MARTINEZ — An effort by a local group dissatisfied by the performance of Contra Costa County’s district attorney gained momentum last week when it received approval to circulate a petition calling for a recall election.
A team calling itself “Recall Diana Becton” announced that the Contra Costa County Elections Office approved language in their petition to recall Becton. That submission came after the group served a Notice of Intent to Becton last month that they were pursuing a recall.
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The group has until 5 p.m. on Sept. 25 to collect the 72,556 signatures needed to put the recall on a ballot. If the elections office certifies the petition signatures, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors must order an election with 14 days of its next meeting after certification. If they don’t, the Registrar of Voters is required to set the date with the next five days.
Becton has declined several requests to comment since she was served the Notice of Intent on March 17. In a statement last month, she said the recall efforts were “an effort to undermine the will of the people of Contra Costa County.” She also said she “has taken bold actions to protect our communities — aggressively prosecuting violent offenders, addressing organized retail theft, human trafficking, hate crimes and eliminating backlogs of untested sexual assault kits.”
In a separate social media post, the recall group also offered yard signs advocating Becton’s recall to the first 50 people who show up to a 5 p.m. Saturday gathering outside Oakley’s city headquarters on Main Street.
Organizers said they will discuss the approval of the petition during the Saturday event at the Alexis Gabe memorial bench.
Gabe was a 24 years old when she went missing from Antioch on Jan. 26, 2022. In April 2024, a passerby discovered her remains in the city of Plymouth in Amador County. Authorities shot and killed prime suspect Marshall Curtis Jones, Gabe’s ex-boyfriend, in Washington state on June 1 that year.
Becton declined to charge Jones’ mother with any crime tied to that shooting despite a demand from Gabe’s family to file aiding and abetting charges against Alicia Coleman Clark.
Gabe’s family along with other crime victim families who say they didn’t receive justice from Becton have been some of the voices behind the charge to recall her.
