EXCLUSIVE: Two SF Prosecutors Quit, Join Effort to Recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin

Prosecutors Brooke Jenkins and Don Du Bain tell the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit they have quit their jobs at the San Francisco District Attorney’s office and joined the effort to recall their former boss, District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

They are among at least 51 lawyers at the San Francisco District Attorney's Office who have either left or been fired since Boudin took office in January 2020, according to documents obtained by the Investigative Unit – that's about a third of the department's attorneys now gone.

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"Chesa has a radical approach that involves not charging crime in the first place and simply releasing individuals with no rehabilitation and putting them in positions where they are simply more likely to re-offend," Jenkins said.

"Being an African-American and Latino woman, I would wholeheartedly agree that the criminal justice system needs a lot of work, but when you are a district attorney, your job is to have balance."

Brooke Jenkins, a top prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office, resigned her position saying the DA’s leniency on criminals is making San Francisco more dangerous.

Being an African-American and Latino woman, I would wholeheartedly agree that the criminal justice system needs a lot of work, but when you are a district attorney, your job is to have balance.
Brooke Jenkins, a former San Francisco prosecutor who just quit, says District Attorney Chesa Boudin focuses more on defendants than victims of violent crime

The pressure is mounting for San Francisco embattled District Attorney Chesa Boudin. His job is on the line as 83,000 people signed a petition to recall him -- including two of his former prosecutors. NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai spoke to Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban -- who sat down with them both.

Both attorneys accuse Boudin of making San Francisco more dangerous by regularly handing down lenient sentences, releasing criminals early, and, in some cases, not filing charges at all, despite sufficient evidence proving those individuals committed violent crimes.

"He basically disregards the laws that he doesn't like, and he disregards the court decisions that he doesn't like to impose his own version of what he believes is just -and that's not the job of the district attorney," du Bain said.

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"The office was headed in such the wrong direction that the best thing I could do was to join the effort to recall Chesa Boudin as district attorney."

Jenkins and du Bain point to specific cases:

In one case, a man charged with robbery, who had eight prior felony convictions, was released early by the district attorney. He was then arrested four more times for other crimes, but the district attorney’s office never charged him. Then, nine months after he was set free, he hit and killed two women while driving a stolen car, drunk.

The fact that killers may go free, just doesn't sit very well with me.
Brooke Jenkins, who recently quit her job as a San Francisco prosecutor, tells the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit she has joined the effort to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin

“The fact that killers may go free, just doesn't sit very well with me,” said Jenkins, who spent seven years prosecuting cases in the district attorney’s office, most recently serving in the department’s homicide unit, taking on the city’s most violent criminals.

In another case, prosecutor Don du Bain said Boudin ordered him to request a more lenient sentence for a man who was convicted of shooting his girlfriend in the stomach. The request, du Bain argues, would have been a violation of state statutes, which govern criminal sentences. As a result, du Bain said he withdrew from the case.

“I’ve done 136 jury trials in my career – never, never withdrawn from a case before," he said. "I've seen decisions made in this office in the last year plus, since Chesa took over, that shocked my conscience – and I've been a prosecutor for 30 years."

Don du Bain, a prosecutor of 30 years, recently quit his job with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office to join the effort to oust his former boss, District Attorney Chesa Boudin, saying decisions he’s made over the past year have “shocked my conscience.”

Du Bain knows what it's like to face tough criticism as a county's top law enforcement official. In 2014, when he was district attorney in Solano County, a judge accused his office of withholding evidence in a case. The judge later recanted his criticism, stating he was "materially misled" about the situation. The California State Bar investigated the claims and ultimately cleared du Bain of any wrongdoing. Du Bain, however, believes the controversy lost him his reelection bid in Solano County. As a result, he knows firsthand what's at stake when damaging accusations are hurled at powerful public officials. That said, du Bain argues Boudin needs to be held accountable for what he describes as major mismanagement in the district attorney's office.

"I take no pleasure in saying this, he said. "I didn't want to be in this position. I consider Chesa a friend."

In yet another case, Jenkins said a man convicted of brutally killing his mother was able to avoid jail time after the district attorney agreed to let him plead insanity without requiring he provide evidence of his mental state in court.

“Almost all of the victim’s family strongly supported a finding of insanity,” wrote Sara Yousuf, a district attorney’s office spokesperson, who provided a statement to the Investigative Unit in response to the latest allegations made by Boudin’s former attorneys. “We are disappointed to see reporting of wrong and obviously politically motivated accusations.”

When pressed for more specifics as to what the district attorney’s office views as inaccurate or false allegations, Yousuf did not respond.

We are disappointed to see reporting of wrong and obviously politically motivated accusations.
Sara Yousuf, spokesperson for District Attorney Chesa Boudin, responds to allegations made by Boudin's former staff

“Public safety is not his focus. That is not his goal,” said Jenkins, adding, “Chesa has a radical approach that involves not charging crime in the first place and simply releasing individuals with no rehabilitation and putting them in positions where they are simply more likely to re-offend.”

In September, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Bruce Chan took the unusual steps of criticizing Boudin's office from the bench for "constant turnover" and neglecting “the fundamentals of competent, professional prosecution.”

“I cannot express in any more certain terms my disapproval of the manner in which the office of the district attorney is being managed,” the judge said. “We simply cannot have the current levels of inadvertence, disorganization, and expect there to be any public confidence in what we do here collectively.”

Gun Violence, Car Break-ins, Burglaries Spiking

So far this year, the number of fatal gun violence victims has risen 47 percent compared to the same time period last year, according to the latest data available from the San Francisco Police Department. Non-fatal gun violence incidents have roughly doubled and burglaries are at the highest levels in recent history. Citywide, car break-ins have increased 27 percent compared to last year, but they've spiked more than 150 percent in parts of the city.

For more than 100 days, the Investigative Unit submitted repeated interview requests to sit down with the district attorney to discuss his policies and the challenges facing his department. Boudin’s office, however, never made the district attorney available for questions and continually ignored requests to interview him.

During a panel discussion Boudin recently hosted about his efforts to protect survivors of domestic violence, he refused to take questions from the Investigative Unit.

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District Attorney's Office Responds to Allegations

“District Attorney Boudin has made it his priority to promote public safety for the people of San Francisco,” Yousuf wrote in a statement.

Yousuf underscored Boudin’s efforts to protect San Franciscans “by expanding services and support for crime victims, pursuing meaningful accountability to address harms; and by addressing the root causes of crime, including by fighting for public health solutions to prevent crime from occurring. Yousuf also said Boudin’s prosecution rates are similar - if not higher - than both his predecessor as well as other district attorneys in surrounding counties.”

District Attorney Boudin has made it his priority to promote public safety for the people of San Francisco.
Sara Yousuf, San Francisco District Attorney's Office spokesperson

83,000+ Signatures Submitted to Force Boudin into Recall Election

As the Investigative Unit first reported two days ago, organizers hoping to oust San Francisco’s district attorney submitted more than 83,000 signatures to election officials on Friday in order to force Boudin into a recall election during next year’s June Primary.

While the San Francisco Department of Elections must first certify the signatures within the next month, organizers hoping to oust Boudin submitted 32,162 more signatures than the 51,325 required to put the recall issue on the ballot.

Organizers hoping to oust District Attorney Chesa Boudin submitted more than 83,000 signatures on Thursday to the San Francisco Department of Elections, which is about 32,000 more signatures than what is required to put the recall question on the ballot next June. — Organizers hoping to oust District Attorney Chesa Boudin submitted more than 83,000 signatures to the San Francisco Department of Elections on Thursday, which is about 32,000 more signatures than what is required to put the recall question on the ballot next June.

This has nothing to do with the facts or the real challenges our communities are facing. This has everything to do with disrespecting the will of the people.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, speaking to his supporters about the recall election he is likely to face next June

Just one day prior, Boudin and his supporters seemed to acknowledge a recall election was inevitable as they hosted an anti-recall rally.

"This has nothing to do with the facts or the real challenges our communities are facing," Boudin told his supporters in reference to the recall effort. "This has everything to do with disrespecting the will of the people."

Boudin described the recall campaign as one being pushed by "dark money" and the Republican party. Boudin's opponents, however, point to the fact that more than 83,000 San Franciscans signed the recall petition. There are only 33,788 registered Republicans in San Francisco, according to the city's department of elections.

Dr. Keally McBride, a political science professor at the University of San Francisco, says District Attorney Chesa Boudin still has a tremendous amount of support, but says he’ll need buy-in from weary constituents who may be frustrated by increasing crime rates. “It’s going to be really incumbent upon Boudin's office to start messaging very, very clearly why they're making the decisions they are,” she said. “He's going to have to be really clear about linking his practice with San Francisco's progressive values, but also making the case that in the long run, we're all going to be better off through the changes he's just beginning to institute.”

Boudin 'Planting the Flag' for Reform, Says Political Science Professor

“I think of what [Boudin]'s doing is kind of planting the flag for the rest of us out in front and saying, ‘this is where we need to go,’” said Dr. Keally McBride, a political science professor at the University of San Francisco, who has been studying crime and punishment in the United States for the past 30 years.

McBride says Boudin is part of a group of reformer district attorneys attempting to end mass incarceration across the country.

“We built up all of these systems of jails and prisons and parole and electronic monitoring systems and and we have let go of a lot of different social services: publicly paid mental health counseling, drug counseling, etc." she said.

"It's going to take, I would estimate, at least a decade for all of the different structures in place to be developed and to create a really robust alternative to the criminal justice system that we've had for the last 50 years.”