Crime
A motion to vacate last summer’s Proposition 8 decision, which ruled the state’s ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional, was denied today. Proposition 8 supporters argued that federal Judge Vaughn Walker should have been disqualified from presiding over the case because his same-sex relationship gave him an interest in the outcome of the trial.
Former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle was released from a Los Angeles jail shortly after midnight on Monday, after having served a total of 365 days in the Los Angeles Central Jail. This included his time served while incarcerated during his trial and while awaiting sentencing.
Oakland activists organized a peaceful march from the Fruitvale BART station to Frank Ogawa Plaza on Sunday night to protest the upcoming release of ex-BART police officer Johannes Mehserle from jail. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter last July for the 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant, and sentenced that November to two years in prison.
In an email sent to press Friday night, the Oakland City Attorney’s office announced that Chief Assistant City Attorney Barbara Parker will be temporarily stepping into the city’s top legal job to fill the vacancy left by John Russo, who begins his new career as Alameda’s City Manager on June 13.
Oakland mayor Jean Quan announced on Thursday morning that as an effort to reduce crimes that involve Oakland students, a group of organizations will open their doors to kids until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
The Oakland Police Department is looking for a man believed to be connected to a sexual assault and robbery that occurred in West Oakland on Tuesday morning.
Alameda County’s incarceration system may struggle to support the coming influx of inmates this July as California shifts the supervision of its prisoners from state to local facilities in order to meet a court-ordered prison population reduction strategy. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that overcrowding in California’s 33 prisons has caused conditions that amount to “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The ruling ordered California to reduce its prison population by 32,000 over the…
John Russo is getting ready to pack his bags on June 10, ending his 11-year term as Oakland City Attorney to start his new position as Alameda City Manager on June 13. In this exclusive interview, Russo looks back on his time in Oakland, including six years on the city council, and talks about the city’s budget problems, gang injunctions, and the vote he thinks he got wrong.
The Oakland Police Department has released an advisory that at approximately 3 am this morning, a woman was sexually assaulted in her home on the 3800 block of Wilton Avenue in the Oakland hills area near Joaquin Miller Park.