OAKLAND — Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced Monday that she intends to file a misdemeanor charge against one of her former prosecutors — and loudest political critic — for allegedly interfering in the prosecution of a San Leandro police officer who killed a man.
In an email to her staff, Price announced that she will prosecute Amilcar “Butch” Ford, a current San Francisco prosecutor and former deputy district attorney in Alameda County, with a misdemeanor. Price said Ford “breached several 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 for the 2020 on-duty shooting death of Steven Taylor.
“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 previously denied a defense motion to recuse the Alameda County DA’s office from the case on the basis that Price was unfair to law enforcement officers.
In the email to staff, Price did not say whether she would recuse her office from the prosecution of Ford, given his personal connection to many Alameda County prosecutors and his frequent public critiques of Price since she took over. The California Attorney General’s Office didn’t immediately respond to questions asking if Price attempted to pass the charging decision to state prosecutors.
Michael Rains, the attorney representing Fletcher — and who briefly represented Ford when he was placed on leave earlier this year — said that Ford had an ethical obligation as a prosecutor to turn over exculpatory evidence in Fletcher’s case. Price is alleging Ford broke the law by submitting a declaration in support of Rains’ attempt to disqualify her and the DA’s office from the case.
“He was simply doing his ethical duty. I see this complaint as being completely bogus and retaliatory in the extreme,” Rains said Monday evening.
In the sworn declaration, Ford described multiple conversations he had with Kwixuan Maloof, the head of Price’s Public Accountability Unit, back in the first couple weeks of January. Often, those conversations revolved around the topic of which prosecutor would try Fletcher’s case. In one instance, Ford recalled Maloof saying that “I came here to charge cops. They better be ready. They better Google me,” according to the court declaration.
Ford, a senior prosecutor who once led the county’s felony trial team, has publicly clashed with Price since she was sworn in and almost immediately put him and other seasoned deputy district attorneys on administrative leave.
At a “recall Price” rally in April, Ford was the only prosecutor still employed by 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, particularly in some of the county’s most violent cases. The recall effort came to fruition last week, when Price 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,” said Ford, standing before a crowd on the steps of the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse in downtown Oakland. “Pamela Price disagrees with that lesson. This is about the rights of victims.”
Just weeks later, the two also had a pitched confrontation at the Juvenile Justice Center, when Ford unexpectedly showed up at a hearing in an apparent act of defiance against Price’s new sentencing recommendations.
Price — who had sought the early release that day of a man accused of killing a 15-year-old girl — ordered Ford to leave the courtroom shortly before the start of the hearing. Ford refused, and sat in the back of the gallery throughout the hearing. Price then issued a written admonishment to Ford, citing “your unprofessional, inappropriate and insubordinate behavior.”
Not long after, in late May, Ford resigned in a blistering letter that blasted Price as an unethical district attorney who flouts victims rights. He since joined the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday evening.
Fletcher shot and killed Taylor in April 2020 while responding to a call of a disturbance at a Walmart. Body camera footage of the confrontation showed Fletcher shot Taylor as he slowly approached two officers, gripping 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 shoplifting and grabbed the bat when employees confronted him.
An independent report released in June 2020 found not only that Fletcher should have called for backup and used de-escalation tactics rather than use a Taser on Taylor three times and shoot him once, but that a colleague should not have used his stun gun either.