OAKLAND — An attorney for an ex-San Leandro police officer charged in a 2020 on-duty shooting claimed this week that a former Alameda County prosecutor tried to “manipulate the opinions of expert witnesses to secure a conviction,” in conversations that “border on unethical.”
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The allegations — aired in a court filing Wednesday — drew an immediate rebuke from the ex-prosecutor, Zachary Linowitz, who called the claims “100% false.” He added that they had all the hallmarks of “a corrupt playbook in order to ensure that police prosecutions fail.”
The tit-for-tat salvos cast a new spotlight on the high-profile manslaughter case against Jason Fletcher, the San Leandro officer accused of fatally shooting a homeless man while on duty five years ago. They came after a top official of Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson alerted Fletcher’s attorney about three newly discovered reports detailing Linowitz’s work on the case in 2023 and 2024, none of which have been made public.
Linowitz allegedly struck out three times while seeking police use of force experts whose testimony would bolster the prosecution’s case, according to the Wednesday court filing by Fletcher’s attorney, Michael Rains. Linowitz then allegedly failed to share the results of his search with a new batch of prosecutors handling the case once Jones Dickson took over, the filing said.
The case centers on the killing of Steven Taylor, 33, who was shot on April 18, 2020, after grabbing an aluminum baseball bat and a tent inside a San Leandro Walmart and trying to leave without paying. Only about 40 seconds passed between the time Fletcher encountered Taylor and when the fatal shot was fired, according to a lawsuit against the city of San Leandro by the slain man’s family.
During one conversation, Linowitz allegedly told one potential policing expert, “you were my last hope — I’ve run it by several experts,” the court filing said. The comment came after the expert said he didn’t think the evidence supported a “criminal case.” The expert also suggested that if Linowitz “continued shopping around, he’d find somebody who would tell him what he wanted to hear,” though it likely wouldn’t “serve him well in front of a jury,” the filing said.
“Disturbingly, some of the communications between Mr. Linowitz and the experts disclose an effort on the part of Linowitz to convince the experts to change their statements or opinions to secure a conviction of Defendant Fletcher,” Rains’ filing said.
In an interview with this news organization, Linowitz immediately defended himself — calling the allegations “categorically untrue.”
Linowitz recalled finding multiple policing experts willing to testify on behalf of his team, including one on the use of tasers. He said his office found evidence that Fletcher appeared to fire his taser a third time against Taylor, after the man had already been shot.
“I 100% stand by the work I did, and they should come ask me about it,” Linowitz said.
A former Contra Costa public defender, Linowitz left the Alameda County DA’s office early this year after the recall of his former boss, former District Attorney Pamela Price. He had been the longest-tenured member of the Public Accountability Unit, which Price started as a means to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing among law enforcement officers and government officials.
Linowitz said he repeatedly tried to provide background information on the case to other local prosecutors after he left. Those efforts included a letter dated June 4 — which he shared with this news organization — where he offered insight on “expert consultations further contextualizing Fletcher’s troubled decision-making and hasty use of force.”
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment for this story.
The allegations came as Rains asked to delay a July 25 hearing over whether the case should be tried by state or local prosecutors. Rains said a report by one of the people approached by Linowitz was due in early August, which could further shed light on the conversations in dispute.
A judge last year ordered California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s staff to oversee Fletcher’s case, after expressing concerns that then-Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and her office were too biased to prosecute it. The recusal order — which encompassed the entire local DA’s office — is now being debated again, given Price’s recall in November. In court filings, state prosecutors have suggested it should be returned to Alameda County.
As the county’s new top prosecutor, Jones Dickson quickly reorganized Linowitz’s old unit — turning over its staff, reshaping its mission and renaming it the Public Integrity Division. Its new responsibilities include assisting the county’s civil grand jury, investigating officer-involved shootings and handling press inquiries.
Jones Dickson also has quickly dismissed multiple cases filed during Price’s tenure — prompting questions about the future of other cases handled by Linowitz’s former unit.
Former District Attorney Nancy O’Malley charged Fletcher with voluntary manslaughter in 2020, five months after Taylor was fatally shot. The decision made him the first law enforcement officer in the Bay Area to face charges in the death of a civilian while on-duty since BART Officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009.
The case garnered new attention in early 2023, when a veteran prosecutor claimed that one of Price’s new hires boasted about having applied for the job “to charge cops,” adding, “they better be ready.” The man who made those comments, Kwixuan Maloof, had just been placed in charge of the Public Accountability Unit.
Price later filed a seldom-used misdemeanor charge against that veteran prosecutor, Amilcar “Butch” Ford, while claiming he was effectively in league with Fletcher’s attorney. That case was later dismissed, and Ford left Alameda County to prosecute cases in San Francisco.
The most recent allegations surrounding Linowitz surfaced after Assistant District Attorney Casey Bates — who leads Jones Dickson’s new Public Integrity Division — contacted Fletcher’s attorney about having recently received the three reports about Linowitz’s work on the case, the court filing said.
Hours after Rains’ filing was made public Wednesday, Linowitz slammed the district attorney’s office for “conducting these interviews and combing through the file without reaching out to me.”
“This is really shady to me, what they’re doing,” said Linowitz, while questioning the motives of Alameda County prosecutors in recently reaching out to Rains about the case. “It seems very clear to me that this is their desperate way to get rid of a case that they don’t want to prosecute.”
Told of the former prosecutor’s criticisms, Rains retorted, “Zach Linowitz and Pamela Price had the market cornered on being shady.”
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at [email protected].