Dysfunction in DA’s office on full display online

Prosecutors have it out in public forum; District Attorney Diana Becton to testify on Thursday

MARTINEZ >> In a boisterous administrative hearing livestreamed on Thursday, several Contra Costa County lawyers debated the importance of criminal justice reform, called each other liars, and shared accusations and embarrassing details about members of their office as they testified about a reprimand of a prosecutor last year.

It was a remarkably public airing of the political conflicts that divided the District Attorney’s Office under District Attorney Diana Becton, centering on Deputy DA Chad Mahalich’s appeal of a reprimand he received for refusing to facilitate a plea deal that allowed a 15-year-old murder defendant to be sentenced as a juvenile. Mahalich had been outraged that his office did not file a writ challenging the constitutionality of SB 1391, a 2019 change in state law that prevents anyone younger than 16 from being tried in adult court, and publicly criticized Becton’s handling of the case.

In his appeal, Mahalich is arguing that the reprimand letter was part of a pattern of targeted harassment and political retaliation against himself and others in the office.

However, his supervisor, Jason Peck, testified Thursday that he was pleasantly surprised Becton did not pursue a harsher punishment against Mahalich.

“Would you agree that targeted political harassment is despicable and evil conduct?” Mahalich asked Peck, who heads the DA’s Community Violence Reduction Unit (CVRU), at one point in the hearing.

“Chad, you have a letter in your file. You’re not targeted,” Peck shot back. “The only target you have is the one you put on yourself.”

Representing himself, Mahalich cross-examined three office prosecutors Thursday: Peck, Nichelle Holmes, and the office’s second in command, Venus Johnson. Topics ranged from serious — Mahalich accused Johnson, Becton, and Peck of failing to inform Sweitzer’s family that the office could have filed an appeal — to downright petty — an argument between Holmes and Mahalich about how much profanity attorneys used in the office.

Among Mahalich’s grievances was that Peck asked members of his unit to read and discuss an article about racism and white privilege in America by NBA player Kyle Korver, which concluded that the “fact that inequality is built so deeply into so many of our most trusted institutions is wrong.” Mahalich said Thursday that he was reprimanded one day after he complained about the meeting in which Peck brought up the article.

Mahalich read aloud an email from then-Chief Deputy Phyllis Redmond, who left her second-incommand position last year over Peck’s handling of a plea deal that freed a death row inmate. Redmond’s email, according to Mahalich’s recitation, said that Peck was “demanding” CVRU members “read a politically and racially-charged opinion piece and be prepared to discuss it.”

“Not only is it inappropriate for a manager to send this kind of politically and racially charged material and demand discussion about it, but it is, in my opinion, a very clear attempt to target Mr. Mahalich and provoke him into some type of race-based misconduct,” Redmond’s email said. “To set someone up to be upset and then say they make you uncomfortable is premeditated, despicable, evil conduct.”

Mahalich said Thursday he objected to the article because it mentions white privilege and makes a reference to reparations. He also said he disagrees that racism is “permeating” the United States and added that any prosecutor who makes race-based decisions should lose his or her job.

Peck said he had made it clear the discussion was optional after the office’s union president wrote a letter warning attorneys had complained. And he laughed out loud at the idea that he arranged the discussion to victimize Mahalich.

“I thought this would be a good exercise for the rest of the unit to discuss racial bias,” he said, “it had nothing to do with targeting just you.”

Earlier in the hearing, Mahalich questioned Holmes about her recollection of the Korver article discussion, and if she had written the word “hostile” next to his name in her meeting notes. Holmes replied that it was possible.

“You were hollering in my face and you were standing over me and pointing in my face,” Holmes said. “And you’re very tall and very big in stature so I felt threatened.”

“Oh, you felt threatened, interesting,” Mahalich shot back, sarcastically. “So if no other person from the unit meeting described me as pointing my finger or standing up, they would all be lying?”

“Absolutely, they would be lying, because you stood up,” Holmes said.

Drama within the DA’s office is hardly a new phenomenon. Becton’s predecessor, Mark Peterson, resigned from the office the same day he was charged with 13 felonies for stealing money from his own campaign fund. In 2010, one prosecutor clocked another in the head during a fistfight, and in 2017, a prosecutor rented a trailer, mounted it with a sign criticizing Peterson, and parked it across the street from the office in downtown Martinez.

Mahalich is also not the only Contra Costa prosecutor who has leveled such accusations against his boss. An administrative judge is also hearing a political retaliation complaint by longtime prosecutor Mary Knox, who alleges that she was demoted for supporting Becton’s 2018 opponent, Paul Graves. Knox is one of four women in the office who filed a federal suit against Becton alleging she favored men for important promotions.

Becton is scheduled to testify and be cross-examined by Mahalich on Thursday.