SF Public Defender Mano Raju’s Statement on Appointment of New District Attorney
SAN FRANCISCO – Yesterday, Mayor London Breed announced she will be appointing Brooke Jenkins as the interim District Attorney of San Francisco. In response, Mano Raju, the elected Public Defender of San Francisco, issues the following statement:
“I look forward to engaging interim District Attorney Jenkins in open conversations about how we can all best serve the health and safety of San Franciscans, including reforms and practices to help mitigate and minimize the harm to people who become entangled in the criminal legal system. I strongly encourage DA Jenkins to prioritize opportunities for prevention and intervention over criminalization and incarceration. From working in our criminal system that is plagued with injustices, including a long history of racial, gender, and LGBTQ inequity, public defenders know – and district attorneys should know – that real public safety for all communities comes when we invest in people and in prevention, not in punishment. When we talk about accountability, we must also talk about the accountability of the systems that criminalize and inflict state-sponsored violence on communities who are poor and communities of color, rather than provide real and equal opportunities to housing, employment, mental health, and other support services.
My office celebrated our 100-year anniversary last year. Our attorneys, paralegals, social workers, investigators and all our staff are warriors for justice inside and outside the courtroom. While we will find opportunities to collaborate where there are points of agreement with the new interim District Attorney, we will also stridently oppose any rollbacks on criminal justice reforms. The Public Defender’s Office remains deeply committed to providing vigorous representation for community members who are system-impacted and to fighting for a more just and equitable society, especially for the most vulnerable.”
Sam Levin of The Guardian interviewed Salesh “Sal” Prasad, a client of our Immigration Defense Unit, who is an LGBTQ artist and activist who was granted parole after transforming his life in prison, but never got a taste of his hard-earned freedom because prison officials transferred him directly into ICE custody. He’s spent the last 10 months in ICE detention, during which time his mother passed away from COVID, and ICE would not allow him to attend her funeral. Sal, who came to the US at age 6, is now facing deportation to Fiji where he faces discrimination and persecution not only for his sexual orientation, but for being an Indo-Fijian minority.
There’s a large network of immigrant rights and faith leaders supporting Sal, and San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen introduced a resolution to support his application for pardon from Governor Newsom, which could prevent him from being deported. To support Sal’s pardon, please sign and share this petition. #FreeSal
NEW: The US is trying to deport a man who has lived in California for 44 years + is at risk of anti-LGTBQ abuse in his native Fiji, where he has no family.
“If I’m deported, I won’t survive," Salesh "Sal" Prasad, 50, told me on a call from an ICE jail.https://t.co/4yGK0ovpqN
“If I’m deported, I won’t survive. I won’t make it in Fiji. There’s no protection there for me. There’s no support,” [sal prasad] said during a recent call from Ice’s Golden State annex in California’s Central Valley. “I’d be forced to be somebody I’m not. I don’t want to hide again. I should be able to love who I want to love.”
“For people like Sal, the Biden priorities are not resulting in more compassionate policies,” said Maddie Boyd, Prasad’s attorney. “Ice is holding people as public safety risks even after they have been determined not to be public safety risks.”
“The system is designed to push people to give up on their immigration case and instead be deported and permanently separated from their family,” said Angela Chan, chief of policy at the San Francisco public defender’s office.
“Give me a fighting chance,” Prasad said. “The parole board said, ‘We believe in the changed person that you are,’ and that I’m not a threat. So why am I still in detention?… I may never see my family again,” he added.
As trusted advocates for our clients, public defenders are the best positioned out of all justice and safety agencies to help community members transition out of the criminal system for good. Yet we remain the most underfunded agency in the city’s criminal legal system.
As trusted advocates for our clients, public defenders are the best positioned out of all justice and safety agencies to help community members transition out of the criminal system for good. Yet we remain the most underfunded agency in the city’s criminal legal system.
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office receives about half the amount of funding compared to the District Attorney’s Office. Public defenders receive six times less than the Sheriff’s Department, and 14 times less than the San Francisco Police Department.
This problem of overfunding law enforcement and drastically underfunding public defender offices is not unique to San Francisco. This is a national and long-standing issue that is by design and reflects the racist and classist underpinnings of our criminal system.
San Francisco can and should lead the country in fixing this gross inequity.
SF Public Defender Mano Raju Reacts to U.S. Supreme Court Abortion Ruling
The recent Supreme Court ruling that in effect overturned Roe v. Wade is outrageous and unjust. States that choose to deny reproductive rights will cause terrible, and in some cases deadly, health outcomes. As public defenders who see the injustices and harms caused by our criminal system everyday, we are particularly concerned about criminalization in these states for those seeking or performing abortions, which as the law almost always does, will largely fall on and further oppress poor and BIPOC communities.
As the son of Indian immigrants who came to the United States largely thanks to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, I remain committed to the rights and self-determination of everyone who calls this country home. Bans on abortion are gender-based and racial violence. We must normalize and protect the health choices for everyone in this country, including people from immigrant communities, who deserve to live free of stigma and with full access to safe, legal, and affordable abortion and other reproductive health care from medical providers who understand cultural and linguistic needs.
We must push for and fund bold solutions that ensure affordable and accessible abortions to protect public health and community well-being. We will not stop fighting for the rights and resources that all communities need in order for people to live freely with sovereignty over their own bodies.
SAN FRANCISCO – A San Francisco jury found Peter Rocha not guilty of murder and all felony charges in the accidental death of an elderly Glen Park resident, Leo Hainzl. The jury convicted Mr. Rocha on one count of misdemeanor assault for swinging his crutch toward Mr. Hainzl as the two men engaged in a brief confrontation near the entrance of Glen Canyon Park where Mr. Hainzl was walking his dog. Deputy Public Defender Will Helvestine argued, and medical evidence and witness testimony showed, that Mr. Hainzl suffered a mortal fall when he tripped on a curb and hit his head on the steep hill of Elk Street after he had walked more than 30 feet away from Mr. Rocha.
“While Mr. Hainzl’s death was a tragedy, it was a tragic accident. The jury did the right thing in avoiding another tragedy by finding Mr. Rocha not guilty of a murder he did not commit,” saidMr. Helvestine.
Mr. Rocha is a military veteran and former martial arts teacher whose life drastically changed in the early 2000s when he began suffering from mental illness. For several years, he has mostly lived outside in the Glen Park area and many neighbors recognize him as a vulnerable member of the community.
On March 25, 2020, Mr. Rocha was sitting on a bench in Glen Canyon Park when Mr. Hainzl came walking down the path with his large dog. Separate witnesses heard a brief commotion of barking and voices, and then saw Mr. Rocha swing his crutch in the air. The witness who was closer to the incident testified that the crutch did not make physical contact with Mr Hainzl. Both witnesses saw the men separate uninjured. The second witness called 911 only after she saw Mr. Hainzl trip and fall on his head as he was looking back up the hill for his dog. This was after Mr. Hainzl had walked at least 30 feet away from where he’d encountered Mr. Rocha. Mr. Hainzl died at the hospital several hours later.
Mr. Rocha’s arrest made headlines, and he was later charged with murder and detained without bail despite early evidence that this had been an accidental death. Initially, a judge found him incompetent to stand trial, but he remained in jail for over a year due to the lack of space at the state psychiatric hospital. He was later hospitalized for three months before being found competent to stand trial, but his trial was delayed due to the growing backlog of cases in San Francisco Superior Court. He will now be released from jail and plans to seek medical help at the Veterans Administration.
“We live in a state where mental healthcare is so severely underfunded, that many of our most vulnerable community members end up unnecessarily incarcerated, and even the courts can’t guarantee access to the care they may need when there is a supply deficit of beds and services,” said Doug Welch, a Felony Manager at the Public Defender’s Office. “I commend Mr. Helvestine and his team, who were able to reveal the truth to the jury and have worked hard over the past two years to support Mr. Rocha throughout his incarceration in this devastating case.”
The defense team included Deputy Public Defender Will Helvestine, Paralegal Nathan Conn, and Investigator Nigel Phillips, who also testified in the trial.
SF Public Defender Mano Raju’s Statement After Recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin
“After the election results recalling District Attorney Chesa Boudin, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office reiterates our commitment to advocating for system-impacted community members and racial equity, and confronting and dismantling state violence that is endemic to our system. We know – from decades of misguided policies and budget priorities that have targeted communities of color for criminalization and created mass incarceration – that real public safety for all communities comes when we invest in people, not punishment.
We must remain resolute in our commitments – and those made by leaders and communities across the country after the rise of the Black Lives Matter movements and the murder of George Floyd – to address racial equity and police violence; especially in the face of blatant misinformation that is being used to undermine thoughtful and effective advances in justice reform.
Many San Franciscans and people around the country know that our justice system is plagued by racial and economic bias, and that it incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, yet leaves us no safer.
A number of advances made during Boudin’s tenure at the District Attorney’s Office have been promising – such as the Innocence Commission, resentencing opportunities, commitments to not try youth as adults, and limits to the use of strike enhancements.
Any District Attorney who is committed to justice and public safety should continue down the path of prioritizing opportunities for prevention and intervention over criminalization and incarceration to help minimize the harm that spirals into our communities and families when a loved one becomes entangled with the criminal legal system. I urge Mayor Breed to appoint an interim District Attorney with a proven record of commitment to justice reform and racial equity and who is not beholden to the police department, or to wealthy corporate interests.”
San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Condemns SFPD Killing of Two Men, Including Former Client Rafael Mendoza
SAN FRANCISCO – Last Thursday, members of the San Francisco Police Department shot and killed two men after being called to a reported assault in progress. While the SFPD released very few details until today’s town hall meeting, we learned earlier this week that one of the people they killed, Rafael Mendoza, was a former client of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and was represented by Deputy Public Defender Alexandra Pray.
Ms. Pray, who spoke with the SF Standard this week, is issuing the following statement:
“I was absolutely horrified to learn that SFPD officers shot and killed my client Mr. Mendoza. He was an unhoused father who lived a life of desperation. In all of my interactions with him, he was very sweet and gentle, even though his struggle to survive often entangled him in the criminal legal system for mostly petty and non-violent offenses. The fact that he died at the hands of police, who found him injured and being threatened by a man with a knife, is an inexcusable tragedy. My deepest condolences go out to his family and I want them to know that he was loved and valued despite his circumstances.”
Officers’ Body Worn Camera footage shown at today’s SFPD town hall showed at least a dozen officers gathered, yelling commands at close range, with weapons drawn on the two injured men who were largely frozen in combat under the same tarp on the ground. None of the officers attempted to identify language access needs until very late in the incident. Although the initial force used was from beanbag projectiles, officers quickly escalated to lethal force. It was later confirmed that both men died from the gunshot wounds.
Public Defender Mano Raju commented:
“The inability or unwillingness of police to truly de-escalate harmful situations remains a paramount concern for public safety in San Francisco. The answer to violence is not more violence. Mr. Mendoza lived his life on the margins of society without having his basic needs met, but he still had rights. This is why we need to stop relying on police to prevent harm, but rather invest in non-police alternatives to help vulnerable people abate harm.”
SF Jury Acquits on Assault Charge in a Trial That Came 7 Months Late for a Man Jailed for Nearly a Year
SFPD took 9 months to turn over video that the jury used to reach its not guilty verdict
SAN FRANCISCO – This week, a San Francisco jury relied heavily on a surveillance video that was not turned over by SFPD until nine months after the incident in question, to acquit Islam Natsheh of felony assault charges. Deputy Public Defender Max Breecker argued that the video showed Mr. Natsheh briefly jump in to defend a companion who was engaged in an altercation with another man who sustained several cuts, but that there was no evidence suggesting that Mr. Natsheh had possessed or used a knife in the fray. The acquittal on the primary felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon came only after Mr. Netsheh spent eleven months in jail, seven months beyond his trial deadline, largely due to the growing backlog of felony trials in San Francisco Superior Court.
“It’s a shame that we had to wait so long to litigate this case due to the court’s trial backlog and that this video surfaced so late that we didn’t have a chance to argue for Mr. Natsheh’s innocence and liberty much sooner,” said Mr. Breecker.
The jury acquitted Mr. Natsheh of felony assault with a deadly weapon, and hung 7-5 in favor of not guilty on a secondary charge that has now been dismissed.
“Everyone in this country is entitled to a speedy trial and that simply is not happening in San Francisco. While the courts have just recently been sending more cases to trial, we’re still only utilizing about a third of the available courtroom space in San Francisco while hundreds of legally-innocent people languish in jail under 23-hour lockdown well beyond their trial deadlines,” said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju, who has taken several legal actions to stoke the court into action. “Mr. Breecker and his team worked diligently to represent Mr. Natsheh, but were nearly stymied by a severe negligence of police investigators who sat on a video for nine months. Prolonged incarceration inflicts untold psychological harm to those who are jailed, and comes at a great cost to our city.”
As of May 6, 2022, there were 441 people with pending felony cases past their statutory deadline, or “last day” for trial, of whom 221 were in custody; and there were 187 people with pending misdemeanor cases past their last day, of whom 29 were in custody.
The defense team included Deputy Public Defender Max Breecker, Investigator Jill Schroeder, Paralegal Susan Frommer.
Coalition of 60 Civil Rights, Traffic Safety, and Community Groups Urging San Francisco Police Commission to End Racially-Biased Pretext Stops
SAN FRANCISCO — Today at 11:00 AM, the Coalition to End Biased Stops held a virtual press conference to call for an end to racially-biased traffic stops, also known as “driving, bicycling, or walking while Black or brown” or “pretext stops.” The press conference was held with members of the Board of Supervisors, Police Commissioners, the Coalition, and community leaders in anticipation of the San Francisco Police Commission tonight at 5:30PM introducing potential reforms to the Police Department’s traffic enforcement policies.
The Coalition to End Biased Stops is committed to ending racially-biased traffic stops by police in San Francisco, and has been building support for these changes over the past eight months. Police use these alleged traffic violations as a “pretext” to detain and search people, wreaking untold economic, physical, psychological, and intergenerational harm, especially against Black and brown San Franciscans.
The San Francisco Police Department’s stop and search data were discussed at a Board of Supervisors meeting on March 22. The numbers are stark: the SFPD continues to stop, search, and use force against Black people in San Francisco at a far higher rate than white people. Last year, Black people, as compared to white people, were almost six times more likely to be stopped, ten times more likely to be searched, and 12 times more likely to be subject to the use of force.
Black San Franciscans make up less than 5% of the population of San Francisco but account for 27% of all stops and 37% of all searches. Other jurisdictions have already taken initial or significant steps toward banning pretext stops, including Cambridge, MA; Montgomery County, MD; Berkeley and Los Angeles; Minneapolis and Ramsey County, MN; Philadelphia, PA; Virginia; and Washington, D.C.
On March 25, 2022, the Coalition sent a letter signed by 60 organizations to the Police Commission outlining their recommendations to prohibit pretext stops. Now, the Coalition to End Biased Stops is mobilizing community members and organizations involved in their campaign to advocate for these reforms at the Commission meeting tonight on May 11th.
The draft Department General Order that will be introduced by Commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone is a step in the right direction in starting the conversation about ending pretext stops. To ensure Black and brown community members are protected from all pretext stops, the Coalition will be advocating for a comprehensive list of codes for which SFPD cannot stop drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
Members of the Coalition to End Biased Stops – which includes GLIDE Foundation, Council on American-Islamic Relations California, the ACLU of Northern California, Office of the San Francisco Public Defender, SF Bicycle Coalition, and Walk San Francisco – provided the following quotes in support of ending pretext stops:
Miguel Bustos, Senior Director of GLIDE’s Center for Social Justice, said, “Many GLIDE clients have been harmed by racially-biased pretext stops and repeated harassment. Pretext stops further alienate some or our most marginalized neighbors and make them feel as though they are not welcome in their own community. These negative interactions perpetrate physical, psychological, and financial harm; they inflict and reinforce trauma on our community, particularly communities of color.”
Mano Raju, San Francisco Public Defender, said, “Time and again we have seen how racially-biased pretext stops have led to police violence against Black and brown community members across the country. We have a chance now in San Francisco to protect people’s rights and lives by ending these unnecessary law enforcement interactions. We are grateful to the large number of city officials and community leaders who support the coalition’s comprehensive vision for ending all pretext stops.”
Sameena Usman, Senior Government Relations Coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-SFBA, said, “Pretext stops are an excuse to pull people over for simple things such as an item hanging from a rearview mirror or tinted windows, and question, search, and even detain people. They do not help public safety and they disproportionately target communities of color, especially Black people.”
Avi Frey, Deputy Director, Criminal Justice Program, ACLU of Northern California, said “Pretext stops do nothing for public safety and routinely escalate into violence against Black and brown people. Their use is a constant reminder that the freedoms and lives of people of color are at the mercy of a government that views them as suspect. It is past time to abolish this tool of racial oppression.”
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The Coalition to End Biased Stops held a virtual press conference on May 11, 2022, in anticipation of the San Francisco Police Commission tonight at 5:30PM introducing potential reforms to the Police Department’s traffic enforcement policies. Facilitated by Wes Saver and Guled Muse of GLIDE Foundation. Speakers included: Brian Cox, Director of the Integrity Unit at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office; Shamann Walton, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; Phelicia Jones, Founder of Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community; Connie Chan, Supervisor of District 1; Sameena Usman, Senior Government Relations Coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations of the San Francisco Bay Area; Dean Preston, Supervisor of District 5; Claire Amable, Senior Community Organizer with the San Francisco Bike Coalition; Mano Raju, San Francisco Public Defender; Jesus Yanez, SF Police Commissioner; Kevin Benedicto, SF Police Commissioner, and Imam Abu-Qadir Al-Amin.
City Leaders and Community Advocates To Hold Press Conference Urging an End to Racially-Biased Pretext Stops in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO — On Wednesday, May 11th at 11AM, the Coalition to End Biased Stops, made up of 60 civil rights, traffic safety and community organizations, will hold a virtual press conference to call for an end to racially-biased police traffic stops, also known as “driving/biking/walking while Black or brown.” The press conference will be held in anticipation of the San Francisco Police Commission Meeting on May 11 at 5:30PM where significant changes to the Police Department’s traffic enforcement policies will be introduced.
WHEN: Wednesday, May 11, 2022 from 11:00-11:45am
WHO:
Facilitated by: Wes Saver & Guled Muse, GLIDE
Confirmed speakers:
Mano Raju, San Francisco Public Defender
Shamman Walton, President of the Board of Supervisors, District 10
Connie Chan, Supervisor District 1
Dean Preston, Supervisor District 5
Jesus Yanez, Police Commissioner
Sameena Usman, Council on American-Islamic Relations, SF Chapter
Claire Amable, SF Bicycle Coalition
Phelicia Jones, Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community
