An Oakland homicide detective promised a man strung out on drugs that he’d be “a little ATM for you” — all in exchange for the man falsely testifying at a 2013 murder trial, an investigator for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office said in court Tuesday.
The allegation came on the second day of a key evidentiary hearing for Phong Tran, 45, the Oakland police officer who is accused of numerous felonies, including two counts of perjury, as well as charges of bribery of a witness, attempted bribery of a witness and subornation of perjury under oath. A judge is expected to rule at the conclusion of the hearing whether enough evidence exists to send the case to trial.
The claim raised the possibility — for the first time in open court — that Tran had made a habit of convincing people to falsely testify at murder trials, in order to obtain convictions on cases he investigated.
Prior to this week’s hearing, prosecutors’ allegations had focused on the 2011 killing of Charles Butler Jr., 23, who was gunned down while arguing with his killers about a parking spot near his North Oakland home.
Prosecutors allege Tran paid the star witness of that case, Aisha Weber, thousands of dollars to lie on the stand during a preliminary hearing and a 2016 murder trial. Her testimony led to the convictions of two men, Giovonte Douglas, 31, and 34-year-old Cartier Hunter — both of whom have since been released from prison after the woman recanted her statements.
But on Tuesday, prosecutors elicited testimony from an investigator for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Andrew Koltuniak, that suggested Tran also fed false and misleading testimony to at least two other star witnesses in separate murder cases.
In one instance, Koltuniak said, Tran fed information to a woman whose best friend was killed in August 2012. During that instance, Tran “gave her information about the suspect and who to identify as a suspect, despite her previous statement that she did not see the shooter in that case,” Koltuniak testified.
The woman told investigators that she had been promised “compensation” from Tran for her testimony, though no specific dollar amounts were mentioned in court.
In another instance, according to Koltuniak’s testimony, a man told the investigator that he agreed to testify at a 2013 murder trial in exchange for money from Tran. The man agreed to do so after having been arrested in a drug-related case — a meeting during which the man said “he had been up for five days, was extremely intoxicated and experiencing severe withdrawals from drug addiction,” Koltuniak testified.
The man allegedly told Koltuniak that he “would have said anything to get out of that interview room” with Tran, so that he could “get back onto the streets,” according to testimony Tuesday.
During that meeting, Tran offered $30 to the man and said: “I want to keep this relationship open — I want to be a little ATM for you,” according to testimony aired Tuesday.
Tran’s attorney, Andrew Ganz, zeroed in on the new allegations — needling Koltuniak on whether he read the entire case files from those two murder cases. Often, Koltuniak acknowledged, he only read selected portions of those case files. And he said he was unaware about whether the defendant in at least one of those murder cases admitted to the killing.
Cross-examination by Tran’s attorney was expected to continue Tuesday afternoon.
The case against Tran has spurred a massive re-examination of criminal cases handled by the longtime Oakland homicide detective. Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price has said her office plans to review at least 125 cases that Tran investigated.
Alameda County Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods has said his office has been “raising alarms” about Tran for years – only to watch those warnings fall “on deaf ears” during the tenure of former DA Nancy O’Malley. Woods’ office has already identified three other homicide cases where “we raised concerns” about Tran’s ethics, he said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Source: www.mercurynews.com