OAKLAND — One hundred days into her first term as Alameda County’s top prosecutor, Ursula Jones Dickson wants to leave little doubt about the new direction of her office.
The judge-turned-district attorney on Thursday touted a broad array of changes to how her office pursues justice across the East Bay, including the return of about a dozen former Alameda County prosecutors to the office, the hiring of a forensic accountant and the reduction of a previously unreported backlog of cases involving juveniles.
Repeatedly, she claimed the changes were made to right an office that had become mired in certain “ethical issues,” while being weighed down by a “bottom-heavy” staff of young, inexperienced attorneys hired over the past two years.
While she never mentioned her predecessor by name, Jones Dickson often alluded to decisions made by Pamela Price during the former district attorney’s recall-shortened tenure. Even Jones Dickson’s chosen venue for a press conference — the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse, rather than the East Oakland offices where Price typically addressed reporters — appeared intended to demonstrate a clear break from Price.
“I know it’s been 100 days, but it feels like seven years,” Jones Dickson said. Among the challenges, she said, is how “we’re having the hard conversations with folks who have not done this work before, about having to go back and learn it. And it’s not easy.”
Jones Dickson’s press conference comes as she attempts to make an impression on voters before facing her first electoral test in the June 2026 primary. Her unprecedented appointment earlier this year by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors — which had never before selected a new district attorney after a recall vote — only stretches until the next general election.
A former Alameda County Superior Court judge who began her career as a county prosecutor, Jones Dickson has previously framed Price’s tenure as leaving the office “out of whack” amid an exodus of talent and potential budget mismanagement.
On Thursday, she said she has revamped training programs within the office while hiring numerous veteran prosecutors — at least 11 of whom previously worked for the DA’s office. The arrivals include at least two candidates that she beat out for the job: Annie Esposito, who now works as her second-in-command, and L.D. Louis, who returned to the office after having briefly worked with the Alameda County Counsel’s Office.
Jones Dickson also boasted of having lowered a backlog of 340 juvenile cases that had yet to be reviewed for possible charges, leaving only about 130 in the queue. She said a new forensic accountant would soon begin working for her office “to evaluate all of our accounts to make sure that we are sound, both from a budget perspective and just from an organizational perspective.”
From the day she was sworn in, Jones Dickson has sought to cast aside myriad initiatives spearheaded by Price.
She immediately revoked policies that limited how line-level prosecutors could file sentencing enhancements, which could add decades to defendants’ prison terms for, in some cases, using a gun or causing serious injury in certain crimes. And she swiftly oversaw the wholesale shakeup of the high-profile unit Price created to prosecute alleged police misconduct by replacing most — if not all — of its staff, while changing its focus to more closely resemble a unit that operated under former District Attorney Nancy O’Malley.
In addition, top inspector Eric Lewis also abruptly departed just days into Jones Dickson’s tenure, after having battled questions over his truthfulness and credibility at a previous job.
Most recently, Jones Dickson’s office last Friday dismissed a high-profile case against Radius Recycling, which had been indicted over an August 2023 blaze that was alleged to have sent a toxic plume of smoke drifting over the East Bay. The case’s dismissal drew pushback this week from state Assemblymember Mia Bonta and a longtime West Oakland advocate against air pollution, who questioned “why the DA wants to give them a slap on the hand.”
The dismissal appears to have been merely the latest in a string of maneuvers to quietly do away with cases Price’s office filed.
Weeks after Jones Dickson took office, her prosecutors asked to dismiss lawsuits against several insurance carriers accused of a “widespread scheme” to underinsure homes and undervalue car insurance claims, court records show. The lawsuits filed by Price’s administration — which targeted Farmers Insurance, Progressive Insurance and USAA, among others — had initially been praised by the consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, which is a frequent critic of the insurance industry’s use of algorithms to set premiums and policies.
Jones Dickson blamed the dismissals on concerns over contracts that Price’s administration signed with private law firms to help pursue the cases. Public records show three law firms — two in Texas and one in Southern California — were given five-year contracts early in Price’s tenure to help prosecute insurance fraud cases, under an agreement that allowed them to get a cut of any potential judgment.
The California District Attorney’s Association has historically hosted training sessions for new prosecutors warning them against entering such partnerships over ethical concerns.
“DAs do have certain ethical obligations, and I have concerns about whether or not it was ethical to do that,” said Jones Dickson, who added that contracts given to the law firms involved in the lawsuits had since been terminated. She stressed the dismissals were made without prejudice, which leaves the door open for the office to potentially refile the case if it so chooses.
On Thursday, Consumer Watchdog’s leader said the issue remains “ripe for legal action.”
“We applauded the initial suit, because this is a problem that consumers continue to face,” said Carmen Balber, the organization’s executive director. “This is an urgent cost for homeowners, and something that consumers need protection on. I’m sure consumers will be disappointed to hear there’s one less action by a public entity seeking to protect them, because this is an ongoing problem.”
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