Alameda County prosecutors planned to dismiss all but one of the charges filed against a veteran Oakland homicide investigator accused of lying under oath and bribing a witness in a murder case – but backed away from those plans Monday in light of new evidence.

Prosecutors decided to change course just as Phong Tran’s trial was scheduled to start. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Roz Silvaggio announced the DA’s decision-making  after she talked to the prosecutor and Tran’s attorney.

“That’s not happening today,” Silvaggio said of the plans to dismiss most charges. “It’s not clear that’s happening at all.”

Outside the courtroom, Alameda County DeputyDistrict Attorney Darby Williams said her office planned to dismiss all charges, except for a perjury charge tied to testimony Tran gave during a murder trial in 2016, but new information came to light.

“There’s evidence we were waiting for,” Williams said. “We’re just holding off on the actual motion to dismiss to just verify what the potential additional information may be, for either the defense or the prosecution. I really don’t know what value it’s going to have at this point, without looking at it.”

Williams declined to elaborate on the new information.

Tran’s attorney declined to comment.

In 2023, Tran was charged with lying under oath – in the trial and a 2013 preliminary hearing – and bribing a witness in a rare prosecution under former District Attorney Pamela Price, who was recalled in 2024.

During the murder trial, Tran testified that he did not know a key witness in the case, but after the two defendants were convicted in the fatal shooting of Charles Butler Jr., Tran admitted he had known the witness and had provided her money at times, according to prosecutors. The witness testified against Giovante Douglas and Cartier Hunter during their trial.

Their convictions were vacated in 2022 as a result of what Price called misconduct on Tran’s part, leading to their release from prison.

This article originally published at DA backs off plan to drop charges against Oakland homicide investigator – at least for now.