An Oakland Police detective who was arrested two years ago on bribery and perjury charges under former District Attorney Pamela Price continues to face the music for his alleged misdeeds. And multiple cases linked to him have ended in dismissal or lenient plea deals.
Pamela Price may no longer be the DA in Alameda County, and her campaign to expose and prosecute the misdeeds of police officers is ostensibly over. But one of those she accused of improperly coercing and bribing witnesses to get murder convictions, Phong Tran, continues to be in the spotlight and is likely still headed to trial. As the East Bay Times reports, cases continue to pile up in which the credibility of evidence and witness statements obtained by Tran is being questioned, leading to more dismissals and plea deals in serious cases.
In one case last October, a 34-year-old Sacramento man, Donte Neal, was able to cut a deal for an 11-year sentence in the 2021 killing of Byron Robinson, the ex-boyfriend of his wife, after it was discovered that Tran may have paid off an anonymous tipster to finger Neal two days after the crime.
The East Bay Times finds, via a June court filing, that the 2016 conviction of 49-year-old Steven Buggs for the September 2012 killing of Lester Young in East Oakland may be imperiled because of evidence that Tran may have coerced a teenager into fingering Buggs for the crime, during an unrecorded interview, and then later testifying against him.
Price charged Tran with multiple counts of perjury under oath and bribing of witnesses, and issued a warrant for his arrest in April 2025.
Tran continues to deny the allegations, and his attorney issued a statement to the East Bay TImes casting aspersions on Price.
"It is all predictable and by design; part of a playbook used by (Price) with the ultimate goal of tearing down anything related to criminal consequences," said Tran's attorney Andrew Ganz. Ganz added that any other imperiled convictions related to Tran's casework "[say] nothing about the validity of the charges against Detective Tran." And he said both Tran and the community at large are "casualties of a war waged against them by the former DA that is fortunately over.”
Still, while newly installed District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson may be trying to undo some of her predecessor's work, it does not appear that Tran will be let off the hook anytime soon.
The California Attorney General’s Office conducted its own investigation into the conviction of Marcel Prince for a 2021 murder, and concluded that Alameda County prosecutors knew about the misconduct allegations against Tran and "suppressed" them in order to achieve more convictions. But, they said, the tainted evidence was not vital to that particular case.
Tran is expected back in court on July 17, and a trial date is expected to be set at that hearing.
It's been estimated that as many as 200 cases that were touched by Tran could be impacted.
Previously: Arrest Warrant Issued for Oakland Police Officer On Suspicion of Perjury, Bribery
Top image: Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
