OAKLAND — Weeks after a federal judge ruled that a Richmond officer conducted an illegal search of the defendant’s car, federal prosecutors dismissed ammunition possession charges against an Oakley man, court records show.with being a felon in possession of ammunition in connection with an August 2021 traffic stop where Officer Alayna Woody allegedly found a loaded, unregistered firearm inside Gould’s car. But last August, U.S.
A month after Gould’s decision, the Northern California U.S. Attorney’s office dismissed the charges. In court records, prosecutors claimed Gould was a suspect in a San Francisco shootout where several people fired guns, and said he ran from police during the 2021 traffic stop. Gould’s attorneys cited a 2018 study that concluded subjects of Richmond police traffic stops were Black 46 percent of the time, despite the fact that the city’s Black population is roughly 20 percent, and suggested there was “racial bias” in both the decision to stop Gould and prolong the stop.
White ruled that there was probable cause to pull Gould over but that police used folly reasoning to justify their search. Woody claimed to have smelled burnt marijuana, which courts have roundly ruled is not enough to establish probable cause for a search in California, where adult marijuana use is legal.