State bar charges ex-Alameda County prosecutor with lying to judge at start of rape trial

OAKLAND — The California State Bar has filed disciplinary charges against a former Alameda County prosecutor who allegedly sent an email to a judge pretending to be his own wife and falsely stating he’d been in a severe car wreck, court records show.

The attorney, Keydon Levy, was charged earlier this month with misrepresentation involving moral turpitude. It is an allegation that can result in disbarment or suspension if proven. Specifically, the state bar charged Levy with sending an email that was  “false and misleading in that it represented that it was authored and sent by the respondent’s wife when in fact it was authored and sent by respondent.”

Levy responded to the state bar charges asking for discovery and arguing the case should qualify for the state bar’s Alternative Discipline Program, which would spare Levy more punitive consequences if the charge is found true. The state bar court rejected his initial document, stating in a memo that it had failed to meet technical filing requirements, court records show.

The incident occurred in 2020, when Levy was a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, just one day after Levy revealed to the defense there was a serious credibility issue with a key witness in a rape and forced sodomy case he was prosecuting. The email, sent to both the trial judge and the defense attorney, said that Levy had been in a “very severe” car wreck and needed to postpone the trial so he could recover.

“I am (Levy’s wife) and I know your names because he discussed you as he was preparing for this trial…He would have wanted to have you informed as I know how seriously he takes his work,” Levy allegedly wrote, of himself, in the email.

Eight days later, a high-ranking Alameda County prosecutor appeared in court instead of Levy, told the judge that none of what was said in the email was true, and added that Levy was “currently off of work.” Levy left his job at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office — which refused to say at the time if he was fired or quit — shortly thereafter, and has since become a criminal defense attorney with a firm in the Bay Area.

Levy’s email was sent one day after he informed defense attorneys for a man accused of rape that a key witness had been arrested for carjacking. It was a piece of information that the defense could have used to attack the woman’s credibility on the witness stand. While Levy was out, before his superior revealed the falsehoods in the email, prosecutors tried to get the defense to accept a plea deal for decades in prison, but ultimately agreed to a resolution that required only a four-year term. The defendant had originally faced a possible life sentence.

The Lamano Law Firm, where Levy currently works, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

It is unclear from the court records who tipped off the state bar. The Alameda County DA’s office refused at the time to say whether they referred Levy’s case to the state bar for possible discipline, calling it a personnel matter. A spokeswoman for then-DA Nancy O’Malley only said that the office “demands the highest level of integrity, honesty and professionalism from all of its employees” and refused to comment further.