Defense attorney alleges voter suppression by DA Pamela Price

A Bay Area criminal defense attorney says he is considering litigation against Alameda County DA Pamela Price, alleging voter suppression and voter intimidation of her employees, among other claims.

Daniel Horowitz says DA Price and one of her top deputies, Royl Roberts, advised employees by email earlier this year to follow a state law prohibiting the solicitation of political contributions from co-workers.

The problem? The law was overturned last year after being deemed unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Horowitz said the intended effect of the emails was to chill constitutionally protected activities in the run-up to the recall election Price is facing Nov. 5.

The emails did not mention the recall or any election in particular.

But the Roberts email went out to employees the morning after the Alameda County Board of Supervisors set a date for the recall election.

On Thursday, Horowitz emailed DA Price, Royl Roberts and County Counsel Donna Ziegler to lay out his allegations.

He also advised the Fair Political Practices Commission, the Voting Section of the U.S. Department of Justice and California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office.

The Alameda County DA's office declined to comment on the matter Thursday afternoon.

According to his letter, Horowitz said he was hired by current employees of the Alameda County DA's office "to stop District Attorney Pamela Price from engaging in criminal threats, voter suppression and voter intimidation."

Horowitz declined to share how many people had hired him, citing concerns about workplace retaliation — particularly given what has been described as the politically-driven prosecution of one of Price's top critics after he helped organize the recall.

Horowitz highlighted two potentially problematic emails in his letter: an "Election Season Reminder" sent by Price to all employees in February and the Roberts email from May.

The Price email directed employees to review a portion of an Alameda County Grand Jury report related to violations of county policies and computer use during the 2018 election.

"Please review the Grand Jury report including the summary of existing Alameda County ordinances, policies and State laws pertaining to campaign activities applicable to all County employees and govern yourselves accordingly," she wrote.

One of the state laws listed in the Grand Jury report was California Government Code Section 3205: "An employee of a government agency shall not solicit political contributions from an employee of the same or another government agency."

The law was still in effect when the Grand Jury report was published last year — but had been struck down by the Ninth Circuit in July 2023, long before Price sent her email in February.

"This is classic, 1960's Bull Conner, Alabama, voter suppression revisited 2024 in Oakland, California," he wrote in his letter. "The threat was very clear. Pamela Price claimed that Government Code Section 3205 was 'existing' law. She warned that the employees had better 'govern yourselves accordingly.'"

In May, nearly a year after the law was struck down, Roberts included California Government Code Section 3205 in an email titled, "Please review the ACDOA Policies below."

He described the five code sections he included as guidance about preventing the misuse of county resources for political campaigns.

On Thursday, Horowitz told The Scanner that employees could have interpreted both emails as warnings to follow the law as described by their bosses or face potential arrest or other criminal penalties.

Price and her deputies should have known better, he told The Scanner.

That's because, after the Ninth Circuit's ruling, Attorney General Rob Bonta "sent formal notice to every district attorney’s office in California instructing them to follow the Court’s order and not enforce Government Code Section 3205," Horowitz wrote in his letter.

Horowitz told the county that Price must "Retract in writing her assertion that Government Code section 3205 is operative and state in writing that section 3205 is unconstitutional, will not be enforced and that any employee of Alameda County including the District Attorney’s office is free to solicit funds to support the recall of Pamela Price."

The Scanner asked Horowitz whether the inclusion of the overturned law might simply have been a mistake.

"I would love nothing better than honest contrition and an apology," he said.

Read more about Pamela Price on The Scanner.

In his letter, Horowitz wrote that Price needed to take action within 10 days.

He also said he was considering a range of legal remedies in relation to the alleged violations.

"Your compliance with the above does not foreclose our continued pursuit of legal action but it will substantially mitigate your damages," he wrote.