Attorney demands Alameda DA Pamela Price’s dismissal from manslaughter case against former San Leandro officer
The attorney for a former San Leandro police officer charged with killing a man three years ago is demanding that Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price be removed from the case — arguing she has shown “a consistent, publicly proclaimed animosity against the police profession in its entirety.”
Mike Rains, whose law firm represents police unions across the Bay Area, filed a motion Wednesday which seeks to dismiss Price and her office from the prosecution of Jason Fletcher, a veteran police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter in the 2020 death of Steven Taylor. Rains asked that the California Attorney General’s Office take over the case.
In arguing for Price’s office to be tossed, Rains cited a roughly decade-long run of statements by the longtime civil rights attorney. They included comments from Price alleging Fletcher “executed” and “murdered” Taylor during their deadly encounter three years ago in a San Leandro Walmart.
Rains also claimed Price accepted a $5,000 donation after her election from members of the legal team that is suing Fletcher and the city of San Leandro on behalf of Taylor’s family.
“Pam Price has made it very clear through a vast array of social media postings that she despises all police officers, labeling the entire profession as white supremacists, sexual predators, murderers and racists,” the motion said. It also criticized her “widely-publicized political grandstanding” concerning Fletcher’s case — adding that her statements left her “utterly incapable of conducting a fair evaluation of any aspect of the case.”
Requests for comment by this news organization to Price’s office were not immediately returned Wednesday.
The Attorney General’s Office also did not immediately return a request for comment.
The move represents a twist in a case that drew widespread attention for the rarity of seeing a Bay Area police officer charged for on-duty violence. When Fletcher was charged in 2020 by Price’s predecessor, Nancy O’Malley, it marked the first time in more than a decade that a law enforcement officer had faced criminal prosecution in the death of a civilian.
Investigators say Fletcher acted unreasonably when he was called on April 18, 2020, about a possible shoplifter holding a baseball bat inside a Walmart in San Leandro.
Authorities say Taylor, 33, had grabbed the aluminum bat and a tent before trying to leave without paying.
When Fletcher arrived, though, he approached Taylor and tried to grab the bat, authorities say. When Taylor pulled away, Fletcher drew his gun and told him to drop the bat before firing it twice at Taylor, killing him, according to court documents.
It all happened within the span of 40 seconds, according to prosecutors working under O’Malley’s supervision. They added in court documents that, “Mr. Taylor posed no threat of imminent deadly force or serious bodily injury to defendant Fletcher or anyone else in the store.”
In the motion to kick Price off the case, Rains listed numerous social media postings by Price both before and after her successful election in 2022 — including many during her previous campaign for the office in 2018. He also highlighted one post in 2019 that said police departments “attract racist white people who want to criminalize, control jail and marginalize black people today.”
“She painted herself into a corner by making promises to her allies, before ever having had the opportunity to even open Fletcher’s file,” the motion said, adding that “she cannot go back on these campaign promises without losing face.”
Rains also took aim at a newly-created Public Accountability Unit within the district attorney’s office — one specializing in reviewing cases involving allegations of officer misconduct and criminal activity. Rains framed the leader of that unit, Kwixuan Maloof, as a prosecutor who appears unfairly focused on a mission to “charge cops.”
His motion comes two days after Price’s office charged a longtime Oakland homicide detective with perjury, threatening witnesses and other felony counts, a case filed by Maloof.