OAKLAND — The leader of a program pairing low-income criminal defendants with free attorneys is out of her job, after a shortage of lawyers in Alameda County delayed prosecutions and left defendants languishing for weeks at the Santa Rita Jail.

Andrea Zambrana no longer leads the Court Appointed Attorneys Program, the Alameda County Bar Association’s leaders confirmed this week. The program, which is administered by the bar association, pays for private attorneys to represent defendants who cannot be represented by the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office due to conflicts of interest.

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The change was first announced in an internal email — obtained by this news organization — to several members of the program on Sept. 10. The bar association’s leaders did not say this

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