From the Office of the Alameda County District Attorney
Nancy E. O'Malley, District Attorney
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| Governor Brown Signs Law Protecting Crime Victims | |
On June 28, 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 130 into law. This bill, written by State Senator Ellen Corbett and co-sponsored by the Alameda County District Attorney's Office and San Diego County District Attorney's Office, expands the list of criminal charges for which a prosecuting witness may have a support person present while testifying.
 Testifying in court can be a difficult and traumatic experience for some. Forced to confront their attackers in the unfamiliar environment of a courtroom, many crime victims may find that they need additional support. SB 130 acknowledges the difficulties that victims face in testifying, and goes some way towards ameliorating them.
"Governor Brown has taken a very important step in signing SB 130," said District Attorney Nancy O'Malley. "In many types of criminal cases, crime victims and witnesses are entitled to the support of a victim-witness advocate while testifying in court. Before the passage of SB 130, California law denied this crucial support to some of the most vulnerable victims. With the passage of SB 130, victims of stalking and victims of sexual assault under the age of 10 are also entitled to these rights which were previously denied to them. I am grateful for the work that Senator Corbett and the San Diego District Attorney's Office have done on this legislation to extend these important protections to victims, and I am proud of what we have accomplished together."
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Family Justice Center Announces Opening of P.U.L.S.E.
The Alameda County Family Justice Center is proud to announce that it now hosts a library! As of July 22, 2013, the Family Justice Center is the latest location to receive one of Alameda County's P.U.L.S.E. machines (P.U.L.S.E. stands for Pop Up Library Services for Everyone.) Immediately adjacent to the FJC's playroom for kids, this "pop up" library boasts a selection of reading materials for kids of all ages and reading abilities, in English as well as Spanish.
 | | ACFJC Director Cherri Allison speaks at the P.U.L.S.E. dedication ceremony. |
Although it looks more like a vending machine than a library, the FJC's P.U.L.S.E. machine is considered to be an official branch of the Alameda County Library system. Users will be able to swipe their library cards and check out books just like they would at a normal library. The machine dispenses the selected books along with a receipt that gives the due date. When they are done with the books, the young readers of the FJC can return their reading materials to a box right next to the P.U.L.S.E. machine. |
Operation Cross Country Nets Human Trafficking Arrests
Operation Cross Country is a national enforcement action that is coordinated through the Innocence Lost National Initiative, which is a partnership between the FBI, local law enforcement partners and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. From July 24-28, Operation Cross Country conducted a nationwide sweep, arresting hundreds of human traffickers around the country. 
In the Bay Area, agencies participating with the FBI in Operation Cross Country included our Office as well as Alameda County Probation, Alameda County Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Task Force, Alameda County Sheriffs, Alameda County Vice Enforcement Team (ACVET), Concord Police, Contra Costa Sheriffs, Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, Daly City Police, Hayward Police, Oakland Police, Petaluma Police, Richmond Police, Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety, San Francisco Police, San Jose Police, San Mateo Police, Santa Clara Police, Santa Rosa Police, Sonoma County Sheriffs, South San Francisco Police.
There were 17 individual operations conducted in the Bay Area as part of Operation Cross Country. These operations resulted in the arrest of 17 pimps, along with 74 other arrests or citations for various human trafficking-related offenses. Bay Area operations recovered 12 juvenile human trafficking victims - the most of any participating region in the country. Our Office is currently prosecuting three cases pursuant to these arrests.
Recent Human Trafficking Verdict
On July 22, 2013, a jury convicted Khari Mark Hicks of two counts of human trafficking, two counts of pimping, two counts of pandering by encouraging, as well as kidnapping, false imprisonment, criminal threats, and assault with a firearm. On December 9, 2010, Victim 1, who is a dependent adult, accepted a ride from a group of strangers. Instead of returning her to the Union City group home where she lived, the strangers drove her to Oakland, where she was forced into prostitution. As the victim was walking along International Boulevard, she was approached by the defendant, who offered to help her. The defendant took the victim to his apartment, where he hit her, threatened her with a gun, and informed her that she would be prostituting for him. After one week, Hicks decided that the victim was too much trouble and gave the victim to co-defendant Houff. (Houff plead guilty and is serving a four-year sentence in state prison.) On December 31, 2011, Victim 1 escaped from Houff by running to the Dollar Store and flagging down a security guard, who called OPD.
Victim 2 had been forced to prostitute for defendant Hicks in 2009, but when the defendant went to jail she informed him that she was done with that line of work. However, on May 23, 2010, the defendant kidnapped the victim at gunpoint from a residence and took her to his apartment in East Oakland. The defendant had the victim beat by a group of seven females. The victim was trapped in the apartment for one week before she was able to escape. On December 23, 2010, the defendant spotted the victim on International Boulevard in Oakland, and confronted her. He choked her, put a gun to her head, and beat her with the gun, fracturing the victim's clavicle. When the victim's current pimp at the time tried to intervene, defendant Hicks told him that she was "his girl." The prosecutor was DDA Sabrina Farrell.
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Mark McCannon Appointed to Bench
On July 12, 2013, Governor Jerry Brown appointed DDA Mark McCannon as judge in the Superior Court of Alameda County. McCannon came to our Office in 1997 after attending the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. During his time with our Office, McCannon served as the head of the Stalking Unit, and handled cases involving domestic violence, probation and parole violations, and handled the District Attorney's Expungement Program, whereby individuals meeting certain criteria can have their criminal records wiped clean for a fresh start.
McCannon was and remains actively involved in community organizations. In addition to being a member of the Chales Houston Bar Association and the Co-Vice President of Education and Training of the Black Prosecutors' Association, McCannon has led numerous training presentations for police agencies, non-profits, and other district attorneys' offices.
Although we will miss him here at the DA's Office, we know that his sharp intellect and even-handed approach to the law will make him an excellent judge. Mark will formally accept his new office at a ceremony to be held in Department 1 of the Rene C. Davidson Superior Courthouse in Oakland, August 15 at 5:00 pm.
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DA Justice Academy Graduation
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We are proud to announce the graduation of our most recent group of students to attend the District Attorney's Justice Academy!
The District Attorney's Justice Academy is a program established by our Office with East Bay Youth and Family Initiatives in 2011. The program provides youth ages 16 to 18 with the opportunity to learn about the justice system by participating in education seminars and paid internships.
Students in the DA Justice Academy meet every other week for two-hour sessions that included presentations from judges, local elected officials, reporters, criminal and civil attorneys, patent attorneys and professionals from the field of law enforcement. At the end of the semester each student is placed in a paid internship in a legal or government office. The program culminates in a presentation that each student delivers to the class on a topic of their own choosing.
 Initially the DA Justice Academy served students in the Livermore, Dublin, and Pleasanton area. However in the Fall of 2012 the program was expanded to include a second academy for students in Hayward, San Lorenzo, San Leandro, and Castro Valley School Districts. Preparations are currently underway to expand the program further in the coming school year.
This summer the Justice Academy graduated a total of 40 students. Graduations for the Tri-Valley and Eden Justice Academies were held on July 30 and 31, respectively.
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Highlighted Recent Verdicts
- On July 26, 2016 Adrian Lopez Jr. was convicted of robbery, attempted robbery, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and two counts of felon in possession of a gun. On January 17, 2013, the defendant approached his uncle and aunt and pointed a firearm at them. He patted down his uncle and aunt with the firearm pointed mere inches from them and took the $45 his uncle had in his pocket. As the defendant was leaving, he told his uncle and aunt not to call the police or he would be back. Thereafter, on February 1, 2013, the defendant's father arrived at work to find the defendant waiting for him. The defendant's father told his son to leave because he didn't want trouble at his work. The two men argued briefly and the defendant retreated to his car where he retrieved a semiautomatic firearm. He re-approached his father, pointed the firearm to his father's head and issued a profanity-laced threat to kill him. The defendant's father was in disbelief and repeatedly questioned his son's actions. The defendant retreated to his car. As he drove away from the scene, he laughed and told his father that he would be back. The prosecutor was DDA Amanda Chavez with assistance from Inspector Gus Galindo and Inspector Andre Rachal.
- On July 22, 2013, Patrick Wayne Willis was convicted of two counts of first degree murder for crimes he committed more than 20 years ago. On January 29, 1992 at 8:30 a.m., the body of 31-year old Victim #1 was found by the creek at the end of Hillside and 83rd avenue in Oakland. The victim was lying face down on a mattress, completely nude, her head and face covered in blood. Glass bottles were inserted in her vaginal and rectal cavities. A noose was tied tightly around her neck. The cause of death was strangulation. Two witnesses heard the victim screaming from the creek area at 10:30 pm, and at 4 or 5 a.m., respectively. They did not see anyone or call the police. On February 11, 1992, 23 year-old Victim #2's body was found in the middle of the street on 84th Avenue. A blood trail led the investigators to another pool of blood on Hillside, where the initial attack was believed to have occurred occured. The victim was stabbed 32 times. Recent advances in DNA technology enabled the OPD lab to determine that the same man deposited the sperm in both victims' mouths. The rarity of the sperm donor's profile from the victims' oral swabs were 1 in 17 quadrillion and 1 in 12 trillion, respectively. The sperm donor's profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), and a cold hit was made to the defendant, Patrick Wayne Willis. The defendant lived in Sacramento in 1992, but frequently visited his mother who lived less than two blocks from where the victims were killed. The prosecutor was DDA Annie Saadi.On July 9, 2013, a jury convicted Ezell
- On July 9, 2013 a jury convicted Ezell Edwards and Anthony Hoskins for the murder of Brondon McDaniel. On February 4, 2012 Mr. McDaniel was shot 7 times, including once in the head, in front of his home on 105th Avenue in East Oakland. The defendant Mr. Edwards went to see the victim due to a tax fraud scheme about which the victim had information. Mr. Edwards brought Mr. Hoskins with him to the victim's house. Evidence showed that the victim was shot with two different caliber bullets. Shell casings at the scene were matched to a gun recovered by the Oakland Police Department in a traffic stop several months later in which Mr. Edwards was the driver. During the trial, several witnesses testified that both Mr. Edwards and Mr. Hoskins bragged about having committing the murder, and how the victim was shot multiple times and in the head. The jury also convicted both defendants of possessing firearms having previously been convicted of felonies. The prosecutor was DDA Matt Foley.
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For a full description of all felony and misdemeanor verdicts please visit our website.
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Mission Statement
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The Alameda County DA's Office is dedicated to serving our community through the ethical prosecution of criminal offenses and the vigorous protection of victims' rights.
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Do you have a question for the District Attorney's Office?
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The District Attorney's Office receives many calls and e-mails from the public asking a wide variety of questions. Please feel free to e-mail a question of your own that you would like to see answered here.
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