DUBLIN — After a bumpy ride that included the victim’s family speaking out against the deal, and a lawyer accusing a prior judge of misconduct, a controversial plea over a fatal police chase has been approved.
Sekou Brandon, 22, of Oakley, was sentenced last month to seven years and eight months for killing 73-year-old Linda Susan Woodward when he crashed his car during a police chase through Livermore in 2022. The deal was approved by Judge Clifford Blakely, who inherited the case from Judge Barbara Dickinson and overturned Dickinson’s prior decision to quash the deal.
The sentence can be reduced by half with good behavior in prison, according to court records.
Brandon’s lawyer, Annie Beles, accused Dickinson last year of striking down the deal after discussing it with a prosecutor, outside Beles’ presence. Such conversations are known as “ex parte communications,” and are disallowed by the judicial cannon.
Brandon, who was 19 at the time of the crash, was speeding on Interstate 580 in Livermore with police behind him when he crashed near the Livermore Avenue exit. Woodward, traveling in a different vehicle, was struck and killed.
Brandon was initially charged with murder but that charge was dropped as part of a deal allowing him to plead no contest to vehicular manslaughter for the seven-year, eight-month term. Woodward’s family vocally opposed the deal as overly lenient and praised Dickinson’s decision not to go through with it.
At his sentencing hearing last month, Brandon apologized, saying he was “taking accountability.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I caused,” he said, according to a transcript of the hearing. “I want to give back when I get that chance to.”
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