Controversy all around a chaotic clash between supporters of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s supporters and those who want her recalled during a rally last weekend continued on Tuesday.
The hectic scene unfolded outside the courthouse in Oakland on Saturday people on both sides of the recall nearly came to blows. On Tuesday, the fallout from that controversial rally only intensified when Price responded to a heated exchange that was caught on camera.
A cellphone video recorded by one of her employees showed the individual leaders of the recall. Price said she sees it as an employee simply asserting his First Amendment rights to attend the meeting since he was not on the clock when it happened.
“This is the gang mentality that comes from Brenda Gruesome or Grisham,” Desmond Jeffries said in a Facebook video posted during the meeting. Jeffries is an associate in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. In the video, he referred to SAFE co-founder Brenda Grisham as “Brenda Gruesome” at least a half-dozen times. Jeffries also said the families of crime victims were like a gang.
Jeffries is listed on the district attorney’s website as director of retention and recruitment. Price said he is not bound by any code of ethics or conduct.
“We have a code of ethics for lawyers, but not for all employees,” Price said at a news conference on Tuesday. She said what Jeffries does on his own time is his own business.
“Mr. Jeffries, in my opinion, did not violate any provincial rule or procedure by what he did on Saturday,” Price explained.
According to the leaders of SAFE, the group that is trying to recall Pamela Price, it goes too far when a member of the public prosecutor’s office challenges the families of murder victims.
“When you do things like this and directly attack the families of the victims, it is completely wrong and not acceptable at all,” said Carl Chan, one of the SAFE organizers.
SAFE leaders went so far as to write a letter to the district attorney’s office and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, demanding disciplinary action against Jeffries and calling for his resignation.
“When you work for this office, you have an obligation to hold yourself to a high standard,” Chan says.
Price said Tuesday that Jeffries will not be disciplined and asserted that her office will not implement a code of conduct for employees.
“Mr. Jeffries faces no disciplinary action,” Price said. “To my knowledge, Mr. Jeffries exercised his First Amendment rights on Saturday morning.”
KPIX 5 reached out to Jeffries for comment on the video, but he had not responded by the time this story aired.
