Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday a change in who will be prosecuting some criminal cases in Alameda County.
The governor said some of the cases being brought as part of an ongoing California Highway Patrol operation in Oakland will now be prosecuted by the state Department of Justice -- using California National Guard prosecutors.
Friday's announcement is the latest in a series of actions by Newsom to tackle violent and organized crime in the East Bay, but it comes over strong objections from the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.
The governor has been deploying state resources to assist Oakland with various crime problems for months, including bringing in more CHP officers in a series of "surge" operations. The operations led to 156 felony arrests, Newsom said, and gratitude from the Oakland police chief at a July news conference.
But at that time, Newsom claimed Alameda County DA Pamela Price was not receptive to his offer to bring in California Guard prosecutors as he did in San Francisco. So after rescinding the offer, Newsom announced he will move forward with a different plan of prosecuting cases through the state Department of Justice.
"This is not the job of the AG's office to assume all the responsibilities of the Alameda County DA's office," Newsom said. Quite the contrary, but we want to lessen the load. We want to address some of the more complex cases."
Price has disputed the governor's claims, saying his initial offer was both misguided and misleading.
However, in response to NBC Bay Area's request for comment on Friday, Price issued a statement saying her office welcomes state prosecutors. The released statement reads, in part, "We hope the swift agreement reached between the Department of Justice and California Guard yields equally swift results, and my office is willing to assist in that effort in any way possible."
Price did make sure to point out to the public that despite all the arrests credited to the CHP surge cases, only 11 were ever referred to her office for prosecution.
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