OAKLAND — The criminal case against one of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s biggest critics appears to be at an end.
The California Attorney General’s Office moved to dismiss the case against Amilcar “Butch” Ford during a hearing Wednesday morning. The request — which was promptly granted by an Alameda County Superior Court judge — ends a year-long saga that sparked concerns over whether Price had targeted one of her most vocal political rivals by charging him with a crime rarely charged by prosecutors anywhere in the state.
After the hearing, Ford wiped a tear from his eye and hugged multiple prosecutors who, like him, left the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office last year for jobs across the Bay Bridge with San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
Speaking to reporters afterward, he called the prosecution “completely frivolous” and an unparalleled “abuse of power.” In the process, he urged the county’s residents to recall Price from office during the Nov. 5 election.
“The reality is that this community is suffering, this office is suffering, victims are suffering in this community and they will continue to suffer until Pamela Price is recalled,” Ford said. “That’s the bottom line.”
The ordeal began in July 2023, when Price’s office charged Ford with the rarely-cited misdemeanor of defending after public prosecution as the prosecutor. The charge came just months after Price placed Ford, a veteran prosecutor in Alameda County, on administrative leave. He then left Price’s office while vocally criticizing her approach to reshaping the East Bay’s justice system.
If convicted, Ford could have been disbarred.
Price claimed that Ford filed a declaration — while still employed by Price — that supported a police union attorney’s bid to disqualify her from the case against a former San Leandro police officer accused of killing a man in 2020. That former officer, Jason Fletcher, faces a manslaughter charge in the on-duty shooting death of Steven Taylor.
In January, an Alameda County judge tossed Price’s office from the Fletcher case amid concerns that Price had a “significant conflict of interest” in the case. A judge has yet to make a ruling on an appeal filed by Price’s office on that ruling.
“I’m not saying she has expressed an opinion that a member of the public cannot express — she has every right to do so,” Alameda County Judge James Cramer said at the time. “The problem here for me is that the elected district attorney has made repeated comments about the defendant in this case, Mr. Ford.”
An appeal by Price’s office was denied last month, setting the stage for the California Attorney General’s Office to take over the prosecution.
On Wednesday, Caitlin Duprey, a deputy attorney general, moved to dismiss the case for a lack of evidence and “in the interest of justice.” She said her office reached that conclusion after having reviewed all the evidence in the case, and having embarked on their own investigation.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Price said that the state’s business and profession’s code that Ford had been charged under “sets a high standard for prosecutors.”
“We will continue to expect our prosecutors to comply with the law and to pursue justice for the family of Steven Taylor,” her statement added.
Ford has repeatedly sparred with Price over the years, having even appeared at a rally last year on the steps of the René C. Davidson Courthouse in downtown Oakland while calling for her to be recalled from office.
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Source: www.mercurynews.com