DA O’Malley will not seek re-election
Longtime prosecutor says the office ‘grounded in seeking the truth and fighting for justice’
OAKLAND >> Nancy O’Malley, the longtime top prosecutor of Alameda County, announced Tuesday she would not seek a fourth term in the 2022 election, capping off a decadeslong career as a prosecutor and throwing the door wide open to a long list of potential candidates to run for her seat next year.
O’Malley, whose father, brother, and sister-in-law have all served as judges and attorneys, will have spent 12 years as the Alameda County District Attorney, and 37 years as a county prosecutor, when her current term ends in early 2023. During her time as DA, her office handled numerous prosecutions, including the police shooting of Oscar Grant III by a BART officer and the assassination of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey.
“I could not be more thankful for the career I have had in the best District Attorney’s Office in the state and certainly one of the best in the nation,” O’Malley said in a statement. “The overwhelming respect for this Office is widespread and well earned … I will work as hard as I have in the past as I continue to lead this office.”
During her time at the top, she only faced a challenger once, in the 2018 election. For next year’s election, two people — including a deputy district attorney in her office — have already filed papers to run against her, a sign that her exit may have been well-known within the DA’s office before it became public.
“As long as I have been in the Office, first as a Deputy District Attorney and then in leadership as Chief Assistant and now District Attorney, our actions have always been grounded in seeking the truth, fighting for justice and working with compassion for others,” O’Malley added.
“We have consistently strived to ensure that the criminal justice system in California and Alameda County is more responsive, more aware and more humane for those who are accused, for victims of crime and for those who witnessed crime.”
O’Malley’s statement didn’t say whether she will seek to become a judge, like her father, Bill O’Malley, her brother, Dan O’Malley, and her sister-in-law, Mary Ann O’Malley, who were all appointed to the superior-court bench in the latter portions of their careers.
So far, announced challengers for the elected district attorney position include civil rights attorney Pamela Price and current Alameda County deputy district attorney Jimmie Wilson. At least three other prosecutors in her office are rumored to be considering throwing their hats in the ring, but none of them have publicly confirmed any potential run.
In a statement, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Hayward, hailed O’Malley’s law-enforcement career. “For 37 years Nancy O’Malley has served the cause of justice in Alameda County courtrooms and inspired criminal justice reforms across America,” Swalwell said.
“I am saddened to hear she will no longer serve as District Attorney, but we are so fortunate for the commitment she’s made throughout her career to help victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual assault. For me, Nancy has played many roles: hiring attorney, boss, mentor, friend, and most recently, wedding officiant,” said Swalwell, whose 2016 marriage ceremony was led by O’Malley.
“As Nancy’s service to the office comes to an end next year, her work to serve justice will go on. I’m excited for what’s next.”
From the start of O’Malley’s top-job tenure, the district attorney’s office saw heightened scrutiny, beginning with the investigation into a BART police officer’s fatal shooting of Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009 at the Fruitvale station. That led to a murder charge against former officer Johannes Mehserle, who was eventually convicted of involuntary manslaughter, as well as a January decision against charging former BART officer Anthony Pirone.
More recently, O’Malley’s decision in September to charge former San Leandro police officer Jason Fletcher came in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, leading to Chauvin’s conviction.
O’Malley’s office saw pushback over multiple cases involving lawenforcement conduct, including the April 19 death of Mario Gonzalez, an Oakland man who died in Alameda police custody.
Her office had weathered highprofile controversies as well. Most recently, a high-ranking public defender filed a motion in the murder prosecution of Shawn Martin, accusing O’Malley of allowing misconduct to flourish under her watch. The motion failed, but so did the prosecution of Martin, as have several other Alameda County murder cases that went to trial this year.
O’Malley responded by instructing her attorneys to refuse informal plea negotiations outside of a courtroom, only to back down when the chief public defender informed her the appeals courts had ruled DA’s weren’t allowed to do that.