OAKLAND — Despite “substantial efforts,” the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office has been unable to serve recalled District Attorney Pamela Price with a rare subpoena that could help determine whether the county’s top prosecutor used her office as a political cudgel.
The repeated setbacks in serving the subpoena — which sought Price’s personal phone records amid allegations she retaliated against an attorney’s client — prompted the office to rely on a backup strategy, Kathleen Guneratne, an assistant public defender, said during a hearing Friday.
That backup plan involved also subpoenaing Price’s mobile carrier, AT&T, for those same records, Guneratne said. The phone company signaled it would comply, though the material did not arrive by Friday’s court date. Those records are expected to be discussed at a Jan. 24 hearing.
Guneratne said employees with her office did all they could to serve Price, including knocking on the door of her residence and — on multiple occasions — leaving copies of the legal document at her home. They also mailed copies of the subpoena to her and called a phone number whose outgoing message identified its owner as Alameda County’s district attorney. The office also texted that same number screenshots of the subpoena.
On one occasion, a person at Price’s house came out and said the recalled district attorney was out of the country. That person, who said they were housesitting, did not know when Price would return, Guneratne said.
All of their efforts came after Dec. 5, when Price left office after voters recalled her in an unprecedented election on Nov. 5. She served less than two years after first winning election in fall 2022, and county officials are now working to select a replacement to hold the position until the fall 2026 election.
Attempts by this newspaper to reach Price were not immediately successful Friday afternoon.
The subpoena comes as the public defender’s office aims to prove Price imposed sentencing enhancements against a client whose attorney, Jennie Otis, refused to work against Price’s recall. The defendant, Jamal Thomas, was found guilty last year of fatally shooting his former neighbor following a lengthy campaign of harassment, vandalism and threats in Oakland.
After the conviction, Thomas’ trial lawyer filed a sworn declaration accusing Price of using her position for political gain. Otis claimed Price imposed a sentencing enhancement one day after the two spoke on the phone on June 23 about Price’s efforts to oppose the recall. The public defender said she voiced her concerns about Price’s handling of the office and declined to donate to or support her campaign, only to be informed the following morning that the office would be pursuing a gun enhancement.
Sentencing enhancements are added to charges and can lengthen prison sentences. They were a rarity during Price’s tenure, because one of her first acts as DA was to change the office’s policy to require prosecutors to approve enhancements with higher-ups before filing them. It was part of her pledge during the 2022 campaign to reduce over-incarceration.
Judge Reardon also previously ordered Price’s former office to hand over any emails or phone records from her county-issued cell phone related to the alleged retaliation. The order encompassed two time periods — June 20-24, as well as Nov. 20 to Dec. 5.
Reardon’s order also included emails and texts written by Price’s former second-in-command, Otis Bruce Jr., who announced his plans to leave the office just days after the alleged retaliation; his last official day was July 13.
On Friday, Reardon said the district attorney’s office found few — if any — records pertaining to Bruce, largely because his county-issued phone was wiped clean after he left.
Still, Reardon said several calls, emails and text messages from Price’s county-issued phone were identified as being pertinent to the inquiry.
One complicating factor in turning those records over to the public defender’s office is the number of calls from Price’s county-issued cell phone to employees’ personal cell phones, Reardon said. As a result, county officials must first sift through the call records and try to swap out the cell phone numbers with each person’s name.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.