Judge sides with Alameda DA, dismisses manslaughter case against San Leandro cop in death of Steven Taylor

OAKLAND — A judge on Friday agreed to dismiss the manslaughter case against former San Leandro police officer Jason Fletcher, siding with prosecutors to abruptly end one of the highest-profile criminal cases against an Alameda County law enforcement officer in 15 years.

Judge Clifford Blakely’s ruling furthered a developing trend by Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson of dismissing the prosecutions of law enforcement officers she has seen as unviable before juries. Dropping the case one month before Fletcher was set to go to trial sparked backlash from police accountability advocates and supporters of Steven Taylor — the 33-year-old man Fletcher fatally shot five years ago — who yelled “No justice, no peace” while leaving the courtroom Friday.

Speaking from the bench at the end of a nearly two-hour-long hearing, Blakely said he couldn’t help but grant the dismissal after watching all the body-camera footage from the April 2020 deadly encounter inside a San Leandro Walmart. Blakely added that the prosecutor who sought the motion to dismiss “was right — the video shows what it shows.”

“Quite frankly, I cannot escape the conclusion that the evidence does provide substantial support for that position,” Blakely said.

Moments later, a woman from the courtroom gallery yelled, “Shame on you,” adding, “the community will not forget.” Nearby, Fletcher embraced his attorney, Michael Rains, before exiting the room through a side door.

Later outside the courthouse, Taylor’s grandmother, Addie Kitchen, said the decision sent a message to the community that “their children, their families, their lives do not matter — if a policeman kills someone, oh well.” She had personally implored the judge to allow the case to continue, saying she was “blindsided” by the district attorney’s bid to dismiss it.

“I have carried this fight for more than five years, not because it’s easy, but because justice demands it,” Kitchen said. “Steven deserves his day in court, his sons deserve answers.”

The dismissal closes the first Alameda County case of a police officer charged in an on-duty killing since BART Officer Johannes Mehserle was tried — and convicted — in the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant more than 15 years ago.

It also added to the growing list of cases against law enforcement officers that Jones Dickson has dismissed. Since the Board of Supervisors appointed the former county judge in February, she has ended the prosecutions of eight other law enforcement officers — all sheriff’s deputies — who had been charged by former DA Pamela Price in the deaths of two inmates at the Santa Rita Jail.

Jones Dickson has defended those dismissals — suggesting she was merely following the evidence, much as she’s done in dismissing numerous other criminal and civil cases in recent months that were filed by Price, whom voters recalled from office last year. The latest decision was “one of the most solemn and difficult in my career,” Jones Dickson said in a statement.

“As tempting as it may be to seek any outcome that might ease the grief of a family, I will not put my finger on the scales of justice to engineer an unjust result,” said Jones Dickson, reading from the statement at the courthouse Friday.

She added that “criminal prosecution must never be used for political expediency or personal bias,” while suggesting that “this decision is not a reflection of a lack of compassion; it is a profound declaration of our commitment to the rule of law.”

Friday’s result marked an abrupt coda to a yearslong case with myriad twists — originating amid a larger national movement for police accountability brought on by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. The political landscape in Oakland has noticeably shifted over the past five years.

Between then and now, two Alameda County judges openly cast doubt on prosecutors’ chances at trial, and at one point even temporarily removed Price from overseeing the case due to concerns of bias against the officer.

Taylor was fatally shot on April 18, 2020, while allegedly trying to steal an aluminum baseball bat and a tent from a San Leandro Walmart. Taylor’s family has previously claimed in a lawsuit that Fletcher shot Taylor within 40 seconds of entering the store, though the district attorney’s office has since said that 79 seconds elapsed between when Fletcher electrically shocked Taylor and when he opened fire with his gun.

Alameda County prosecutors had previously argued that Fletcher did not try to de-escalate the confrontation before fatally shooting Taylor once in the chest after twice using a Taser on him.

Yet the filing this week by Jones Dickson’s office took a very different stance — arguing that Taylor posed an immediate threat to Fletcher, who told investigators he saw “pain and hate” in Taylor’s eyes. They cited more than a dozen witnesses, many of whom said they feared Taylor would injure someone with the bat, along with Fletcher’s own words detailing how he thought Taylor “was comin’ to bash my brains in.”

“Mr. Taylor was dangerous,” Deputy District Attorney Darby Williams, who authored the dismissal motion, said during Friday’s hearing. “Mr. Taylor was wielding the bat, twirling the bat, threatening people with the bat, threatening to bash people’s heads in, to kill people.”

Jones Dickson also said the case was “compromised” before she even took office, referencing claims by her staff that former prosecutors under Price acted unethically by going “expert shopping” and hiding the opinions of experts who felt Fletcher acted legally.

Those concerns formed the backbone of an attempt by Fletcher’s attorneys earlier this fall to dismiss the case on the grounds of “outrageous government conduct” — claims that had been roundly rejected by another Alameda County judge, Thomas Reardon. In his ruling last month, Reardon said he saw no such evidence that those former prosecutors unfairly tainted the case.

On Friday, those same arguments appeared to hold sway with Judge Blakely.

Fletcher’s attorney, Rains, called that decision “courageous.”

“I haven’t seen too many people have both the intellectual honesty and the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing,” Rains said, adding that the prosecution has been “nothing but heartache” for the officer, who retired after the shooting and has no plans to return to duty.

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 jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.