San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Alleged serial stalker roaming city, unbothered
A 24-year-old woman named Ann was jogging west on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park in late June when a hulking man she didn’t know locked his arm in hers, acting, she said, like “they were going to run off into the sunset together.”
She said she pulled away, but that he grabbed her arm and then her waist. She screamed, “Keep your hands off me!” and turned around to bolt in the other direction. He chased her. Ann asked a couple walking nearby if she could join them for protection as she called 911.
She waited for police, answered their questions, identified the man — who lingered nearby — and gave officers photos she’d taken on her phone of him following her. The man who was
part of the couple she’d been walking with talked to police, too, backing up her account.
In other words, Ann did everything right. Surely, this was a slam-dunk case. Nope. Not in San Francisco. Not in a city where scary, threatening behavior may be deemed OK as long as nobody suffers serious physical injuries. And not in a city where misdemeanor crimes are rarely prosecuted.
More than three months after police arrested Bill Gene Hobbs, 33, that evening in Golden Gate Park — and weeks after at least six women filed similar police reports about Hobbs chasing, grabbing and even forcibly kissing them — he remains on the streets free of consequences, spotted Wednesday in Cow Hollow and Thursday in the Marina.
So far, the city’s criminal justice system seems to be sending Ann and the other women a clear message: You’re on your own. Buy pepper spray, hustle along and hope for the best.
“I was truly just a piece of prey to this man, and I’ve never been so scared in my entire life,” said Ann, who asked that The Chronicle identify her by her middle name because she fears for her safety.
After the encounter, she said she got a guard dog, installed more locks on her door, bought pepper spray and saw a therapist. Those terrifying minutes in the park changed her life. As for Hobbs, not so much. Police arrested him at 5:37 p.m. June 25 on suspicion of misdemeanor battery for allegedly grabbing Ann, but the office of District Attorney Brooke Jenkins discharged the case on July 13 for lack of evidence, though it could be revived.
Until I told Ann, she was unaware that her quick actions, cooperation with police, photos of the assailant and the witness’ account hadn’t been enough to charge Hobbs. And she was outraged.
“I don’t know what else I could have done,” she said. “Do they expect every woman in this city to walk around with a GoPro strapped to their head?”
It’s a fair question. About a dozen women have shared stories in this column about frightening encounters with a man they believe is Hobbs, who stands 6-feet-4 inches, weighs 210 pounds, sports a buzz cut and has tattoos all over his body including the letters E-VI-L inked on his fingers.
Countless more women have said on NextDoor and Facebook that he harassed them, too. Still, nothing.
The Chronicle has not been able to verify that Hobbs was involved in each of the complaints about him on social media in recent weeks, but in a phone interview last month, he admitted he approaches women he finds attractive — while asserting that he never gets physical. Hobbs did not return phone messages left for him on Thursday and Friday.
Hobbs has a significant criminal record, with numerous arrests in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Kern and Ventura counties and convictions for crimes including drunken driving, driving on a suspended license, theft and being under the influence of drugs.
Hobbs’ history of avoiding consequences in San Francisco spans years.
In December 2020, he allegedly followed and grabbed a 15-year-old in West Portal. He was charged with misdemeanor child molestation and battery and spent a few months in jail before Superior Court Judge Russell Roeca dismissed the case “in the interest of justice,” wiping clear Hobbs’ record and an order to stay away from the teenager.
Hobbs has faced charges in six other cases in San Francisco dating to 2017, accused of crimes including trespassing, false imprisonment and battery. All were dismissed by judges.
Police Capt. Tim Falvey told me Thursday that all district captains have been notified about Hobbs and told to be on the alert for suspicious behavior against women, but that as of Thursday, there was no warrant for his arrest.
A source familiar with the police investigation into Hobbs, but not authorized to speak publicly, said Deputy Chief Raj Vaswani, who oversees the investigations bureau, is leading the effort to build a solid case against the alleged stalker and is working closely with the D.A.’s office.
But so far, no individual account rises above a possible charge of misdemeanor battery or assault, according to the source. Though such a charge would be punishable by up to six months in jail, police have seen their efforts to arrest Hobbs repeatedly brushed off by the District Attorney’s Office or Superior Court judges and want to ensure their efforts this time stick, the source said.
Police are encouraging women to seek individual restraining orders against Hobbs — and at least one is known to have been served to Hobbs by sheriff ’s deputies already. Hobbs is no longer staying at an address associated with him near the University of San Francisco, the source said, and may be trying to dodge police by bouncing around the city.
(Hobbs is no stranger to the concept of restraining orders. This past week, he sought one against me for being a “stalker, cyber bully and antagonist,” but a Superior Court judge quickly rejected it.)
Emberly Cross, who runs the citywide Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic, which helps people seek protection from their abusers, said it’s frustrating that police are putting the onus on women to seek their own court orders.
“That’s what the criminal legal system says when they’re punting a case,” Cross said. “It says nothing is going to happen on the criminal legal side.”
She said women would need to put their full names on requests for restraining orders and attend a court hearing at which Hobbs could appear, which can be a scary experience.
“To me, this gentleman really highlights the problem with the criminal legal system,” she said. “These women are screaming at him, screaming at the system, and nothing is happening. He’s just out living his life without a care in the world while women in the city are scared to go out.”
The city missed yet another chance to get Hobbs off the streets on Aug. 11 when he entered a home on Avila Street in the Marina while the residents were walking their dog.
Jackson, a man who was renting a room in the home, said he returned from his walk to find that Hobbs had parked his bike in the garage and placed his backpack on the floor, before announcing that he was moving in. He noted there was an American flag out front and that he was American.
Jackson’s girlfriend, Riley, listened to the two men’s disturbing conversation from another room and called 911.
“Jackson said, ‘It’s time for you to leave,’ and Bill was shocked,” Riley recalled. “He said, ‘What do you mean? Why would I leave? This is my home now.’ He was very convinced that we were his new family.”
Jackson and Riley, who asked to withhold their last names because they fear for their safety, said police responded quickly and were helpful, but seemed frustrated to have repeatedly picked up Hobbs, only to see him repeatedly released.
Police arrested Hobbs that day on suspicion of trespassing and giving false information to police — he claimed to be Scott Peterson, the name of the California man who notoriously killed his pregnant wife — but Jenkins’ office dismissed that case “in the interest of justice” because he hadn’t stolen anything.
Jackson said he’d never been told by the D.A.’s office that the case had been dismissed despite a state law requiring crime victims to be notified of developments in their cases.
When she was pushing to recall her former boss, Chesa Boudin, Jenkins repeatedly said he’d failed to hold repeat offenders accountable and had dropped the ball in keeping crime victims informed. Now, it appears she’s having the same problems.
I’ve made several requests to interview Jenkins about the Hobbs case, but she has not been made available. Her spokesperson emailed a statement from her saying the managing attorney for the office’s child abuse and sexual abuse unit is working closely with the police on its investigation.
“We will take every step possible to hold Hobbs accountable when we’re able to bring forward a case that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” Jenkins said in the statement. “Multiple incidents can be prosecuted together so the court undertands the gravity of Hobbs’ conduct.”
Former San Francisco Public Defender Geoff Brown had a lot of thoughts on the episode — and not necessarily ones you’d expect from a public defender. He said the city has options to deal with Hobbs.
The city could seek a civil injunction against him for disturbing women on a broad scale, serving him papers notifying him to not engage in grabbing, forcibly kissing or chasing women again. Then if he repeats the behavior, he can be picked up for violating a court order and jailed, Brown said.
Meanwhile, he said, police and the D.A. should build a broad case and seek multiple consecutive sentences, bringing witnesses from a variety of incidents before a judge and jury.
“This boils down to one thing we haven’t done in San Francisco — we don’t take misdemeanors seriously,” Brown said. “I always thought there was a case for a good misdemeanor prosecution that stops particularly bad behavior, but now it’s like they don’t count.”
Ann, the 24-year-old jogger, believes her encounter with Hobbs should count. But only several days ago did an advocate from the D.A.’s victim services division call her to see if she needed assistance.
“She was like, ‘Yeah, you’ve probably heard a lot about this guy in the press.’ I said, ‘What?’ ” Ann recalled, noting that she then found my columns and scoured NextDoor to learn about the many other alleged incidents.
Ann said she also got a call from a police investigator who told her the department hopes to persuade Jenkins to charge her case after all and use it as part of a larger case against Hobbs.
For now, Ann waits — and wonders why there have been few repercussions for the alleged attacker who upturned her life.
“How many women have to be traumatized?” she asked. “I just don’t understand how loudly we need to scream to be heard.”