Citing Price phone call to defense attorney, judge strikes gun count from murder case
Judge Thomas Reardon said the situation "just doesn't pass the stink test."
A judge struck a gun enhancement from a high-profile murder conviction Monday following claims that former DA Pamela Price only added it after the defense attorney refused to support her politically.
Assistant Public Defender Jennie Otis filed a motion to strike the gun enhancement last fall, months after a jury convicted her client, Jamal Thomas, of murdering his neighbor Miles Armstead in Oakland in 2020.
The enhancement could have added 10 years to the sentence.
Otis says Price had called her seeking campaign support on the night before the murder trial began in June 2024.
Evidence submitted in court, including Price's personal cellphone records, supported her assertion.
During the phone call, Otis "was quite pointed in her criticism and rebuke of the office," Public Defender Kathleen Guneratne argued in court Monday morning.
Hours later, Price authorized adding a gun enhancement to the murder charge, a decision that had reportedly been in limbo for more than a year, Guneratne said.
Soon after becoming DA, Price issued a policy saying she would not approve the use of enhancements in most cases, part of her push for sentencing reform and effort to address racial disparities.
On Monday, in ruling on the defense motion to strike the gun enhancement before sentencing, Judge Thomas Reardon said the situation "just doesn't pass the stink test."
Reardon said Price, who was recalled by voters in November, could have come to court at any point to explain the late-night timing of the decision to add the enhancement to the murder case.
"The bottom line is she's not here," Reardon said. "We have no such explanation. No one has come forward."
Reardon said Price had "evaded" the process to get her into court, which included multiple efforts by the defense to serve her with a subpoena.
Her former top deputy, Otis Bruce Jr., was also part of the charging decision, according to evidence presented in court. He resigned last year in the months before the recall.
"I don't know where Mr. Bruce is," the judge continued Monday. "He left the office the day all this happened, never to be heard from again, as far as I know."
Prosector Nathan Feldman argued against the decision to strike the gun enhancement, saying Price had just followed her own policy requiring her to approve the addition of enhancements.
"She knew she had to make a decision, so she made it as soon as she could," he said, adding, "Even if the court finds she acted improperly, that enhancement could still stand."
Judge Reardon said that, while the evidence presented by the public defender's office was largely circumstantial, the appearance of unfairness was "too great" to allow the gun enhancement conviction to stand.
He said it pained him to make the decision because he respected the work the jury had done in making its decision based on the evidence.
Reardon said that, even had Price simply called Otis on a Sunday night to have a discussion about campaign support, she should have immediately ended the conversation when the case came up, or delegated decisions about the case to someone else.
"This is what happens when," Reardon said, pausing at length before continuing, "you put folks in charge of things that … don't know how it works, and they don't know what the guardrails are."
The case is set to return to court for sentencing next month.
The Scanner repeatedly asked the Alameda County Public Defender's Office about the Otis allegations in early July 2024 after receiving tips about the alleged phone call between Price and Otis.
After asking multiple clarifying questions about the situation, the office spokesman apologized, saying only, "we’re not going to comment."
It's not the first time judges have found fault with Price's conduct or that of people she hired.
During her two-year tenure as DA, her entire office was recused from two high-profile cases, including a fatal police shooting.
Last year, a judge dropped charges against officers in a different fatal police shooting case due to "rushed and careless work" by prosecutors hired by Price.
The state attorney general's office also dropped a case Price had filed against a political critic "in the interest of justice."
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Emilie Raguso
This story will be updated with more detail later today.
