Bay Area

Murder Convictions Thrown Out After Witness Said OPD Officer Paid to Her to Lie

A man who was sentenced to life in prison for a 2011 murder in North Oakland was quietly released from prison last September after a key witness reversed her previous trial testimony, now saying in sworn testimony that she had felt “pressured” to lie on the stand by Oakland police Detective Phong Tran, who secretly paid her thousands of dollars before the trial.

Published

2 years ago

April 3, 2023

Oakland Post

Oakland Police Investigator Phong Tran (right) at the scene of a 2020 homicide. Photo courtesy Darwin BondGraham/Oaklandside.

By Ken Epstein

Giovonte Douglas, who had served nine years in prison, was released along with Cartier Hunter, who was also serving a life sentence for the murder.

The case was first made public this week by journalist Darwin BondGraham in Oaklandside, an online newspaper, which reported that it had learned about the case last week from a criminal justice source in Alameda County.

Prosecutors in former DA Nancy O’Malley’s office ultimately agreed to dismiss the case after Detective Tran admitted in court papers to paying the woman. However, he claimed the amount she was paid was much less than the $30,000 she said she received from him.

According to court records, Tran secretly paid her between $1,500 and $2,000, some of it before the trial.

Tran may also have committed perjury, according to news reports. Court records indicate he testified at the trial that he first met the alleged eyewitness, Aisha Weber, in 2013, two years after the shooting. However, Tran acknowledged recently in court documents that he knew Weber well before the 2011 homicide.

“Tran’s pre-existing relationship with the key witness—essentially his confidential informant—and the cash payments he made to her were not disclosed to Douglas’ attorneys before, during, or after his 2016 trial,” according to Oaklandside.

Former Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley. Official portrait.

Alameda County Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods. Official portrait.

Detective Tran, a longtime member of the homicide unit, was placed on administrative leave last year in connection with the case but is currently back on duty. In 2021, he earned $427,949.23 in pay and benefits, according to Transparent California.

Matthew Dalton, Douglas’s attorney in the fight to overturn the conviction, said, “I found Detective Tran’s conduct to be shocking,” according to Oaklandside.

“Pretending a witness is simply an unknown Good Samaritan rather than a background informant deprived the prosecution, the defense, and the fact-finders essential information necessary to evaluate her credibility. Similarly, paying a witness is rife with peril. That is why the rules of disclosure are rightly so strict. Secretly paying witnesses is outrageous. In the end, everyone loses: Mr. Douglas, Mr. Hunter, and the family of Charles Butler.”

Butler, a 23-year-old graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy, was shot and killed in 2011, allegedly during an argument over a parking spot in North Oakland. Douglas, 31, and Hunter, 34, were arrested three years later and convicted of murder in 2016.

Weber, the alleged eyewitness, said in her statement that Tran took advantage of her because she was homeless single mother and destitute, pressuring her to testify against the two men.

Alameda County Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods said in a statement reported in the East Bay Times that his office has been “raising alarms” about Tran for years, but that they “fell on deaf ears” during former DA O’Malley’s tenure.

He said his office already has three additional homicide cases where “we raised concerns” about Tran’s ethics.

“We’re hoping things will be different under DA (Pamela) Price and were encouraged when she announced the formation of a Police Accountability Unit,” Woods said to reporters, reported in the East Bay Times.

“We have urged her to investigate Detective Tran’s misconduct and to dismiss all the cases he has worked on — past and present. … How could anyone trust a police officer who keeps secret his relationship with the key witness in a murder case when asked about it in court?”

The Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) in Oakland also released a statement.

“The Oakland Police Department has and continues to be fraught with corruption and scandals … Incidents like this are exactly why Chief Armstrong needed to be held accountable for his coverup of officer misconduct. This type of behavior is the rule – not the exception,” said Cat Brooks, co-founder of APTP.

“Until we hold these officers accountable, corruption will continue to run rampant, and innocent people will continue to be sent to prison for crimes they did not commit,” Brooks said.

In addition, APTP criticized prosecutors in the case. “Defense attorneys for the exonerated man state that former DA Nancy O’Malley’s office never disclosed that the witness was a paid informant — and public defenders had warned O’Malley’s office about Officer Tran in particular, but she failed to act.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Seeking Solutions to Crime Wave, Oakland District 3 Community Holds Safety Forum with Police, Elected Leaders

Don't Miss

Man, Woman Arrested in Connection With Fatal Shooting

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

4 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bay Area

Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.