An Alameda County prosecutor says she suffered retaliation for blowing the whistle on a host of issues within the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, including alleged flaws in the agency’s handling of welfare fraud cases.
The prosecutor, Alexandra Grayner, said she was reassigned from her role pursing public assistance fraud cases after sounding the alarm early last year about how those cases were being handled. Grayner accused District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson of later placing her on indefinite administrative leave for continuing to voice her concerns.
The allegations were part of a legal claim filed by the prosecutor in mid-February, a step that’s required before filing suing a government entity. A 45-day window for Alameda County to formally respond to the legal claim expired earlier this month, opening the door for Grayner to file a lawsuit against the county.
Grayner is still considering whether to do so, said Laleh Shokohi, an attorney for the prosecutor. Shokohi declined to comment further for this report, saying only that she is “very limited in what I can say right now.”
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment to this news organization.
Grayner arrived at the district attorney’s office in January 2023, in the opening weeks of Pamela Price’s recall-shortened tenure. Grayner said the retaliation began not long after Alameda County supervisors appointed Jones Dickson — herself a former prosecutor and judge — to Price’s old seat...
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