OAKLAND — An Alameda County judge on Friday refused to toss the manslaughter case against former San Leandro police officer Jason Fletcher, finding no evidence that former prosecutors tainted the case by allegedly hiding evidence from defense attorneys.
Judge Thomas Reardon’s ruling clears the way for Fletcher to face trial in late January in the 2020 death of Steven Taylor, who was fatally shot inside a San Leandro Walmart.
If it proceeds to trial, it would mark first time a police officer faces a jury over an on-duty killing in Alameda County since BART Officer Johannes Mehserle was tried — and convicted — in the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant more than 15 years ago. Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in July 2010, by a Los Angeles County jury after the case was moved down there.
At Fletcher’s hearing Friday in Oakland, Judge Reardon expressed frustration with one of Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson’s top lieutenants when the veteran prosecutor repeatedly refused to directly answer the judge.
Over and over, the judge told Assistant District Attorney Casey Bates to say whether he supported or opposed Fletcher’s motion to dismiss the case for “outrageous government misconduct.” Every single time, Bates refused to offer a simple “yes” or “no.”
Instead Bates — who leads Jones Dickson’s Public Integrity Division — expressed alarm at his predecessor’s actions, saying they were in fact “outrageous.” More than two hours into the hearing, Reardon appeared to lose his patience.
“You keep wanting to make speeches about your outrage,” said Reardon, a former Alameda County prosecutor. “Frankly it’s grandstanding. To what end, I’m not sure. But you won’t answer the court’s question, so I think I’ve heard enough from you.”
After the hearing, Taylor’s family and their supporters hugged and gave each other high-fives in the hallway outside the courtroom. His grandmother, Addie Kitchen, expressed relief.
“Let the jury make a decision,” Kitchen said. “What we saw the day is the DA did not do his job. The judge did the DA’s job, and that is unacceptable.”
Kitchen strongly criticized Jones Dickson’s office for allowing Fletcher’s attorney to “take over.”
“I have no confidence in DA Bates. He did not fight for us,” she said.
The hearing provided yet another twist to a case full of them, including the 2024 removal — and subsequent reinstatement this year — of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office as the prosecuting agency. Those orders largely centered around complaints by Fletcher’s attorneys that District Attorney Pamela Price, who county voters ousted from office last year, was biased against the former officer.
More recently, Fletcher’s attorneys — who represented Mehserle in 2010 — opened a new line of attack that sought the case’s outright dismissal.
In a flurry of court filings, attorney Michael Rains claimed that former Alameda County prosecutor Zachary Linowitz acted “unethical” by never alerting them about communications he had with multiple police use-of-force experts that may have doubted prosecutors’ chances at trial. Linowitz allegedly told one expert that “you are my last hope — I’ve run it by several experts,” Rains said.
Their case was repeatedly buttressed by Bates’ own monthslong investigation into Linowitz, a former lead prosecutor of the Public Accountability Unit that Price started in 2023. At one prior hearing, Bates appeared so concerned about the former prosecutor’s actions that he suggested Linowitz and others tied to him could be criminally liable for their conduct.
Linowitz has vehemently denied the allegations, previously telling this news organization that they were “100% false.” On Friday, he and two other former prosecutors previously tied to the case — James Conger and Kwixuan Maloof — declined to testify, citing their 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
A fourth former prosecutor, Alexis Feigen Fasteau, did not show up to court Friday despite being subpoenaed to attend, Bates said.
Judge Reardon found that one alleged act of misconduct never happened as claimed, because an expert did not appear to cast doubt on the DA’s case until after Linowitz left the office in early 2025. In another instance, Linowitz’s communications with a potential expert appeared too preliminary to necessitate a formal notice to Fletcher’s attorneys, the judge found.
Reardon also appeared to acknowledge the difficult path that prosecutors face in winning a conviction at trial.
He referenced another ruling on the case in 2021, when fellow Alameda County Judge C. Don Clay said that “if this is just it right now in front of a jury, there’s no way in the world” that prosecutors would prevail.
Still, Reardon said he wanted the case to go before a jury.
“It may not be the world’s greatest case, I get it. I’ve seen stronger cases from their standpoint,” Reardon said. He added of prosecutors: “I get the sense they know they have a difficult case. And they may just have to try it.”
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.