Alameda Co. officials work to right court computer issues

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Alameda County public defenders say many of their clients are suffering because of problems with a new court computer system.

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Some people are being charged with the wrong kind of crime or even serving more time than required.

The public defender's office knows of at least 50 people whose lives have been adversely affected by mistakes with a new case management system but says hundreds of more have likely been affected that they don't even know about yet.

"There have been people who have been wrongfully arrested, there have been people held in custody longer than they should have been," said Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods. "There was a conversion issue where people who were supposed to register as drug offenders the system showed them registering as sex offenders."

Misdemeanors are even showing up in the system as felonies.

"Can you imagine you're a person who just got stopped for driving without a license and you pled guilty to that, and now you have a felony on your record?" asked Davis.

"The DA's Office just like the Public Defender's Office absolutely does not want to see that kind of miscarriage of justice," said Alameda County District Attorney Teresa Drenick.

That's why both sides argued Tuesday in favor of a motion asking a judge to look closely at more than 2,000 cases to make sure errors like these don't continue.

The District Attorney's Office says it is working with every courtroom, local police agencies and its own administrative staff to verify warrants and cross-check records.