An Alameda County judge sided with defense attorneys Monday and dismissed manslaughter charges against two of the three Alameda police officers involved in the April 2021 death of Mario Gonzalez.

As we learned last month, defense attorneys were arguing that prosecutors in Alameda County DA Pamela Price's office had failed to file new charges within the statute of limitations in the case — which expired this past April. In the case of officers James Fisher and Cameron Leahy, Alameda County Judge Scott Patton agreed, as the Chronicle reports, issuing a ruling Monday.

And Patton pushed back on criticism from the victim's family and prosecutors that the defense was arguing a technicality.

"A defendant bringing a challenge because of a violation of the statute of limitations is asserting a substantive due process right, not a procedural and technical violation," Patton wrote in his ruling. He also wrote that a "statute of limitations is a bedrock principle of civil and criminal law."

The DA's office tried to file new charges against the officers on April 18, 2024 — one day before the three-year anniversary of Gonzalez's death while being detained on April 19, 2021. Price's predecessor, Nancy O'Malley, had previously commissioned an independent review of the case and decided not to charge the officers, but Price had made a campaign promise to take a second look at the case, and opted to file new charges.

It seems there is still a procedural or technical reason why the charge of voluntary manslaughter still stands for the third officer, Eric McKinley, due to his attorney's specific reasoning for the argument for dismissal. Per the Chronicle, attorneys for Fisher and Leahy argued that prosecutors failed to issue arrest warrants with the charges, and a case does not technically begin until a warrant is issued.

McKinley's attorney apparently argued that prosecutors "fraudulently induced him to appear" at an arraignment in August, but Patton seems to have rejected this argument, and the charge still stands.

It's unclear if and when McKinley may stand trial in the case, and if Price ends up recalled in the upcoming election, he could end up seeing the charges dropped by her successor.

The officers were accused of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Mario Gonzalez. Gonzalez was loitering in a small public park in Alameda one afternoon, and appeared to be significantly intoxicated. The three officers decided to arrest him, and a struggle ensued while they were trying to get handcuffs on Gonzalez, who ended up dying, apparently from asphyxiation, while struggling on the ground.

A medical examiner subsequently declared his cause of death inconclusive, but said that obesity and methamphetamine intoxication were contributing factors. A second medical examiner would later declare the death a homicide due to restraint asphyxiation, and say that the methamphetamine was likely not a factor.

Gonzalez's family has subsequently received an $11 million wrongful death settlement from the City of Alameda.

Previously: Lawyers For Alameda Cops Accused In Mario Gonzalez's Death Seek Dismissal

Top image: Mario Arenales Gonzalez, left, with family members.