Alameda County District Attorney: 15 candidates want the job
The Alameda County Courthouse, seat of the Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, California, August 1959. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)
OAKLAND, Calif. - A total of 15 candidates want to replace recalled Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, including many people in her office, the city attorney of Alameda and the executive director of The Crucible.
The county’s Board of Supervisors now must choose one of those people to serve until the next general election in November 2026.
What we know:
The candidate names of those who applied were released on Monday at 5 p.m. and their applications and supporting documents will be posted online by Wednesday at 5 p.m., according to the clerk.
Royl Roberts is now serving as interim DA.
Roberts took out an application to become the DA, but he told KTVU in December that he did not have plans to seek the job permanently. He did not formally apply.
The DA's Office has 430 employees and an operating budget of $100 million.
Timeline:
Finalists for the job should be interviewed this week and are expected to be publicly interviewed the week of Jan. 13.
The board is expected to select the candidate on Jan. 16 and be sworn in on Jan. 28, according to a timeline the supervisors issued.
Price campaigned on a progressive platform but was ultimately ousted from office over philosophical and personal differences.
Candidate names:
Here is a list of people who applied:
- Miiko Anderson, an attorney who spent more than 16 years as a prosecutor in Fresno County;
- Annie Esposito, a Contra Costa County deputy district attorney. She has also worked as a prosecutor in Alameda County.
- Ursula Jones Dickson, an Alameda County Superior Court judge since 2013. She also has been a prosecutor.
- Simona Farrise Best, an Alameda County deputy district attorney who worked in the Consumer Justice Bureau, according to the East Bay Times.
- Amilcar C. "Butch" Ford, a prosecutor with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. He used to work for Price in Alameda County, but she charged him with a rare crime, which was ultimately dismissed by the California Attorney General.
- Venus D. Johnson, the chief deputy to California Attorney General Rob Bonta. She was an Alameda County prosecutor from 2008 to 2014.
- Latricia D. Louis, a deputy county counsel in Alameda County who previously spent 23 years working as a prosecutor, according to the East Bay Times.
- Elgin Lowe, senior deputy district Alameda County DA.
- Kwixuan Maloof, an assistant district attorney in Alameda County who works in the Public Accountability Unit. He used to be a San Francisco public defender.
- Ocean Mottley, a private attorney who has also worked for unions such as the IATSE Local 169 and IATSE B-192.
- Arvon Perteet, a deputy attorney general for the California Department of Justice, who states he has experience in financial fraud investigations.
- Scott Tsui, who was the first Asian-American to serve in Santa Clara County as an assistant district attorney, the Mercury News reported in 2012.
- Yibin Shen, the Alameda city attorney.
- Ian "Seth" Steward, who is now executive director of The Crucible, an industrial arts school. Before that, he was chief of staff for Oakland City Councilman Dan Kalb. He used to be an assistant district attorney in San Francisco.
- Jimmie Wilson, an assistant district attorney who ran for DA in 2022, but was beaten by Price. He currently works for the Alameda County DA's office and oversees charging decisions.