Bay Area’s top federal prosecutor vacates office

SAN FRANCISCO >> David Anderson, the San Francisco attorney who spent two years as the top federal prosecutor in the Bay Area, has left office in response to President Joe Biden’s widespread call for Trump-appointed U.S. Attorneys to vacate.

Anderson, appointed by then-President Donald Trump in January 2019, has been replaced by acting-U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds, who becomes the third woman in the Northern District of California’s 170-year history to fill that role.

Hinds, a federal prosecutor and former deputy city attorney with the city of San Francisco, served as deputy director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force national program in Washington, D.C., for a year starting in 2019.

Anderson announced his impending resignation at a February news conference where authorities touted a major Bay Area drug bust that stemmed from an investigation into the Sinaloa cartel. He said he was “honored” to have spent two years as a U.S. Attorney.

The Northern District comprises most of the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Alameda, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Napa, and Contra Costa counties. Anderson’s Trump-appointed counterpart in the Eastern District of California, McGregor Scott, has resigned from office as well.

Anderson’s two years as the Bay Area’s lead top prosecutor were best-known for prosecutions within the city of San Francisco, including the ongoing public corruption scandal that led to federal charges against the city’s public works director Mohammed Nuru and other high-ranking officials. He also led the socalled Federal Initiative for the Tenderloin, or FIT, an effort to hit Tenderloinarea drug dealers with federal charges that led to condemnation by the city’s District Attorney.

Anderson was also the line prosecutor in the case against two alleged followers of the anti-government Boogaloo movement, Steven Carrillo and Robert A. Justus, who are charged with gunning down Federal Protective Services contract officer Dave Patrick Underwood at the Ron Dellums Federal Building in Oakland.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Kopczynski is taking the lead on that high-profile case, according to court records filed Friday.