Alameda County DA Price working to correct backlog of criminal cases

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price said her office is working to correct a backlog of misdemeanor and domestic violence cases found by her office both early last year and over the summer.

"What we found was that it has always been apparently a manual process, and one of the major flaws is that when cases are received in the DA's Office there is no mechanism or process by which the date of the incident is actually recorded," said DA Price.

The DA said a lack of case file dating has led to hundreds surpassing the statute of limitations, meaning those cases are no longer able to be prosecuted.

While the DA said the domestic violence backlog was found in April of 2023 and the misdemeanor backlog was found this summer, it doesn't appear the DA ever discussed any of the backlog issues publicly, until today.

The DA's press conference comes after the San Francisco Chronicle reported more than 1,000 misdemeanor criminal cases have passed the statute of limitations in the time since DA Price took office.

The DA denied those statistics, saying the backlog was there before she became District Attorney.

"It was not a process that was, or a problem excuse me, that was disclosed to me when I came into this office. As the public should know, there was no transition from my predecessor which we have said previous times was really a disservice to the community and a disservice to public safety," said DA Price.

The Chronicle interviewed the previous DA, Nancy O'Malley, who denied those allegations. Steven Clark, a former prosecutor in Santa Clara County, told me no matter when the backlog began, DA Price has been in office long enough to fix it.

"It is your obligation as the attorney in charge of a case to make sure the statute of limitations is complied with. You don't blame someone else," said Clark.

Clark said following the statute of limitations is the first and most important rule every prosecutor must follow.

"It's analogous to an airline pilot checking the gas gauge after they take off, you need to do that before you take off because that's the system we have. You do not have a case if you do not file it on time," said Clark.

Clark said blaming a clerical issue for allowing hundreds of cases to slip through the cracks is unacceptable.

"It's inexcusable that this occurred. It's tedious and mundane to file these misdemeanor cases but at the same time it's an essential part of a district attorney's office," said Clark.

DA Price said her office will be hiring additional staff to go over the backlog and come up with an efficient calendaring system.

"On Monday, we will assign three staff people and we will by that time Senior Assistant District Attorney Poppas will be able to create this color coded system that she started back in August," said DA Price.

When DA Price was asked how that color coded system would work, she said that was not her responsibility.