OAKLAND — The seven finalists to succeed recalled Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price spelled out their vision for the region’s criminal justice system Tuesday during expansive interviews before the county’s Board of Supervisors.
The interviews — conducted during a six-plus hour public meeting — provided a wide-ranging look at the finalists, including their initial plans for office, their reasons for running and their stances on numerous criminal issues facing all parts of the county.
It all came ahead of a consequential meeting on Jan. 28, when the supervisors are expected to pick one of them to succeed Price.
All of them signaled a willingness to run for office when the seat goes up for election in 2026, meaning none want to merely be viewed as a transition candidate. And all but one voiced varying degrees of support for Proposition 36, which passed in November and stiffened penalties for certain drug and theft crimes.
Here’s a summary of what each finalist said:
Elgin Lowe
Lowe, the branch head for the East County Hall of Justice in Dublin, emphasized his experience as a 28-year veteran Alameda County prosecutor, saying simply “it’s not just my job, it’s my life.” He plans to bring leadership and a sense of fairness to the office, recalling how multiple defendants’ families had thanked him after their criminal trials. “They didn’t like the result, but they thought the process was fair,” Lowe said. He touted a gang crackdown he previously led in southern Alameda County, and raised concerns about staffing levels within the previous district attorney’s human trafficking unit. He detailed a three-phased plan for his first 90 days in office, which largely included vast meetings with leaders and employees throughout the agency. “I’ve lived here and I’ve given my blood, sweat and tears to this community,” Lowe said.
Yibin Shen
Shen highlighted his work in the city attorney’s offices of Alameda and Santa Monica on issues of housing and wage discrimination. Part of that work, he said, included implementing legislation aimed at protecting children from evictions during the school year and ensuring workers receive sick leave and a minimum wage. “My vision for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office is that community safety can only be achieved through a holistic approach,” said Shen, adding that “we will build community trust with engagement and with complete transparency.” He also highlighted his work implementing a rare arrangement allowing his office to criminally prosecute the majority of cases filed in the city of Alameda. Those include cases that can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony, which amount to an annual caseload of more than 700.
Jimmie Wilson
Wilson spoke passionately about his fervor for the job, recalling how he grew up in a San Francisco neighborhood where “as a kid, I saw things that I think no other kid should ever see.” He also took an unusual path to the courtroom, having first worked as a plumber and personally serving on five juries where he was the only Black person on each panel. His subsequent decision to become a prosecutor has led to a two-decade career, where he now helps oversee all prosecutions in Alameda County. He said his ethos is simple: “If I was going to be a part of the system, I had to be fair.” He also laid out his concerns for the district attorney’s office after Price’s tenure, stressing that “I’m standing here telling you, you need someone to fix this thing. You need someone who is true in what that person believes. That is who I am, that is who I have always been.”
Ursula Jones Dickson
Citing her job as a sitting Alameda County superior court judge, Jones Dickson repeatedly declined to directly answer on questions posed by the supervisors, including whether she voted for Proposition 36. Rather, she described becoming a prosecutor after having grown up in a crime-ridden section of South Central Los Angeles, where she grew up attending numerous funerals for victims of violence. If appointed, she expressed plans to help the office “get back to doing the work of the district attorney.” She said she has had “extensive conversations” with fellow candidate Annie Esposito to bring her onto her staff, if selected. And she plans to lift directives instituted by Price that slowed the charging process. “This is going to be a huge undertaking,” said Jones Dickson, while describing an office that was “decimated” under Price’s tenure. “It is important for us to remember this is going to be a community effort,” she added.
LaTricia D. Louis
A longtime Alameda County prosecutor, Louis left the office shortly after Price took over in early 2023 for the county counsel’s office. She highlighted her expansive work as a county prosecutor in the field of mental health, while establishing funding for the office’s CARES Navigation Center. If appointed, she expressed a desire to expand the diversion program to the eastern and southern portion of the county. “We simply cannot punish our way to a safer community,” Louis said. She laid out a vision to “embrace innovation, creativity and a comprehensive approach to public safety.” She also expressed a desire to address a backlog of cases that led hundreds of misdemeanors to be dismissed in fall 2023. Louis plans to do it all with a spirit of “collaboration that crosses boundaries, breaks down silos and works toward a common goal: The well-being and safety of everyone in our community.”
Annie Esposito
Esposito recalled dropping out of high school to care for a family member, as well as her “first-hand knowledge of how mental illness in a family can devastate that family.” She described overcoming that to later serve as the second-in-command prosecutor for Contra Costa County DA Diana Becton and former Alameda County DA Nancy O’Malley, who endorsed her. “My philosophy is persevere, strive for excellence and fairness and maintain your compassion,” Esposito said. Esposito, who left Price’s administration a few months into 2023, said simply: “It is time to start healing the office, to bring back stability so that we can get to work for the community and restore public trust in public safety.” She touted an initiative in Alameda County that helped local prosecutors clear a backlog of sexual assault kits that needed to be tested. And she described expanding a mental health unit and collaborative courts before leaving Price’s office.
Venus D. Johnson
A child of East Oakland whose father was an Oakland police officer, Johnson said she spent much of her adolescence doing homework while visiting her father at the city’s police headquarters. She routinely boasted being the current second-in-command to state Attorney General Ron Bonta, where she oversees its $1.3 billion budget and the agency’s thousands of employees. Bonta has endorsed her. “I’m the person you’ve been looking for, full stop,” Johnson said. She routinely mentioned her wide-ranging experience at law enforcement offices across Northern California. And she noted a willingness to take a regional approach to combat crime and leverage her relationships with DAs in San Francisco and Contra Costa counties — both of whom have endorsed her — to cut down on crime. “My background and extensive executive management experience make me the right person to unify and move the DA’s office forward, being unencumbered by — and disassociated from — the past,” Johnson said.