Next Alameda County DA says 3rd of prosecutor's office needs retraining

The new district attorney for Alameda County said she expects to retrain a third of the office to bring them up to standard, focus on prosecutions and do away with some of the divisions and special units created in the department by her predecessor.

Judge Ursula Jones Dickson will be sworn in as district attorney on Feb. 18. The county Board of Supervisors selected her on Jan. 28 to serve until 2026, replacing Pamela Price, who was recalled by voters in the second year of her term.

Price was voted out in November following an acrimonious time at the helm of the department.

Dickson said in an interview with the Daily Journal she wanted to move away from the "activist" nature that embodied the previous administration and "get back to basics".

"There's some concerns about our staffing," Dickson said, "whether people are in the right positions for their skill level. And that is mostly because there were a lot of lawyers who were hired by the prior administration that had never been DAs before."

Many of Price's hires were deputy DAs from San Francisco and staff hired to fill special units "where they're not doing the things that district attorneys do," Dickson said.

"For example, the misdemeanor trials, the preliminary hearings, the felony trial, they've never touched those things because they're in specialty units that the previous administration put together and hired folks to staff those units," Dickson explained.

"So, we need to go back to square one and start training people again and see if people are equipped to do the work of a DA."

How exactly Dickson would determine the ability of those working in the office is not yet clear, although she suggested an employee questionnaire would be where she would start, followed by an intensive summer law club style program later in the year.

"Generally, it takes about six to seven years to train a DA to be what we call fungible," she said, "someone who can handle all case types. So, we're a little bit behind there because there are a bunch of folks who don't have that experience.

"And then also just determining whether or not they're willing to get it, so it will be a kind of a hardcore training program," she explained. "That's what we went through, all of us, as new DAs and people may not want to do that. So those are conversations that'll need to be had."

Dickson said prosecutors are not fungible until they have tried a murder case to verdict, which many in the office are yet to do. On top of ensuring staff are fit for their roles, the new district attorney intends to implement a new culture in the department which is "no longer the Nancy O'Malley office, the Pamela Price office, it's just the DAs office."

Price, a former criminal defense and civil rights attorney and the first Black woman to serve as Alameda County's top prosecutor, received 53% of the vote in the 2022 election. She was elected on a 10-point progressive platform that included pledges to help undo systemic injustices, such as racism.

Upon taking office, she placed limitations on sentencing enhancements and promoted probation instead of jail or prison. Price and her supporters have consistently argued that the recall effort was a political stunt led by right wing advocates and bad faith actors who wanted to stop her attempts to "root out injustice." As crimes increased in Alameda County, Price was criticized for being too lenient. Her recall was supported by 14 police unions, the Alameda County prosecutors' union, and local organizers. She was recalled by 64.8% of the vote.

O'Malley was a deputy district attorney for Alameda County from 1984 until 2010, when she was appointed as the county's top prosecutor by the Board of Supervisors to fill the vacancy left by the 2009 retirement of Tom Orloff. O'Malley ran unopposed in 2010 and 2014, and defeated a 2018 challenge by Price, securing 57% of the vote to remain Alameda County DA. O'Malley did not seek re-election in 2022, and Price won.

Dickson said in an email, "I just think we (need to) keep this really straightforward that these are the duties of a district attorney. There may be people who don't want to do that work because I do feel like some of the work in the last administration was more activist work and that's not exactly where the DA should be.

"So, it just needs to be a conversation with individuals about, 'Here's the work of a DA. Here's what our expectations are. We're happy to have you here.'

"Now, as long as things have been going well before I got there, I'm happy to keep people and get them trained up. But I also feel like if people want to be at the DA's office, then we all need to kind of fall in line and get the appropriate training so we can serve the victims of Alameda County.

She added, "Under the last administration there were complaints that victims felt like they weren't being heard, they weren't being contacted, and Marsy's Law had not been respected, and as a result of that, I think that this is not a victim-centered process." Marsy's Law provides additional rights to victims of crimes, including the right to be treated with fairness and respect, to be protected from the defendant, to be notified of proceedings and to receive restitution.

Dickson acknowledged that leaving a safe seat on the Superior Court for a two-year term with no guarantee of another one was unusual, but not unprecedented. Dickson had previously worked as a prosecutor in Alameda County for 15 years before Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her to the bench in 2013 and she said she "loved the work" during that time.

The Oakland-based judge said she was also becoming concerned about the previous DA administration and "felt less safe" in her community. "Not that the DA can keep you safe," she added. "But when things happen, you want to know there's going to be an action."

"I was complaining about how things were going and my husband said to me, 'You know if your mother were still living, she'd say, don't complain unless you want to do something about it.' And so, I said, 'touché'."

There had also been a question around whether the judge could take a position in public office while employed by the judiciary because of Article VI, Section 17 of the California Constitution that states judges of a court of record are not allowed to practice law and are ineligible for other public employment during their term.

Dickson said she sought an ethics opinion before starting the process to apply for the DA position, and cited case law, pointing to Diana Becton, who was appointed district attorney of Contra Costa County in 2017 after 22 years as a judge in the county. Additionally, two Los Angeles County Superior Court judges took leave to run in last year's primary election to replace incumbent District Attorney George Gascón. Neither won.

The California Judges Association Annotated California Code of Judicial Ethics says that a judge would have to step down before applying to run for the office of district attorney. In 2007, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy rescinded his acceptance of an offer from District Attorney Dolores Carr to become her chief assistant. He said that an attorney general's opinion on Article VI, though it has never been tested in court, prevented him from leaving the bench to become a prosecutor.

But Dickson's view is that in the case of an appointment such as hers, judges need not take leave in order to apply, as long as they sever their court employment before being sworn in as district attorney.