Barbara Dickinson

Barbara Dickinson, an Alameda County, California Superior Court judge, faces allegations of serious misconduct connected to her handling of a plea agreement in the vehicular manslaughter case of Sekou Brandon, a 21-year-old Oakley resident charged after a fatal crash during a 2022 police chase in Livermore. Prosecutors and Brandon's defense attorney, Annie Beles, had already agreed to a plea deal calling for seven years and eight months in prison. At an August 2023 hearing, Dickinson held a sidebar discussion with both attorneys before the hearing began, then rejected the plea deal — which Beles says came only after Dickinson privately discussed the case with the deputy district attorney outside her presence, in what she contends was an improper ex parte communication.

Court documents reviewed by the Mercury News indicate Dickinson then made false statements on the record when Beles raised concerns about the private discussion. Following the controversy, Dickinson was reassigned from criminal matters to probate court, though reporting notes that reassignment had reportedly been planned before the case's developments came to light.