OAKLAND — A former Alameda County prosecutor — and one of many loudest critics of his former boss, District Lawyer Pamela Value — appeared in court docket on Monday amid allegations he interfered with the prosecution of a San Leandro police officer.
Amilcar “Butch” Ford was arraigned earlier than Alameda County Superior Courtroom Decide James Cramer on a misdemeanor cost of defending after public prosecution because the prosecutor. Ford — who now works for the San Francisco District Lawyer’s Workplace — may very well be disbarred if convicted.
Showing in a black swimsuit, Ford spoke little in the course of the listening to whereas flanked by three attorneys. A number of of his supporters sat within the gallery — amongst them a number of former Alameda County prosecutors who resigned after Value took workplace, together with Stacie Pettigrew and Charly Weissenbach. Additionally readily available to assist Ford was Matt Finnegan, an lawyer with the native union representing Alameda County prosecutors.
Prosecutor Leah Abraham didn’t request any bail be set for Ford, and the decide allowed him to stay free on his personal recognizance. Ford is about to seem for a plea listening to on Sept. 15.
Ford — who has beforehand framed the cost as being politically motivated — declined to remark after the listening to.
The case represents a uncommon occasion of a present district lawyer prosecuting one among her former workers — one who has assailed his former boss for in depth reforms to the area’s justice system. Ford has repeatedly pilloried Value, most notably at at a rally in April that known as for her ouster. The occasion foreshadowed a transfer by a number of different neighborhood members earlier this month to formally start a recall marketing campaign towards Value.
Value alleges Ford broke the state’s enterprise and professions code in April, when he filed a declaration supporting an East Bay lawyer’s bid to disqualify Value from the case of Jason Fletcher. Fletcher, a former San Leandro police officer, faces a manslaughter cost within the 2020 on-duty capturing loss of life of Steven Taylor.
Within the sworn declaration, Ford described a number of conversations he had with Kwixuan Maloof, the pinnacle of Value’s Public Accountability Unit. It included one occasion the place Maloof allegedly mentioned, “I got here right here to cost cops. They higher be prepared. They higher Google me,” in accordance with the court docket declaration.
Ford filed the declaration a few month earlier than he resigned to work for the San Francisco District Lawyer’s Workplace, becoming a member of a number of veteran Alameda County prosecutors, together with Pettigrew and Weissenbach, who’ve left to work throughout the Bay Bridge. Taking their place in Value’s workplace have been a number of workers of Chesa Boudin, the previous San Francisco district lawyer who was recalled in 2022.
The case was moved to Cramer’s courtroom Monday morning after Superior Courtroom Decide Armando Pastran — who was appointed to the bench late final 12 months after having been a prosecutor in Alameda County since 2006 — recused himself.
