Seven finalists nonetheless within the working to take over the Alameda County District Legal professional’s Workplace gave their pitches to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
With supervisors anticipated to make their closing determination throughout a particular assembly subsequent week, it was the one scheduled public listening to throughout which all the remaining candidates could be interviewed by the board.
In the course of the roughly six-hour assembly, the possible district attorneys gave opening statements and answered questions on all kinds of subjects, together with juvenile justice, options to incarceration, racial bias in jury choice, boosting the morale within the reportedly fractured workplace and interacting with immigrant defendants, witnesses and victims, amongst different issues.
Annie Esposito
“I stand apart from everybody else because I can hit the ground running,” mentioned Annie Esposito, Contra Costa County assistant district lawyer and former senior assistant district lawyer in Alameda County beneath former district lawyer Nancy O’Malley, who has publicly endorsed her for the job.
Esposito, a first-generation Chinese language American, mentioned she would be certain that deportation isn’t used as an added punishment for many crimes, would strike a stability between options to incarceration and public security, guarantee legislation enforcement personnel are held accountable for felony conduct and run a clear workplace.
Venus Johnson
Venus Johnson, chief deputy lawyer normal with the California Division of Justice, grew up in Oakland with a father who was an Oakland correctional officer.
Johnson can be the previous director of Oakland’s Division of Public Security, a former authorized and coverage advisor to Kamala Harris when she was state lawyer normal and a former chief assistant district lawyer in Contra Costa County.
She mentioned she operates a state workplace with a $1.3 billion price range and 5,000 staff so she is aware of how one can lead a corporation. She mentioned she has helped prioritize diversion packages for mentally in poor health defendants accused of low-level crimes, up to date the immigration coverage in Contra Costa County in response to neighborhood considerations and has aggressively prosecuted retail theft rings.
“Please don’t mistake the daughter of an immigrant and a correctional officer from West Oakland as someone who would use this as a steppingstone,” Johnson mentioned. “My village and my momma raised me better than that.”
Ursula Jones Dickson
Alameda County Superior Court docket Choose Ursula Jones Dickson was raised in a high-crime neighborhood in Carson in Southern California.
“You live in the hood, figure out how to do well in school and get out of the hood, and that’s what I did,” Jones Dickson mentioned.
Alameda County Superior Court docket Choose Ursula Jones Dickson makes her presentation to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 21, 2025. Dickson is a finalist for the place of Alameda County District Legal professional. (Framegrab from video/Alameda County)
She mentioned the present workplace has 48 prosecutors employed by ousted district lawyer Pamela Value, lots of whom didn’t have earlier prosecutorial expertise and might have extra coaching. She would rent a forensic accountant to overview the price range and take steps to handle the divisions within the workplace and likewise mentioned she would “rebuild” the sufferer/witness program and restore relationships with sufferer advocates, legislation enforcement and different stakeholders.
Latricia Louis
Latricia Louis is the deputy county counsel in Alameda County and former Alameda County assistant district lawyer who mentioned the job requires daring management, a dynamic imaginative and prescient for the longer term and a complete, balanced method to public security.
“People feel unsafe because all too often they are unsafe,” Louis mentioned. “Once selected, I will immediately address the significant issue of enforcement. That means a return to the core mission of the District Attorney’s Office to prosecute public offenses and protect the public safety.”
“People feel unsafe because all too often they are unsafe.”
Latricia Louis
She mentioned she would help rehabilitation when acceptable, work to cut back burnout within the workplace, middle victims’ and survivors’ experiences and use a data-driven evaluation to overview the effectiveness of different justice packages just like the county’s “collaborative court” system.
Yibin Shen
Yibin Shen is the town lawyer for the town of Alameda, the place he additionally prosecutes crime in a considerably uncommon association for somebody in that function.
Shen mentioned he has expertise managing a troublesome price range course of and helped carry his workplace’s spending in line whereas increasing providers. He mentioned he’s pleased with the work he has carried out on wage and honest housing enforcement and the transparency with which he runs his workplace.
He mentioned his management model is “collaborative, transparent and fiscally responsible” and he’s smitten by public engagement.
“I am committed to implementing the board’s vision of finding diversion and restorative justice programs,” Shen mentioned. “I’m committed to implementing the board’s vision of reducing barriers to reentry and to find support and wrap around services so that we can find ways to keep people out of the criminal justice system, especially for low level offenders and when it comes to youth especially.”
Jimmie Wilson
Jimmie Wilson is a deputy district lawyer in Alameda County who grew up in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Level neighborhood and went to legislation faculty whereas working as a union plumber.
“Over the last 20-plus years, no one has tried as many cases that I have in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office,” mentioned Wilson, who ran for the district lawyer place within the 2022 election.
Alameda County Deputy District Legal professional Jimmie Wilson makes his presentation to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 21, 2025. Wilson is a finalist for the place of Alameda County District Legal professional. (Framegrab from video/Alameda County)
He mentioned he believes that it’s potential to implement felony justice reform and hold the neighborhood protected, that it’s unlawful and unethical to cost a defendant extra harshly due to their immigration standing, and that he has aggressively prosecuted individuals who have interaction in power retail theft.
Elgin Lowe
Elgin Lowe is a senior deputy district lawyer in Alameda County who has been with the workplace for 28 years, longer than another applicant.
Lowe mentioned he would begin engaged on the price range as quickly as potential and can carry equity, accountability and belief again to the workplace.
“Accountability means we will take a holistic approach to determine what justice means in each individual. This does not mean the same thing in every case,” he mentioned. “You have to look at facts, the law, the defendant, criminal history, any of the mitigating factors and, in some cases, justice may be in the drug court to deal with the drug issue or using another court like mental health court, but let me be clear — if justice required that a person be incarcerated for an extended period of time, I will not hesitate to do so.”
The supervisors usually appeared impressed with all the candidates’ demeanors and expertise throughout the interview course of however didn’t point out who they may favor for the job.
They’re scheduled to deliberate and make their choice at a particular assembly on Jan. 28.
Video of Tuesday’s assembly and full interviews with the candidates is accessible from the county’s web site.
