New San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins fired 15 people in her office on Friday, with one in particular sparking an outcry. It comes in the first week since Jenkins was appointed to her role by Mayor of London Breed following the recall of Chesa Budden.
“Today, I made difficult but important changes to my management team and staff that will help advance my vision to restore a sense of safety in San Francisco by holding serious and repeat offenders accountable and implementing smart criminal justice reforms.” Jenkins said in a statement.
Managing attorney Arcelia Hurtado was the first member of the office to lose her job. She served as the attorney general’s representative on the city’s Innocence Commission, which investigates potential wrongful convictions in the city. The commission was created by Budden in 2020, and Jenkins signaled support for allowing it to continue in an interview with KQED on Thursday.
“Brooke Jenkins’ decision to fire Arcelia Hurtado is deeply troubling, especially given the promise she made yesterday to allow the Innocence Commission to continue to function,” said San Francisco State University law professor Lara Bazelon, chair of the the commission. Arcelia was crucial to the commission’s work. It is also worrying because Arcelia was the head of the DA’s post-conviction review unit, which is, among other things, currently considering a petition by London Mayor Breed’s brother Napoleon Brown to be granted leniency and released from prison following his theft conviction of a car and manslaughter. I see no legitimate reason for the dismissal of such a strict, competent and ethical lawyer as Arcelia.
Brown was sentenced to 44 years in prison for manslaughter, armed robbery and carjacking after an arrest in 2000. He sought a new sentence, and Breed herself asked then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018 to commute his sentence. The San Francisco Ethics Commission subsequently fined her $23,000 for this violation, among others.
The DA’s office previously oversaw Brown’s re-sentencing hearings; the next one is scheduled for August. Budden and his predecessors opposed Brown’s motion for a lesser sentence. A spokesman for Jenkins said she plans to ask the California attorney general’s office to take over the Brown case, removing her office from the picture.
“I’ll be interested to see what she does there,” Kat Brooks, co-founder of the progressive Anti Police-Terror Project, said of Jenkins. “The conflict of interest and the mayor do not shock me.
Other notable fired employees include Kate Chatfield, Budden’s chief of staff; Tal Clement, Assistant Chief of General Crime; Rachel Marshall, Budden’s director of communications and policy advisor; Michaela Rabinowitz, Director of Data, Analytics and Research; and Lateef Gray, managing attorney for the Bureau of Independent Investigations, the division that oversees investigations of police officers.
“I came to DA Boudin’s office to fight for criminal justice reform; this battle has never felt more urgent,” Marshall said in a statement. “There is no question that Attorney Jenkins’ approach is drastically different from my values. My passion for the mission to reform our legal system is stronger than ever, and I am eager for the next opportunity to make a difference.”
Jenkins has repeatedly said she seeks to balance reform and public safety, but Brooks said she believes the firings — particularly those of Hurtado — are not consistent with reform.
“San Francisco took 10 giant steps back,” she said. “Jenins was dangled in front of us because she’s a black woman, which should have made us feel better, but the layoffs are horrendous. I hope this raises the ire of the left and makes us realize that we have to fight or we will lose. We always say that a shift to the right can’t happen in California, but it’s happening right here in San Francisco.
On Twitter, Chatfield also criticized the layoffs.
“Commission on Impeachment/Innocence Unit: Gone. Police Accountability: Gone. Data and transparency: gone. Investigation into political corruption: gone. A champion for victims and children: demoted,” she wrote.
Chatfield also strongly criticized the framing by news outlets that Jenkins’ first wave of senior staff hires were all women. “We see Girl Bosses for mass incarceration,” she wrote.
Multiple employees in the office who weren’t fired Friday had mixed reactions to the new hires. (Those employees were granted anonymity for fear of retaliation, in accordance with Hearst’s ethics policy.) They said the return of Ana Gonzalez, who will be Jenkins’ second-in-command, is causing concern in the office because Budden fired her in 2020 d., because not in accordance with his vision.
They did, however, support the hiring of Tiffany Sutton, who is joining in a yet-to-be-specified position. Officials said Sutton, who was also in the DA’s office before but left for another job, is well-liked in the office and could help make the transition smooth.
“My new management team, which will include the addition of three women of color with decades of prosecutorial experience at the highest levels, will help our office deliver on that promise,” Jenkins said. “I have full faith and confidence that these women will promote and protect public safety while dispensing justice in all its various forms.”
Several fired employees other than Chatfield also left pithy notes for Jenkins on Twitter on his way out.
“While I was on my way to Santa Barbara for a family wedding, new District Attorney Brooke Jenkins called and fired me on the spot,” wrote Ryan Hojastech, a felony prosecutor who has worked on juvenile reform. “Strange decision to fire a non-executive felony prosecutor in courtrooms every day who has never lost a case.”
“I want to congratulate @BrookeJenkinsSF for firing me today,” wrote Dylan Yep, who was previously in the data department. “I had every intention of continuing to work to combat the unsightly racial disparities that permeate San Francisco’s criminal justice system—a cause to which she is only interested in paying lip service.” She was wise to hang up before I could say a word – otherwise she would have been forced to answer for her racist, carceral and political agenda without data. Or to explain why I was fired.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated at 7:40 p.m. after the DA’s office clarified that 15 shots were fired, not 16 as originally shared.
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