Judge delays dismissal of prosecution
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Wednesday moved to dismiss the historic manslaughter prosecution of a San Francisco police officer.
Fired officer Christopher Samayoa, believed to have been the first city officer charged with an on-duty killing, now must wait to see if the state Attorney General’s Office decides to take up the prosecution. Samayoa was just days out of the police academy when he shot a fleeing, unarmed Keita O’Neil on Dec. 1, 2017.
Jenkins’ planned dismissal of the landmark case has become a flash point for the district attorney and police reform advocates who called the situation evidence that she’s backing off her campaign promise to prosecute police for excessive violence. Protesters chanted outside the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street, which police had blocked off due to the size of the demonstration, while attorneys argued in a courtroom.
Judge Loretta M. Giorgi granted but stayed the dismissal until March 7 in an attempt to give Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office more time to decide if it’ll take over the case. Once the dismissal is formally filed, only nine days remain before the statute of limitations to file charges lapses.
Jenkins, who didn’t appear in court, suggested in a February letter to Bonta that the case never should have been brought, calling it a political prosecution by her recalled predecessor, District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Boudin, who rejected Jenkins’ allegations, charged Samayoa nine months after taking office in 2020, and after discovering that he had only days to do so before the statute of limitations would expire.
April Green, who’s been pushing for the prosecution in her nephew’s killing for more than five years, struggled to rise from a wheelchair in the courtroom to address the judge.
“I’ve been trying to speak for my nephew, but there’s just one me,” said Green, who is recovering from major surgery after the discovery of a tumor. She asked the judge to give Bonta’s office more time to review the case, saying that Jenkins had politicized the case and gravely let down her family. “This case is about a Black man who was murdered.”
Giorgi tried to encourage Green while also expressing concern about what she said she’s learned from an investigation Jenkins’ administration is conducting into how Boudin’s administration handled the case.
“I think there’s a taint here with the process that would undermine the prosecution at this point,” the judge said. “It needs fresh eyes. It has fresh eyes from the AG’s office.”
The Attorney General’s Office told Green’s attorney that it’s weighing “the charging decision in this case in light of the district attorney’s intention to dismiss the charges on March 1, 2023.”
“We are also mindful of the limited time left on the statute of limitations. As such, we are working as quickly as possible to review this important matter, and we will notify you of the results when our review has concluded,” Chief Assistant Attorney General Lance Winters wrote in a Tuesday letter.
Jenkins’ claim that Boudin brought the case for political reasons centers on disagreements within the District Attorney’s Office about whether Samayoa should have been charged. Jenkins said Boudin brought the charges while the longtime lead investigator who didn’t support charges was on vacation and that the investigator who signed the warrant told her he’d doubted the prosecution. The latter investigator has denied this and said the warrant was well-supported.
Julia Fox, an attorney for Samayoa, argued against staying the dismissal. She said Bonta’s office has known for weeks that Jenkins planned to drop the charges Wednesday and could’ve asked for more time if needed.
Brian Ford, an attorney representing Green, filed a lengthy motion objecting to the dismissal, though the judge said he didn’t have legal standing to intervene. Ford argued that Jenkins’ office had violated Marsy’s Law, the statute passed in California and many other states to give crime victims more support as cases wind through court.
Giorgi declined to let Ford play footage from Samayoa’s body camera, which the attorney argued supported charges up to murder. Ford also cited the civil testimony of the training officer who’d been driving the patrol car when he and Samayoa started chasing a California state lottery van that police said O’Neil had carjacked from a woman. Video shows Samayoa, who pleaded not guilty and said he thought O’Neil was reaching for a weapon, shooting the 42-year-old as he fled on foot from the van at a dead end.
The training officer “made clear that he never saw fit to even draw his firearm,” Ford said, adding that the superior took Samayoa’s gun and detained him in the patrol car.
Darby Williams, managing attorney in the District Attorney’s Office unit that investigates police, made no argument on the evidence but echoed Samayoa’s attorney’s sentiments that Bonta would’ve asked for time if he needed it.
Jenkins’ move to drop the charges counted as one of her first major moves in a police prosecution.
Jenkins has also delayed three other police prosecutions she inherited from Boudin, and shrunk the unit responsible for investigating alleged crimes by police, further angering reform groups that held a rally outside the Hall of Justice on Wednesday to condemn Jenkins’ actions.
“I think there’s a taint here with the process that would undermine the prosecution at this point. It needs fresh eyes. It has fresh eyes from the AG’s office.” Judge Loretta M. Giorgi