TBS Today, Oct. 11

DA Pamela Price has been accused of soliciting a $25,000 donation from a political critic to help her fight the recall effort, according to court papers filed this week.

Two weeks after Mario Juarez refused to pay Price, the DA's office hit him with a felony charge dating back to 2022 — despite having known about the allegation "for at least eight months," according to the motion filed Thursday by veteran defense attorney Ernie Castillo.

Calling it "quid pro quo corruption," Castillo said the conduct was "professionally reprehensible" and "borders on the criminal," in the form of attempted extortion or bribery.

And, reportedly, it didn't end there.

Castillo said the case against his client was set to be dismissed over the summer until Price "interfered" in the matter, removing a prosecutor who had found insufficient evidence to proceed.

Castillo is now asking the court to drop the case, describing it as "vindictive prosecution" and "outrageous government conduct."

Here's what we've learned, along with the original motion.

DA Pamela Price accused of $25,000 extortion attempt

Ernie Castillo says his client was hit with a felony after refusing to make a hefty campaign donation to DA Pamela Price in January.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

Apologies to all for the otherwise quiet week. We've been focused on other intensive writing and reporting.

The Santa Cruz homicide case ended yesterday with a guilty verdict and we are working to finish our story on everything we saw.

We also have election and BUSD coverage in the works.

We did check in with BPD and BFD repeatedly this week but did not turn up anything pressing.

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Judge slams DA’s office, drops manslaughter case against cops

Judge Scott Patton slammed the DA’s office for its “rushed and careless work” in filing the manslaughter case after the death of Mario Gonzalez.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

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