The Scanner: Ghost Ship case moves forward with new lead prosecutor

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Lim is resigning from his position to create his own law firm in San Mateo. Lim was the chief prosecutor in the criminal case against Ghost Ship operator Derick Almena and creative director Max Harris. less Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Lim is resigning from his position to create his own law firm in San Mateo. Lim was the chief prosecutor in the criminal case against Ghost Ship operator Derick ... more Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2017 Buy photo Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2017 Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close The Scanner: Ghost Ship case moves forward with new lead prosecutor 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

The chief prosecutor in the Ghost Ship case recently announced he is resigning from the Alameda County district attorney’s office effective April 5, which stirred fears that the trial of defendants Max Harris and Derick Almena could face additional delays.

But in an Oakland courtroom Friday, jury selection carried on as planned while Deputy District Attorney Autrey James took the lead role in the case, which is now in its third year after a fire in December 2016 killed 36 people in an Oakland warehouse.

James previously served as co-counsel to Deputy District Attorney David Lim, who will start his own law firm in San Mateo specializing in criminal defense and real estate law.

In court Friday, James said he had filed a proposed witness list for the trial, set to begin the first week of April. Harris and Almena, the warehouse’s master tenant and creative director, respectively, sat silently in front of Judge Trina Thompson as the prosecution and defense confirmed they had filed jury-selection questionnaires.

Both men face 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Lim’s departure from the district attorney’s office has nothing to do with the Ghost Ship proceedings, he said, adding that “timing just works out.” He began working in the office in 1999.

With the Ghost Ship case’s numerous twists and turns, turnover has been unusually high. Thompson is the sixth judge assigned to the case. Previous judges included Jacob Cramer, Morris Jacobson, Vernon Nakahara, Kevin Murphy and Jeffrey Horner.

Jacobson presided over hearings that led to a plea bargain, but Cramer tossed out the plea deal in August 2018 after hearing testimony from families of the victims.

Attorneys declined to comment on the case Friday, citing a gag order Thompson issued in January.

Two questions for Hank Schreeder, retiring Santa Rosa police chief

How has policing changed from when you started 31 years ago?

I think over time, you’re talking about going away from a war on drugs to substantial decriminalization — in many ways, rightfully so. The way laws were applied and used, it’s time to change some of that. Legislatively, dramatic changes have occurred.

We’re getting to a place where dealing with problems — take homelessness — would be a police problem (in the past). Now we have this little piece, public health has a big part of it, mental health has a big part of it. We’re doing it in a room with all these voices instead of a silo. Before, it was, “We (the police) need to solve this problem.” Now it’s, “Who do we need in the room to solve this problem?”

What will you remember about helping Santa Rosa recover from the fires?

For anybody’s career, that was substantial. The work that went on during that period of time and what this community went through, what the department went through, what I, myself, went through — it just pales compared to everything else. It became very personal, because everybody had a friend, acquaintance or relative that lost something in those fires. The work being done became that much more important.

Now it’s about rebuilding. The recovery piece was what the Police Department was involved in for six months. Now we’re in the rebuild. The role of the Police Department is not as pronounced as the planning and economic development area and the city manager’s office. That’s why this is a good place for me (to retire). We had a lot of people that were impacted, a lot of people dealing with the issues associated with the fires. That part played out over six months afterwards. I think we’re in a good place now compared to where we were this time last year, for sure.

Biggest crime news of the past week

• Mayor London Breed named Manohar Raju as San Francisco’s next public defender following the sudden death of Jeff Adachi last month.

• After a mass shooting left 49 people dead in Christchurch, New Zealand, mosques around the Bay Area on Friday received Muslim worshippers as local law enforcement stepped up security patrols.

• Gov. Gavin Newsom put a moratorium on executions in California, granting reprieves to 737 inmates on Death Row.

• Federal authorities charged 50 people in a far-reaching college admissions bribery scheme, which included the families of at least three prospective Stanford University students.

• Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou will retire at the end of April after a rocky tenure as chief in which the department faced wrongful death lawsuits and criticism for accusing a woman of faking her own kidnapping.

Gwendolyn Wu and Ashley McBride are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com, ashley.mcbride@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu @ashleynmcb