Bribery and perjury case against Bay Area detective thrown into limbo just ahead of trial
The bribery and perjury case against Oakland police detective Phong Tran was thrown into limbo Monday, amid the revelation that Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson’s office had planned just days ago to dismiss all but one charge against the embattled homicide detective.
The seesawing decisions by Jones Dickson came during a hearing Monday, when Tran’s trial was expected to get underway with his case being assigned a trial judge. Instead, prosecutors were given several more days to finalize their decision on whether to pursue the full scope of their years-long case against Tran, or just a fraction of the charges.
Tran — a veteran detective with more than a decade of experience investigating homicides in the East Bay — faces three perjury-related charges and a single count of bribery of a witness. The ensuing scandal has led to multiple lenient plea deals, case dismissals and the overturning of at least three murder convictions, along with a sprawling review of up to 200 cases that he touched.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Roz Silvaggio said at a hearing Monday that she was told by Jones Dickson’s office on Thursday that prosecutors planned to drop all but one charge against Tran.
Yet Darby Williams, the deputy district attorney overseeing the case, said she received new information after that Thursday meeting, leading her to reverse course and continue to trial with four charges against the detective. Even so, Williams appeared to remain unsure on exactly how the case will go forward, adding that she would “definitely” know which charges she planned to bring against Tran this week.
The prosecutor’s whipsawing stances led Silvaggio to delay assigning the case to a trial judge for a week.
Tran’s attorney, Andrew Ganz, said he was first notified two weeks ago by Williams most of the charges against his clients could be dismissed. He did not immediately comment to this news organization after Monday’s hearing.
Check back for updates on this developing story.