Steinle verdict could haunt Gascón’s career

There are many questions following the shocking acquittal of a homeless undocumented immigrant on murder and manslaughter charges in the killing of Kate Steinle.

One of them? Where the heck was District Attorney George Gascón? He wasn’t at the Hall of Justice when the verdict was announced, didn’t issue a statement and was mum on social media. Had he gone into hiding to lick his wounds after the outcome, which was disastrous for his office?

No. He was at a hotel in downtown Los Angeles accepting an award from the Southern California Leadership Network on the occasion of the civic group’s 30th anniversary. He was already at the venue when a staffer told him via cell phone of the jury’s stunning decision.

“The first thing that came to mind wasn’t that we lost the case,” Gascón said in an interview Monday. “It was how horrendous this is for the Steinle family and what they must be going through.”

The case, which became a major component of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, centered on the July 1, 2015, slaying of Steinle as she walked on Pier 14 with her father. The fact that an undocumented immigrant, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, killed her wasn’t in doubt, but the defense contention that the slaying was accidental swayed the jury.

Gascón, the city’s former

police chief who has never tried a case himself, said he still believes he had evidence to prove murder beyond a reasonable doubt, despite many observers saying it’s obvious he overcharged the case.

He said it’s hard to buy the defense’s theory that the gun just went off accidentally, but that “the jury has already spoken.”

It’s too early to tell if Gascón’s massive loss in the Steinle case will affect his political career.

Despite speculation he was on Gov. Jerry Brown’s short-list for Attorney General after Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate, Gascón said he will not seek that office in November and will instead support Xavier Becerra, whom Brown appointed to the job. Gascón said he does plan to run for re-election as district attorney in 2019.

Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, called the Steinle verdict “a terrifically unfortunate career moment” for Gascón, especially if he seeks higher office statewide.

“What everyone will remember is he’s the one who lost the case — that’ll be the tagline,” she said.

Maggie Muir, a political consultant who ran Gascón’s 2011 campaign for district attorney, said it was a mistake for him to remain so quiet after a nationally watched case.

“When you’re a political official, you need to come out and take responsibility for the verdict,” she said. “The buck stops with you, and you have to be able to defend that, and he chose not to.”

She said incumbents usually fare well in San Francisco, but the major loss in the Steinle case could give potential challengers to Gascón a big boost.

“It certainly gives them a credible issue to run on,” she said.

Gascón must surely be hoping his career doesn’t follow the trajectory of one of his predecessors, Joe Freitas Jr. He was the district attorney who stunned the nation by losing another famous case: the 1979 trial of former Supervisor Dan White in the slayings of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.

White was found not guilty of first-degree murder and instead convicted on two counts of voluntary manslaughter. Freitas ran for reelection and lost. He never won another campaign. Those underpaid San Francisco public school teachers I’ve been telling you so much about have until Wednesday to cast their votes on whether to approve the tentative contract agreement struck last month between their union leaders and the school district.

But passage isn’t a slam dunk. Many teachers are organizing their colleagues to vote no and, frankly, it’s hard to blame them.

A recent Chronicle analysis found that in 2015-16, 775 school districts around California reported salary data to the state. San Francisco’s average teacher pay, $67,540, ranked it No. 478, alongside Chico, Salinas and Vacaville.

Leaders of the United Educators of San Francisco want their members to approve a contract giving them an 11 percent raise over three years plus a one-time 2 percent bonus. They’re working on a parcel tax for the June ballot that would levy an extra $298 per parcel. That adds up to $50 million annually, 75 percent of which would go to teacher salaries.

(The union is asking teachers to help collect signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot, which one teacher rightfully described as “walking around with the alms bowl.”)

The district and union agreed the teachers would get at least another 2 percent raise and 1 percent bonus if the parcel tax passes. Lita Blanc, president of the union, said passage would mean enough money for teachers to actually get an additional 4 to 5 percent raise.

Some teachers think the deal isn’t good enough, considering the deep hole they’re already in. They’re fed up with what they view as weak union leadership and have held organizing meetings to push for a no vote, created a Facebook page and set up a Twitter account with the handle @UESFsaysNo.

Greg McGarry, an English teacher at Mission High, is one of those no votes.

“This is a crisis, and it will continue to severely harm San Francisco and some of our most vulnerable students, families and educators unless we fight now for a fair wage,” McGarry said.

If McGarry’s side wins, union leadership would have to go back to the negotiating table and start over. Blanc said that means no immediate raises and no guarantee teachers would get anything better than the current offer.

“There are some people who think it falls far short of what is necessary, and I don’t actually disagree,” she said. “We know it’s not enough, but it’s a good step forward.”

It’s still hard to believe Donald Trump is our president, but there’s a movie some say predicted his rise to power.

The 1957 flick “A Face in the Crowd,” directed by Elia Kazan, seems to foreshadow the star of “The Apprentice” becoming the leader of the free world. It stars Andy Griffith as Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, who is discovered in jail by a radio host and suddenly soars to fame and political power.

Rhodes is a racist womanizer who captivates the public by saying things everybody’s thinking but won’t dare utter out loud.

“They’re mine, I own them, they think like I do,” Rhodes says at one point of his adoring public. “Only they’re more stupid than I am, so I got to think for them.” Gee, sound familiar? The Jewish Film Institute is hosting a screening of the movie at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Roxie Theater followed by a panel discussion featuring Supervisor Hillary Ronen, filmmaker Rick Goldsmith and yours truly. The discussion will be moderated by Stuart Schuffman, a.k.a. Broke-Ass Stuart.

Tickets are available at www.jfi.org/predicting-trump. Hope to see you there!