Tom Orloff
Tom Orloff is an American attorney who served as the 28th District Attorney of Alameda County from 1994 to 2009. He grew up in Pleasanton, California, where his grandfather was a mayor. He attended Occidental College, earning a BA, and earned a JD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Orloff began work in the Alameda County DA’s office after finishing law school in 1970. As a deputy district attorney, he prosecuted Huey Newton for the 1974 murder of Kathleen Smith, but both trials ended in mistrials. After Newton’s death in 1989, Orloff described him as “no more than a thug” who acted violently toward others. He went on to become Chief Assistant DA in 1989, trying about 25 murder cases before his rise to the top.
When District Attorney Jack Meehan retired in 1994, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors appointed Orloff as the new DA. He ran unopposed for the position and was reelected in unopposed elections in 1998, 2002, and 2006. Orloff announced his retirement in September 2009 and left office on September 18, 2009.
His time in office included controversy over the decision to charge a crime in the BART police shooting of Oscar Grant; Orloff charged Johannes Mehserle with murder, a move some activists criticized as delayed. Criminal law expert Franklin Zimring called Orloff’s office one of the better departments in the United States. Orloff also prosecuted the Oakland Riders police-abuse case, but charges were dropped after two hung juries.
This page was last edited on 29 January 2026, at 08:45 (CET).