Prosecutors send DA a letter of protest
Four: ‘No meaningful additional investigation’ in which deputy was charged with manslaughter
MARTINEZ >> In the wake of the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s decision last month to charge a sheriff’s deputy with manslaughter in a 2018 on-duty shooting, four county prosecutors have written a protest letter criticizing the process, claiming there was “no meaningful additional investigation or newly discovered evidence” in the two years between the fatal shooting of Laudemer Arboleda and the decision to file charges against Deputy Andrew Hall.
In March, Hall — who was cleared by an internal Contra Costa sheriff’s probe and returned to duty within months of killing Arboleda — shot and killed 32-year-old Tyrell Wilson after Wilson brandished a knife and took a step toward the deputy. In the aftermath of Wilson’s killing, before Hall was charged, civil rights attorneys representing his family publicly called for Hall to be charged with two murders and questioned why the DA’s office hadn’t yet decided whether to file in the 2018 case.
The protest letter — signed by deputy district attorneys Chad Mahalich, Rachel Piersig, Mary Knox and Allyson Chandler and sent to District Attorney Diana Becton — doesn’t question the decision to charge Hall but says the public deserves “a timely, thorough investigation and review that instills faith and trust” in the process that follows police killings.
“In the 2018 incident related to Hall, your decision was delayed for two and a half years during which time there was no meaningful additional investigation or newly discovered evidence, Officer Hall was returned to duty in 2018, and there is now an allegation that you previously found that his use of force was justified,” the letter says. “Delays, such as in this case, create confusion which justi
fiably erodes confidence of the public and law enforcement in the process.”
In an interview Monday, Becton said she had not yet reviewed the letter, which was written after review by numerous senior prosecutors in the office.
“I have an open door policy with everyone. Anyone who wants to share concerns with me can be free to do so,” Becton said. “But I will not be responding to them through the press, I’ll be responding to them in my time.”
The protest letter also claims that none of the nine attorneys whom Becton selected to respond to police killings were consulted prior to the decision to charge Hall and that some of them learned of the decision through media reports. Becton said Monday none of those attorneys were part of the team that’s reviewing a two-year backlog of such cases starting in 2018.
Becton has previously explained the 2 1/2-year delay by saying that she “retooled” the review process for police killings, by moving to a “team-based approach.” That includes a group of attorneys and DA inspectors to review old cases, as well as a new team to review and investigate police killings as they happen. The four prosecutors who sent the letter to Becton are on the team formed to investigate new cases.
“These new teams receive their initial training in December 2020,” Becton said. “We then put them rotation in 2021, and so they’re reviewing cases from 2021 going forward. They have absolutely nothing to do with cases already in our backlog from 20182021. Nothing. Not one single solitary thing.”
However, the letter points out that prosecutors involved in the investigation of Hall for the March shooting of Wilson were not informed of or consulted about the decision to charge Hall in the death of Arboleda.
Until 2020, the district attorney’s reviews of police killings were handled by one prosector, Barry Grove, whose decisions were reviewed by the district attorney. Grove was removed from that role days after the East Bay Express published an article highlighting a Facebook message posted to Grove’s account, in which the prosecutor allegedly wrote that there were a “multitude of places” in the country were a jogger would be “attacked and maybe killed for being a white male.” The post appeared to have been in reference to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, the Black man who was chased down and killed by two white men in Georgia, according to the East Bay Express. A spokesman for the office denied the two incidents were connected, and several sources at the DA’s office said Grove planned to retire soon.
All four attorneys who signed the letter to Becton on Monday have taken recent legal action against Becton. Mahalich engaged in a public protest of a reprimand letter he received for refusing to take a plea deal in a murder case. Knox, Piersig and Chandler are plaintiffs in a stillactive federal suit against Becton alleging she favored men for promotions and “systemically” demoted women.
The March fatal shooting of Wilson remains under investigation. Hall turned himself in late April and was booked and released from county jail the same day after posting $200,000 bail. His first court appearance is set for later this month.
At an April news conference announcing the charge, Becton denied a claim by Hall’s attorney that she’d previously determined the use-of-force was justified. The attorney, Harry Stern, called the decision to file charges “political” and implied that the timing of the announcement — one day after former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd — was not a coincidence.