutors.
Michael Rains, the attorney representing Fletcher, who briefly represented Ford when he was disbarred earlier this year, said Ford had an ethical obligation as a prosecutor to turn over exculpatory evidence in the case of Fletcher. Price alleges that Ford broke the law by filing a statement in Rains’ attempt to disqualify her and the DA’s office from the case.
“He was simply doing his ethical duty. I find this complaint to be completely false and retaliatory in the extreme,” Rains said Monday evening.
Ford resigned earlier this year in a blistering letter that blasted Price as an unethical district attorney who ignores victims’ rights and spoke publicly at a rally against Price outside an Oakland courtroom . He was placed on administrative leave shortly after Price took over and remained there until his resignation. Ford, a longtime prosecutor who led the county’s felony trial team, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At the “recall Price” rally in April, Ford was the only prosecutor still working for Price’s office to speak out against the new district attorney. He criticized the county’s new top prosecutor for being too lenient on crime, especially in some of the county’s most violent cases. The recall effort came to fruition last week, when Price’s critics formed a committee, the first step in a campaign to oust her.
“When you commit a crime and you hurt people, you should pay,” Ford said, before a crowd on the steps of the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse in downtown Oakland. “Pamela Price disagrees with this lesson. This is about victims’ rights.”
A few weeks later, the two also had a face-off at the Juvenile Justice Center, when Ford unexpectedly appeared at a hearing in an apparent act of defiance against Price’s new sentencing recommendations.
Price, who had sought early release that day for a man accused of killing a 15-year-old girl, ordered Ford to leave the courtroom shortly before the hearing began. Ford refused and sat at the back of the gallery throughout the hearing.
Days later, Price issued a written warning to Ford, citing “your unprofessional, inappropriate and insubordinate behavior.”
Fletcher shot and killed Taylor in April 2020 while responding to a disturbance call at a Walmart. Body camera footage of the confrontation showed Fletcher shooting Taylor as he slowly approached two officers, holding an aluminum baseball bat in his hands. Police were called to the Walmart at 15555 Hesperian Blvd. in San Leandro because Taylor appeared to be stealing and took the bat when confronted by employees.
An independent report released in June 2020 found not only that Fletcher should have called for backup and used de-escalation tactics instead of using a Taser on Taylor three times and shooting him once, but that a col… lega shouldn’t have used his trap gun either.
