Alameda County DA intends to drop charges against former officer in 2020 killing of Steven Taylor
By John Ramos
A long-delayed homicide case against a former San Leandro police officer may be coming to an end. The Alameda County District Attorney has told the family of Steven Taylor that she intends to drop the charges against the cop who killed him in 2020.
On Wednesday, family and supporters spoke out about what they consider a denial of justice.
It was in April of 2020 that Taylor entered a Walmart store in San Leandro. He was suspected of shoplifting, police were called, and when former officer Jason Fletcher arrived, Taylor was holding a baseball bat. In the next 40 seconds, Fletcher tased him twice and then shot him in the chest, killing him.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to move on. How do you forget? How do you forget?” said Taylor’s grandmother, Addie Kitchen.
To many in the community, the killing felt rushed and unnecessary, and Nancy O’Malley, who was the district attorney at the time, filed manslaughter charges against Fletcher. It wasn’t something she was accustomed to doing.
“Before that point, during her entire career, she had never, not one time, charged or prosecuted a single, solitary cop for murder. Not once,” said Cat Brooks, founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project.
On Wednesday, a group of protestors, including Kitchen, gathered at the Alameda County Courthouse because — after five years, three district attorneys, and the sitting judge, Thomas Reardon, twice refused to grant defense motions to dismiss the case —current District Attorney Ursula Jones-Dickson has told the family that she intends to drop the charges against Fletcher. The motion to dismiss is scheduled to happen on Friday, when Judge Reardon is away on vacation.
“I don’t know how we got here,” Kitchen said. “Five years and six months. How many people have touched this case? Judge Reardon saw fit to not dismiss this case twice. Twice. And here comes the district attorney who says, ‘reasonable doubt’ that she didn’t feel she could win this case.”
Shannan Dugan is a KPIX legal analyst and former district attorney. She said the optics of dismissing the case when the judge is gone may be bad and may anger the family, but she said it is the district attorney’s power to drop the charges if she doesn’t think she can prove them beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The judge does not have the power to force the DA to proceed with the case if the DA decides to dismiss the case,” said Dugan. “What I was taught when I was a DA and what is still the duty of the DA is if you don’t think you can file a case beyond a reasonable doubt, you really shouldn’t file it.”
The district attorney’s office refused to comment on the active case. But the family said in the conversation they had on Tuesday, Jones-Dickson said she was concerned that the case was too old and there may be problems with witnesses and expert testimony. But Addie Kitchen said she thinks there may be another reason.
“She does not want to charge a policeman. Period. That’s her reasoning,” Kitchen said. “She does not want to charge a policeman. She has already dismissed cases on officers.”
Fletcher is no longer a San Leandro Police officer.
The family said they are now considering filing a civil lawsuit against him. The motion to dismiss charges is expected to be filed on Friday afternoon in Alameda Superior Court.
