Prosecutor Pamela Price is charged with attempted extortion of $25,000

According to court documents filed this week, Alameda County Attorney Pamela Price was accused of soliciting a $25,000 cash donation from a political critic to help her fight her recall effort.

Two weeks after Mario Juarez refused to pay Price or limit his criticism of her, the district attorney’s office charged him with a 2022 check fraud indictment — even though he had known about the allegation “for at least eight months,” according to the statement Motion filed Thursday by veteran defense attorney Ernie Castillo.

And apparently that wasn’t all.

According to Castillo, the case against his client was set to be dropped over the summer until Price and her deputy, Otis Bruce Jr., “interfered” in the matter and removed a prosecutor who had not found enough evidence to proceed.

Juarez says Price offered to help him in January in exchange for “love and support” in the form of the $25,000 donation, Castillo wrote.

Price also told him that their relationship should change, Castillo wrote, a reference to their past animosity.

In 2022, Juarez had created a website called badpam.com where he attacked Price as “a loser with a shady history” and her failed bids for state Assembly in 2016, mayor of Oakland and Alameda County district attorney in that year 2018 as well as her “Democratic Party Chairwoman” in 2020.

When Juarez “denied her request” in January, Price told him “he would hear from her office ‘very soon'” and that it “won’t be pretty,” Castillo wrote.

Castillo is now asking the court to dismiss the sole charge against Juárez, calling it a “vindictive prosecution” and “outrageous behavior by the government.”

“This behavior and language is to be expected from a crime boss, not Alameda County’s top law enforcement officer,” Castillo wrote. “Although dismissal is an extreme remedy, the district attorney’s conduct and intentions are even more extreme.”

He also wrote that Price sent a “clear message” to Juárez that he “would face criminal prosecution” if he did not pay her campaign $25,000.

Call it “Consideration Corruption,” Castillo said the behavior was “professionally reprehensible” and “borders on criminal,” in the form of attempted extortion or bribery.

On Friday, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office said it “cannot comment on pending matters” and will “address any motions filed by the defense in court as appropriate.”

The application is expected to be heard on November 15th.

Juarez, who made two unsuccessful bids for Oakland City Council more than a decade ago, has found himself in the headlines again this year for troubles of his own.

Numerous media outlets have identified Juarez as a “key figure in an FBI corruption investigation” involving Oakland politicians and members of the Duong family.

Juarez also said that assassins tried to kill him at his home in June in “‘retaliation’ for his involvement in a criminal investigation,” the East Bay Times reported over the summer.

And although Juarez may face credibility questions, two people have submitted affidavits saying they heard District Attorney Price asking for the campaign contribution during a Jan. 7 conversation after the funeral of Oakland police officer Tuan Le have.

One of those witnesses, who was hired by Juarez to install surveillance cameras, said he “heard Ms. Price demanding thousands of funds from Mr. Juarez,” Castillo wrote.

The other witness, Cecilia Mendez, “overheard Ms. Price telling Mr. Juarez that their relationship needed to get better … and that she needed $25,000 for a political campaign,” Castillo wrote.

(The East Bay Times also reported that Mendez was a longtime business associate of Juarez, having previously dated him and having a child with him.)

“Shakedowns for campaign funds”

Castillo himself filed an affidavit as part of this week’s motion in which he described how Assistant District Attorney Angelina Clay had told him earlier this year that she “believed there was insufficient evidence to prove … fraud.” by Juarez in 2022.

At that time, Juarez hired someone to print political mailers attacking Oakland mayoral candidate Loren Taylor during election season. He transferred $31,000 to him and also gave him checks worth about $17,000 to cover the costs.

“On the same day, $32,500 was transferred from Mr. Juarez’s accounts,” leaving insufficient funds to pay for the mailings, Castillo wrote.

However, the DA’s office never determined that Juarez was aware of the low account balance and did not rule out accounting error by others who had access to the account, he wrote.

According to Castillo, Clay said she planned to drop the case in mid-June, but was told that “her office would not allow her to proceed with the dismissal.”

“I have been informed that Otis Bruce told Ms. Clay that Pamela Price would not be happy about being fired,” Castillo wrote.

In early July, Castillo said Clay told him “the administration had removed her from the case.”

Castillo argued that his client’s procedural rights had been compromised not only by the weak case, but also by Price’s blocking of Clay from dismissing the case.

“Ms. Price has removed the deputy from this case and refuses to allow anyone to dismiss this case, regardless of a prosecutor’s ethical obligation to do so due to lack of evidence,” he wrote. “Ms. Price’s interest in pursuing this action … is based on a vindictive and politically motivated desire to win her recall election and destroy all who do not support her.”

Castillo also argued that the firing was necessary not only to help Juárez, but also to “help others in this community who may face similar backlash over campaign funds.”

Mario Juarez: Price ‘said we could have helped each other’

On the day of Attorney Price’s alleged campaign call in January, Mario Juarez had gone to Officer Le’s funeral with Cecilia Mendez and Andy and David Duong.

According to the motion, Price and Otis Bruce Jr., who was then a deputy in the district attorney’s office, were also present at the event. So does Stewart Chen, who leads the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council.

After the funeral, the motion says, Chen invited Price and Bruce to a showroom for Evolutionary Homes LLC in Oakland to see how modular homes were being built out of shipping containers to house formerly homeless people.

(Evolutionary Homes LLC, which was owned by Juarez and the Duongs, was raided by the FBI in June “as part of its ongoing public corruption investigation,” the East Bay Times reported.)

In his statement, Juarez described both Price and Bruce as friends of Chen “and the Duong family.”

According to this week’s motion, Bruce drove his own vehicle to the meeting, but prosecutor Pamela Price arrived “in a black SUV driven by a District Attorney’s Office inspector.”

When they arrived at the showroom, Price “pulled me aside and away from the others to speak to me privately,” Juarez wrote. “She explained that she could help me as district attorney for Alameda County. But to get her help, I have to ‘show her love and support’.”

Juarez wrote that Price then demanded $25,000 in cash to fight the recall against her.

Juarez rejected the request and “made it clear” to her that he would not support her, the motion states.

“In response to my comments, Pamela Price laughed. She said ‘too bad’ and said we could have helped each other,” Juarez wrote. “She ended the conversation by saying that I would be hearing from her office soon and that it won’t be pretty, especially during the political campaign we are both facing.”

At the time, Price and Juarez were each seeking Democratic Central Committee seats in the 18th District that would be up for grabs in the March election five weeks later.

“After I refused to support her or make financial contributions to her campaign, we returned to the showroom with everyone else,” Juarez wrote. “I heard Pamela Price tell David Duong that she needed financial support from him, and David Duong agreed.”

Just 16 days later, Juarez wrote in his statement, the DA’s office charged him with a single felony in connection with alleged check fraud dating back to October 2022.

Castillo pointed to “the short time that elapsed between Ms. Price’s veiled threat and the actual filing of the charges” to support the notion that the case “was caused by his refusal to make a donation, rather than by the fair and objective examination of the evidence.”

The timing was notable because the allegation was received by the prosecutor’s office in May 2023 – eight months before it was filed, according to the motion.

Castillo also argued that the case against Mario Juarez should be dismissed on First Amendment grounds, saying Price brought it “in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment political rights” by criticizing her and refusing to stand for hers to donate to the election campaign.

According to this week’s filing, Juarez has also filed a complaint with the District Attorney’s Office alleging ethics violations by DA Price.