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"slug": "sf-public-defender-pushes-to-decertify-3-police-officers-whose-arrest-left-man-in-coma",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-public-defender\">San Francisco Public Defender’s Office\u003c/a> is seeking to decertify three San Francisco Police officers, alleging they so brutally injured a man that he had to be medically induced into a coma. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During a press conference at the public defender’s office on Thursday, attorneys presented body camera footage from Aug. 17, 2025, in which San Francisco police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled 33-year-old Kevon Gibson to the ground. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They repeatedly punched him in the head, pulled his hair, and kneeled on his neck in the hallway of a residential hotel on Sixth Street.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m scared right now,” Gibson told the officers as they laid on top of him and struck him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gibson repeatedly told the officers, “I can’t breathe,” words which Public Defender Mano Raju said were also the last by Eric Garner, who was killed in New York police custody in 2014. One officer also knelt on Gibson’s neck, the way George Floyd was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987911/how-george-floyds-murder-ignited-solidarity-in-the-streets-and-californias-reparations-movement\">murdered\u003c/a> by police in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1539\" height=\"884\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103653\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a.jpg 1539w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a-160x92.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a-1536x882.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1539px) 100vw, 1539px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office released footage of the Aug. 17, 2025 arrest of 33-year-old Kevon Gibson, who was hospitalized after San Francisco Police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled and punched him and knelt on his neck. (Courtesy of San Francisco Public Defender's Office)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gibson was treated in the ICU, put into a medically induced coma and intubated, before being held at the San Francisco County Jail for a year — awaiting trial for three felony counts of resisting arrest.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Deputy public defenders Bonnie Chan-Silen and John Paul Passaglia represented Gibson in the case, where a San Francisco jury acquitted him of all three charges.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Although Gibson was acquitted of the three felony counts, the jury still convicted him of being a felon in possession of a firearm and three misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gibson was sentenced last month. He was given credit for the year he served in jail, and the judge allowed him to serve the remaining 17 days of his sentence in home detention, at the residence of a loved one. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan-Silen said the DA’s office attempted to keep the jury from hearing audio from the body camera, but the jury heard his cries for help. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“What makes this horrific police beating even more egregious is the way the district attorney’s office tried to cover it up, and charge Mr. Gibson with crimes that he did not commit,” Chan-Silen said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103650\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Bonnie Chan-Silen takes questions from reporters at a press conference at the public defender’s office on Oct. 8, 2026. The office released footage of the Aug. 17, 2025 arrest of 33-year-old Kevon Gibson, who was hospitalized after San Francisco Police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled and punched him, as well as knelt on his neck. A jury found Gibson guilty of three counts of misdemeanor resisting arrest and being a felon in possession of a firearm, but acquitted him of three felony resisting charges. (Brian Krans/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a statement, the district attorney’s office said it never asked the court to exclude the footage. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The jury convicted Mr. Gibson of four crimes. Calling this a ‘cover-up’ isn’t just an attack on our prosecutors—it shows remarkable disrespect for the court and the jurors who heard the evidence and rendered the verdict,” the statement said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Passaglia alleged the officers were caught in three lies at trial: One said Gibson bit him and another said Gibson punched him in the face multiple times, and even took his radio off and wrapped the cord around his neck. The third claim was that Gibson attempted to break his thumb.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The jury knew these were lies because they were shown a volume of various videos that collectively showed unequivocally that not one of those incidents happened,” Passaglia said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Following Gibson’s conviction, the DA’s office \u003ca href=\"https://sfdistrictattorney.org/man-convicted-of-illegal-firearm-possession-and-resisting-arrest-in-soma/\">issued a press release on Aug. 19\u003c/a> that described the sequence of events: “When officers attempted a pat search for weapons, Mr. Gibson started to actively resist their attempts and fight with officers. Eventually three officers were able to restrain Mr. Gibson and handcuff him.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That statement also thanked the officers and the jury. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“She [Brooke Jenkins] omitted any mention of the fact that they had brutally beaten Mr. Gibson nearly into a coma,” Chan-Silen said. “She villainized Mr. Gibson as a Black man with a gun.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Police were called to the residential hotel and spoke with a neighbor who complained about Gibson, calling him the [N-word] and threatening to “stick this knife into his Black ass” and “slice and watch him bleed everywhere.” Police did not further investigate the man’s threats to Gibson.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan-Silen said Gibson only briefly possessed a handgun for protection against that “racist” neighbor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Caraway, Conway and Rivera attempted to locate Gibson at his friend’s apartment, loudly kicking on the door and telling the occupants that they could break the door in with no repercussions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Ain’t nobody gonna do shit if I kick this door down, right?” One of the officers said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The officers found Gibson as he was coming out of an elevator. They told him he wasn’t under arrest, but immediately put their hands on him in an attempt to detain him. All three officers had contact with Gibson, and all four men were soon on the ground. Besides body cameras, the scuffle was captured by a surveillance camera in the hallway. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the end, there was a noticeable amount of blood coming from Gibson’s forehead. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The public defender’s office said it wasn’t aware of whether the officers had been reprimanded, but believed one of them was promoted shortly after the incident. SFPD has not yet responded to a request for comment. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The public defender said it plans to file a complaint with the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability, and notify the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, to seek decertification of the officers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Prosecutors often charge and overcharge our clients with resisting arrest as leverage to punish our clients and then excuse the police officers’ actions, and then misrepresent the true nature of these incidents,” Raju said. “All of this is a disservice to our clients, a disservice to the community, and a disservice to the pursuit of justice itself.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-public-defender\">San Francisco Public Defender’s Office\u003c/a> is seeking to decertify three San Francisco Police officers, alleging they so brutally injured a man that he had to be medically induced into a coma. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>During a press conference at the public defender’s office on Thursday, attorneys presented body camera footage from Aug. 17, 2025, in which San Francisco police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled 33-year-old Kevon Gibson to the ground. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>During a press conference at the public defender’s office on Thursday, attorneys presented body camera footage from Aug. 17, 2025, in which San Francisco police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled 33-year-old Kevon Gibson to the ground. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They repeatedly punched him in the head, pulled his hair, and kneeled on his neck in the hallway of a residential hotel on Sixth Street.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’m scared right now,” Gibson told the officers as they laid on top of him and struck him. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gibson repeatedly told the officers, “I can’t breathe,” words which Public Defender Mano Raju said were also the last by Eric Garner, who was killed in New York police custody in 2014. One officer also knelt on Gibson’s neck, the way George Floyd was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987911/how-george-floyds-murder-ignited-solidarity-in-the-streets-and-californias-reparations-movement\">murdered\u003c/a> by police in 2020.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Gibson repeatedly told the officers, “I can’t breathe,” words which Public Defender Mano Raju said were also the last by Eric Garner, who was killed in New York police custody in 2014. One officer also knelt on Gibson’s neck, the way George Floyd was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987911/how-george-floyds-murder-ignited-solidarity-in-the-streets-and-californias-reparations-movement\">murdered\u003c/a> by police in 2020.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103653\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a.jpg 1539w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a-160x92.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a-1536x882.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office released footage of the Aug. 17, 2025 arrest of 33-year-old Kevon Gibson, who was hospitalized after San Francisco Police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled and punched him and knelt on his neck.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of San Francisco Public Defender's Office)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103653\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office released footage of the Aug. 17, 2025 arrest of 33-year-old Kevon Gibson, who was hospitalized after San Francisco Police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled and punched him and knelt on his neck.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of San Francisco Public Defender's Office)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gibson was treated in the ICU, put into a medically induced coma and intubated, before being held at the San Francisco County Jail for a year — awaiting trial for three felony counts of resisting arrest.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Deputy public defenders Bonnie Chan-Silen and John Paul Passaglia represented Gibson in the case, where a San Francisco jury acquitted him of all three charges.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Although Gibson was acquitted of the three felony counts, the jury still convicted him of being a felon in possession of a firearm and three misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gibson was sentenced last month. He was given credit for the year he served in jail, and the judge allowed him to serve the remaining 17 days of his sentence in home detention, at the residence of a loved one. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Gibson was sentenced last month. He was given credit for the year he served in jail, and the judge allowed him to serve the remaining 17 days of his sentence in home detention, at the residence of a loved one. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chan-Silen said the DA’s office attempted to keep the jury from hearing audio from the body camera, but the jury heard his cries for help. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“What makes this horrific police beating even more egregious is the way the district attorney’s office tried to cover it up, and charge Mr. Gibson with crimes that he did not commit,” Chan-Silen said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“What makes this horrific police beating even more egregious is the way the district attorney’s office tried to cover it up, and charge Mr. Gibson with crimes that he did not commit,” Chan-Silen said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103650\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Bonnie Chan-Silen takes questions from reporters at a press conference at the public defender’s office on Oct. 8, 2026. The office released footage of the Aug. 17, 2025 arrest of 33-year-old Kevon Gibson, who was hospitalized after San Francisco Police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled and punched him, as well as knelt on his neck. A jury found Gibson guilty of three counts of misdemeanor resisting arrest and being a felon in possession of a firearm, but acquitted him of three felony resisting charges.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Brian Krans/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103650\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Bonnie Chan-Silen takes questions from reporters at a press conference at the public defender’s office on Oct. 8, 2026. The office released footage of the Aug. 17, 2025 arrest of 33-year-old Kevon Gibson, who was hospitalized after San Francisco Police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled and punched him, as well as knelt on his neck. A jury found Gibson guilty of three counts of misdemeanor resisting arrest and being a felon in possession of a firearm, but acquitted him of three felony resisting charges.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Brian Krans/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The jury convicted Mr. Gibson of four crimes. Calling this a ‘cover-up’ isn’t just an attack on our prosecutors—it shows remarkable disrespect for the court and the jurors who heard the evidence and rendered the verdict,” the statement said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Passaglia alleged the officers were caught in three lies at trial: One said Gibson bit him and another said Gibson punched him in the face multiple times, and even took his radio off and wrapped the cord around his neck. The third claim was that Gibson attempted to break his thumb.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Passaglia alleged the officers were caught in three lies at trial: One said Gibson bit him and another said Gibson punched him in the face multiple times, and even took his radio off and wrapped the cord around his neck. The third claim was that Gibson attempted to break his thumb.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The jury knew these were lies because they were shown a volume of various videos that collectively showed unequivocally that not one of those incidents happened,” Passaglia said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Following Gibson’s conviction, the DA’s office \u003ca href=\"https://sfdistrictattorney.org/man-convicted-of-illegal-firearm-possession-and-resisting-arrest-in-soma/\">issued a press release on Aug. 19\u003c/a> that described the sequence of events: “When officers attempted a pat search for weapons, Mr. Gibson started to actively resist their attempts and fight with officers. Eventually three officers were able to restrain Mr. Gibson and handcuff him.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“She [Brooke Jenkins] omitted any mention of the fact that they had brutally beaten Mr. Gibson nearly into a coma,” Chan-Silen said. “She villainized Mr. Gibson as a Black man with a gun.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Police were called to the residential hotel and spoke with a neighbor who complained about Gibson, calling him the [N-word] and threatening to “stick this knife into his Black ass” and “slice and watch him bleed everywhere.” Police did not further investigate the man’s threats to Gibson.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Police were called to the residential hotel and spoke with a neighbor who complained about Gibson, calling him the [N-word] and threatening to “stick this knife into his Black ass” and “slice and watch him bleed everywhere.” Police did not further investigate the man’s threats to Gibson.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chan-Silen said Gibson only briefly possessed a handgun for protection against that “racist” neighbor. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Caraway, Conway and Rivera attempted to locate Gibson at his friend’s apartment, loudly kicking on the door and telling the occupants that they could break the door in with no repercussions. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Ain’t nobody gonna do shit if I kick this door down, right?” One of the officers said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The officers found Gibson as he was coming out of an elevator. They told him he wasn’t under arrest, but immediately put their hands on him in an attempt to detain him. All three officers had contact with Gibson, and all four men were soon on the ground. Besides body cameras, the scuffle was captured by a surveillance camera in the hallway. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The officers found Gibson as he was coming out of an elevator. They told him he wasn’t under arrest, but immediately put their hands on him in an attempt to detain him. All three officers had contact with Gibson, and all four men were soon on the ground. Besides body cameras, the scuffle was captured by a surveillance camera in the hallway. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At the end, there was a noticeable amount of blood coming from Gibson’s forehead. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The public defender’s office said it wasn’t aware of whether the officers had been reprimanded, but believed one of them was promoted shortly after the incident. SFPD has not yet responded to a request for comment. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The public defender said it plans to file a complaint with the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability, and notify the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, to seek decertification of the officers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Prosecutors often charge and overcharge our clients with resisting arrest as leverage to punish our clients and then excuse the police officers’ actions, and then misrepresent the true nature of these incidents,” Raju said. “All of this is a disservice to our clients, a disservice to the community, and a disservice to the pursuit of justice itself.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Body camera footage showed the three officers punching Gibson, pulling his hair and kneeling on his neck — after which Gibson was medically induced into a coma and intubated. ",
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"title": "SF Public Defender Pushes to Decertify 3 Police Officers Whose Arrest Left Man in Coma | KQED",
"description": "Body camera footage showed the three officers punching Gibson, pulling his hair and kneeling on his neck — after which Gibson was medically induced into a coma and intubated. ",
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"headline": "SF Public Defender Pushes to Decertify 3 Police Officers Whose Arrest Left Man in Coma",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-public-defender\">San Francisco Public Defender’s Office\u003c/a> is seeking to decertify three San Francisco Police officers, alleging they so brutally injured a man that he had to be medically induced into a coma. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During a press conference at the public defender’s office on Thursday, attorneys presented body camera footage from Aug. 17, 2025, in which San Francisco police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled 33-year-old Kevon Gibson to the ground. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They repeatedly punched him in the head, pulled his hair, and kneeled on his neck in the hallway of a residential hotel on Sixth Street.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m scared right now,” Gibson told the officers as they laid on top of him and struck him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gibson repeatedly told the officers, “I can’t breathe,” words which Public Defender Mano Raju said were also the last by Eric Garner, who was killed in New York police custody in 2014. One officer also knelt on Gibson’s neck, the way George Floyd was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987911/how-george-floyds-murder-ignited-solidarity-in-the-streets-and-californias-reparations-movement\">murdered\u003c/a> by police in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1539\" height=\"884\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103653\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a.jpg 1539w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a-160x92.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-03-KQED-50c5e94a-1536x882.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1539px) 100vw, 1539px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office released footage of the Aug. 17, 2025 arrest of 33-year-old Kevon Gibson, who was hospitalized after San Francisco Police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled and punched him and knelt on his neck. (Courtesy of San Francisco Public Defender's Office)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gibson was treated in the ICU, put into a medically induced coma and intubated, before being held at the San Francisco County Jail for a year — awaiting trial for three felony counts of resisting arrest.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Deputy public defenders Bonnie Chan-Silen and John Paul Passaglia represented Gibson in the case, where a San Francisco jury acquitted him of all three charges.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Although Gibson was acquitted of the three felony counts, the jury still convicted him of being a felon in possession of a firearm and three misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Gibson was sentenced last month. He was given credit for the year he served in jail, and the judge allowed him to serve the remaining 17 days of his sentence in home detention, at the residence of a loved one. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan-Silen said the DA’s office attempted to keep the jury from hearing audio from the body camera, but the jury heard his cries for help. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“What makes this horrific police beating even more egregious is the way the district attorney’s office tried to cover it up, and charge Mr. Gibson with crimes that he did not commit,” Chan-Silen said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103650\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261008-SF-Defender-02-KQED-86f37b79-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Bonnie Chan-Silen takes questions from reporters at a press conference at the public defender’s office on Oct. 8, 2026. The office released footage of the Aug. 17, 2025 arrest of 33-year-old Kevon Gibson, who was hospitalized after San Francisco Police officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway and Gabriel Rivera tackled and punched him, as well as knelt on his neck. A jury found Gibson guilty of three counts of misdemeanor resisting arrest and being a felon in possession of a firearm, but acquitted him of three felony resisting charges. (Brian Krans/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a statement, the district attorney’s office said it never asked the court to exclude the footage. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The jury convicted Mr. Gibson of four crimes. Calling this a ‘cover-up’ isn’t just an attack on our prosecutors—it shows remarkable disrespect for the court and the jurors who heard the evidence and rendered the verdict,” the statement said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Passaglia alleged the officers were caught in three lies at trial: One said Gibson bit him and another said Gibson punched him in the face multiple times, and even took his radio off and wrapped the cord around his neck. The third claim was that Gibson attempted to break his thumb.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The jury knew these were lies because they were shown a volume of various videos that collectively showed unequivocally that not one of those incidents happened,” Passaglia said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Following Gibson’s conviction, the DA’s office \u003ca href=\"https://sfdistrictattorney.org/man-convicted-of-illegal-firearm-possession-and-resisting-arrest-in-soma/\">issued a press release on Aug. 19\u003c/a> that described the sequence of events: “When officers attempted a pat search for weapons, Mr. Gibson started to actively resist their attempts and fight with officers. Eventually three officers were able to restrain Mr. Gibson and handcuff him.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That statement also thanked the officers and the jury. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“She [Brooke Jenkins] omitted any mention of the fact that they had brutally beaten Mr. Gibson nearly into a coma,” Chan-Silen said. “She villainized Mr. Gibson as a Black man with a gun.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Police were called to the residential hotel and spoke with a neighbor who complained about Gibson, calling him the [N-word] and threatening to “stick this knife into his Black ass” and “slice and watch him bleed everywhere.” Police did not further investigate the man’s threats to Gibson.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chan-Silen said Gibson only briefly possessed a handgun for protection against that “racist” neighbor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Caraway, Conway and Rivera attempted to locate Gibson at his friend’s apartment, loudly kicking on the door and telling the occupants that they could break the door in with no repercussions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Ain’t nobody gonna do shit if I kick this door down, right?” One of the officers said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The officers found Gibson as he was coming out of an elevator. They told him he wasn’t under arrest, but immediately put their hands on him in an attempt to detain him. All three officers had contact with Gibson, and all four men were soon on the ground. Besides body cameras, the scuffle was captured by a surveillance camera in the hallway. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the end, there was a noticeable amount of blood coming from Gibson’s forehead. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The public defender’s office said it wasn’t aware of whether the officers had been reprimanded, but believed one of them was promoted shortly after the incident. SFPD has not yet responded to a request for comment. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The public defender said it plans to file a complaint with the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability, and notify the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, to seek decertification of the officers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Prosecutors often charge and overcharge our clients with resisting arrest as leverage to punish our clients and then excuse the police officers’ actions, and then misrepresent the true nature of these incidents,” Raju said. “All of this is a disservice to our clients, a disservice to the community, and a disservice to the pursuit of justice itself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "ex-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-is-going-on-trial-for-bribery-heres-what-you-need-to-know",
"title": "Ex-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Is Going on Trial for Bribery: Here’s What You Need to Know",
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"headTitle": "Ex-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Is Going on Trial for Bribery: Here’s What You Need to Know | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>As former Oakland Mayor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sheng-thao\">Sheng Thao\u003c/a> prepares to go to trial next week — accused of participating in an alleged bribery scheme with the owners of Oakland’s recycling contractor — a key debate is expected to loom over the proceedings: whether the prosecution’s star witness is telling the truth or if the government built its case on the claims of an unreliable informant. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thao, 41, her longtime partner, Andre Jones, 55, California Waste Solutions CEO David Duong, 68, and his son, Andy Duong, 37, face charges of bribery, conspiracy, and fraud. Andy Duong has also been charged with lying to the FBI. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors allege Thao pledged favorable treatment to the Duongs’ businesses in exchange for a promise of $300,000 paid to Jones and negative political mailers in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Each defendant has pleaded \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022612/ex-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-3-others-charged-with-bribery-sprawling-corruption-probe\">not guilty\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors say they have copious evidence to prove the alleged scheme, including text messages, emails, Apple notes, taped phone calls and video recordings. But they’ll also be relying on the testimony of a key cooperating witness whose checkered past has become a primary focus of the defense. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098349\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sheng Thao stands next to her attorney, Jeff Tsai, as he makes a statement outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The witness, Oakland businessman and political operative Mario Juarez, co-founded a housing company with the Duongs that’s at the center of the alleged conspiracy. He became an informant in the FBI’s investigation after a falling out with the family and has pleaded guilty to participating in the alleged scheme. He’s expected to testify about his relationships with the defendants, as well as his role in the housing company. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys have raised questions about Juarez’s credibility and what they’ve described as his “decadeslong history of fraud” — including instances where they say he falsely accused business partners of illegal activity in an effort to escape liability for his own actions.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While primarily focused on the Duongs and their relationship with Thao, the prosecution has also exposed behind-the-scenes interactions between the family and other elected officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A list of high-profile politicians has been named as potential witnesses who could testify in the trial — including Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, Oakland City Councilmember Kevin Jenkins and former Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another elected official, former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo, has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in a related case and is expected to take the stand as a government witness.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jury selection begins Oct. 13 with opening statements planned immediately after. The trial is estimated to last around six weeks, wrapping up around Thanksgiving. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The alleged quid pro quo\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors allege that in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election, Thao, Jones and the Duongs began discussing a deal that would help get Thao elected and benefit the Duongs’ companies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the fall of 2022, the Duongs had recently gone into business with Juarez on Evolutionary Homes, a company that aimed to convert shipping containers into housing for people experiencing homelessness. The plan was to market the container units to local Bay Area governments. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thao at the time was an Oakland City Council member running for mayor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-5 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data-id=\"12103337\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/Evolutionary_Homes_PROJECT_PRESENTATION_-_EHLLC_Model_ONE-copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103337\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/Evolutionary_Homes_PROJECT_PRESENTATION_-_EHLLC_Model_ONE-copy-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/Evolutionary_Homes_PROJECT_PRESENTATION_-_EHLLC_Model_ONE-copy-2-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/Evolutionary_Homes_PROJECT_PRESENTATION_-_EHLLC_Model_ONE-copy-2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/Evolutionary_Homes_PROJECT_PRESENTATION_-_EHLLC_Model_ONE-copy-2-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Evolutionary Homes’ rendering of a proposed container home unit for people who are exiting homelessness. (Courtesy of Evolutionary Homes)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1805\" height=\"889\" data-id=\"12103161\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/TaylorFraud-website-screenshot_2_accessed-via-WayBackMachine_11-07-2022.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103161\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/TaylorFraud-website-screenshot_2_accessed-via-WayBackMachine_11-07-2022.jpg 1805w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/TaylorFraud-website-screenshot_2_accessed-via-WayBackMachine_11-07-2022-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/TaylorFraud-website-screenshot_2_accessed-via-WayBackMachine_11-07-2022-1536x757.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1805px) 100vw, 1805px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A screenshot from the website Mario Juarez allegedly created to attack Oakland mayoral candidate Loren Taylor, accessed by the Wayback Machine on Nov. 7, 2022. (Courtesy of Wayback Machine)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors allege the Duongs agreed to finance campaign mailers that negatively portrayed Thao’s opponents in the race, Loren Taylor and Ignacio de la Fuente, and pay her longtime partner Jones $300,000 through a no-show job at Evolutionary Homes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In exchange, they say, Thao committed the city of Oakland to purchasing housing units from Evolutionary Homes and agreed to help appoint people hand-picked by the Duongs and Juarez to director-level city positions if she won the election. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Duongs’ recycling company, California Waste Solutions, already had a contract with Oakland to provide curbside recycling services, and Thao allegedly agreed that as mayor, she would also extend it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When it became evident that Thao was going to win, prosecutors say Juarez texted Andy Duong, “So we may go to jail … But we are $100 million richer.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Andy Duong allegedly replied, “Money buys everything.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"758\" height=\"577\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/indictment-texts-6651ab1e.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103464\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/indictment-texts-6651ab1e.png 758w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/indictment-texts-6651ab1e-160x122.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 758px) 100vw, 758px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A text message exchange between Andy Duong and Mario Juarez, identified as Co-Conspirator 1, according to the federal indictment against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. (Courtesy of U.S. District Court)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>In the months that followed, prosecutors say Juarez began paying Jones, together with money from David and Andy Duong. And they say the defendants began discussing how to expand their deal, with Jones being paid as much as $3 million if the city purchased 300 housing units from Evolutionary Homes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At one meeting, Thao allegedly proposed using Oakland’s emergency powers to make it easier for the city to buy the container houses outside of a typical competitive bidding process. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In March 2023, Juarez and Andy Duong began discussing Larry Gallegos as a potential candidate to serve in the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development — a position prosecutors say they believed would help further the Duongs’ businesses. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At their behest, prosecutors say Thao pressured the interim city administrator to appoint Gallegos. Despite the city administrator believing Gallegos didn’t have enough experience for the job, prosecutors say he appointed him interim deputy director of the department the following day. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr />\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=v2%3A2PACX-1vTRnkCBK8-xyeC_U6_qwyM9Es3WzLEpRhXB-1oELWuROivaP70Gkh-ll0Dw4g8nEJIEUkVN774ITfpE&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&width=100%25&height=650\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But prosecutors say Thao’s relationship with the Duongs began taking a turn after she went on a trade delegation to Vietnam in late July and early August 2023 that was sponsored by a business association chaired by David Duong, and a reporter began asking questions about Azevedo’s suspected drug use and activity involving prostitutes on the trip. Thao’s staffers are expected to testify they heard her telling David Duong that if a story came out about inappropriate conduct on the trip, she could no longer work with him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Several weeks later, prosecutors allege, David Duong, Andy Duong and Juarez met with an associate of the reporter at a restaurant in Livermore and gave the associate a check for $10,000, drawn from California Waste Solutions’ bank account, to kill the story. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By late November 2023, David Duong told his son and Juarez that Thao wasn’t ready to purchase the container homes and was waiting for another city or county government to order them first, prosecutors say. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-6 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12103404\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_004_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103404\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_004_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_004_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_004_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Andy Duong attends a private screening of The King of Trash on Jan. 10, 2026, at Regal Jack London in Oakland. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12103403\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_003_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103403\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_003_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_003_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_003_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">David Duong talks with attendees after a private screening of The King of Trash on Jan. 10, 2026, at Regal Jack London in Oakland. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then, in May 2024, the relationship between Juarez and the Duongs imploded. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In Juarez’s version of events, he told police that a group of ten men at California Waste Solutions’ offices beat him up in an attack ordered by the Duongs. In the Duongs’ version, Juarez had failed to deliver on his end of the deal and had shown up at the office, demanding more money and “holding them for hours.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A little more than a month later, Juarez sat down for an interview with the FBI. Agents executed search warrants at Thao’s, David Duong’s and Andy Duong’s homes two weeks later. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The defense’s case\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys are expected to work to undermine Juarez’s credibility as a witness by pointing to what they have described as “a steady pattern of dishonesty and fraud.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In motions filed last year, defense attorneys argued that the FBI had relied heavily on Juarez’s claims to secure search warrants of their client’s property, without providing the full details of Juarez’s background to the judges who signed off on them. Evidence seized should be suppressed, they argued. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The attorneys wrote that Juarez had been sued approximately 33 times between 1992 and 2022, including numerous fraud cases involving former business partners.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103158\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">FBI agents raid a home on Maiden Lane where Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao allegedly lives in Oakland on Thursday, June 20, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>They also described a documented “counter-attack history” — instances where Juarez alleged misconduct by others in response to accusations or lawsuits lodged against him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Juarez, they said, “has repeatedly falsely accused business partners of crimes and other wrongdoing in efforts to escape liability for his own actions — just as he did here.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In one example cited by attorneys, Juarez filed a restraining order against a man who sued him in August 2011, claiming Juarez shorted him and his wife out of $220,000 they loaned him. A year earlier, Juarez filed a different restraining order against an attorney following an altercation inside a property in Oakland’s Fruitvale district. The attorney was representing Juarez’s landlord, who was trying to evict him and others from the property.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chief District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied the motions. But in a hearing several months later, she cautioned prosecutors that questions about Juarez’s credibility could pose a major issue for their case. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You could have as your main witness someone who himself is a liar. That is the problem,” she said at the hearing in September. “What I can tell you is it is a huge mess, and if in fact there is fire where there’s so much smoke, then the jury gets to hear about the credibility of this individual.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">High-profile officials caught in defendants’ orbit\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While only one other elected official has been charged with participating in a related Evolutionary Homes bribery scheme to date, prosecutors have listed several high-profile East Bay politicians as potential witnesses in Thao’s case. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors say they plan to introduce evidence at trial showing that Juarez and Andy Duong also bribed former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo. In February, Azevedo \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073176/former-san-leandro-city-councilmember-pleads-guilty-in-federal-bribery-case\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> in a related case that involved promises of kickback payments in exchange for ensuring the city of San Leandro purchased container home units from Evolutionary Homes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/250902_SanLeandroCityHall_GH-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103155\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/250902_SanLeandroCityHall_GH-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/250902_SanLeandroCityHall_GH-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/250902_SanLeandroCityHall_GH-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bryan Azevedo, San Leandro City Council member for District 2, during a council meeting on Aug. 2, 2025. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Government attorneys say they intend to show documents, recordings and witness testimony demonstrating that Andy Duong and Juarez had discussions with Oakland City Councilmembers Kevin Jenkins, Rebecca Kaplan, and Nikki Fortunato Bas — now an Alameda County supervisor — as well as Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, in furtherance of the charged conspiracy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Juarez, prosecutors say, will testify that he and Andy Duong discussed potential bribery deals with other city council members in San Leandro, Berkeley and Alameda. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Juarez is also expected to testify that Andy Duong told him he took photos and recorded videos of politicians so he could later use them as leverage or blackmail. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103409\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks with KQED politics reporters Marisa Lagos and Scott Shafer for Political Breakdown at the KQED offices in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/11/20/ag-rob-bonta-told-he-was-in-compromising-video-amid-east-bay-corruption-probe/\">May 2024 letter\u003c/a> to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Juarez claimed Andy Duong had a recording of Bonta in “a compromising situation.” Court records show the FBI interviewed Bonta in September 2024 as part of the investigation into Thao and the Duongs. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12065004/california-ag-rob-bonta-wont-rule-out-a-run-for-governor-amid-campaign-fund-questions\">Bonta told KQED\u003c/a> he spent $468,000 in legal fees so an attorney could guide him through that process.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Over a year ago, maybe 14 months ago, the federal government reached out to me and said that they thought I may have information that would be relevant to the investigation,” Bonta said. “Having never done this before, I wanted to make sure I had an attorney who could guide me through the process and ensure that I provided everything that could be helpful.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When asked about the letter, Bonta told KQED he had received it, but said that “the reference to any video is absolutely not true. It’s false, and there is no video.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bonta has not been listed as a potential witness in the trial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors have filed transcripts, videos and audio recordings of phone calls with elected officials that FBI agents seized from Andy Duong’s phone, which appear to have been recorded \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101387/sheng-thao-case-recordings-reveal-taped-phone-calls-fbi-informant-appearing-to-describe-bribes\">without the politicians’ knowledge\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Two of them capture candid conversations in 2024 between Andy Duong and Jenkins, as well as with Bas, when she was president of the Oakland City Council. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Both politicians are included on the government’s list of potential witnesses. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Also on the witness list is former Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson, who Thao directed to tour Evolutionary Homes’ showroom in January 2024, according to the indictment. Johnson \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12091317/oakland-councilmember-proposes-a-409000-severance-for-former-city-administrator\">resigned from his position with the city in May \u003c/a>amid a text messaging scandal that prosecutors attempted, unsuccessfully, to bar defense attorneys from asking about during the trial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other high-profile staffers who could be called to testify are Oakland’s current interim city administrator, Betsy Lake; former interim city administrators Harold Duffey and Steven Falk; Thao’s former chiefs of staff, Renia Webb and Leigh Hanson, as well as Brandon Harami, a former mayoral staffer who also worked on Thao’s 2022 campaign for mayor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Other allegations \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Court filings in the case have described other alleged bribery beyond the specific scheme that prosecutors hope to prove at trial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The jury will be permitted to view two October 2022 cell phone videos of what appears to be Juarez toasting the formation of Evolutionary Homes. Sitting in the California Waste Solutions conference room are members of the Duong family. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In one of the videos, Juarez appears to describe payments the Duongs made in 2014 after winning the company’s recycling contract with the city. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQfb9Mw6Qsc\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The day after you won the city of Oakland contract, you were there, paying everybody,” Juarez can be heard saying in the video. “I was in your office. And — $50,000, $100,000 — whatever it was. And you said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I just want to do business with you.’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the video, members of the Duong family do not correct Juarez when he mentions payments. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a July court filing, prosecutors described the video, saying that Juarez is expected to testify that his comments were in reference to bribes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The government expects Juarez to testify that this statement refers to the Duongs giving cash to multiple public officials in exchange for their assistance in helping CWS [California Waste Solutions] secure the Oakland recycling contract in 2014,” the filing reads. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys either declined or did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment on the video. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Further allegations Juarez has made to the FBI about the Duongs paying elected officials are summarized in an August motion filed by attorneys representing David Duong. According to the filing, Juarez also told FBI investigators he had seen the Duongs delete evidence from a security system and that the family used vague consultant contracts to launder money to various individuals.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys attempted to have those allegations excluded from the trial. That motion was denied.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the filing, Juarez said he saw a “line of people” at California Waste Solutions’ office “waiting to be paid cash” by David Duong.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“[Individual 1] was paid $300,000 in cash in a black gym bag. Juarez knew the amount of cash because Juarez helped count the money,” the filing reads. “The cash to [Individual 1] was definitely for his help in obtaining the CWS contract; D. Duong told [Individual 1] something to the effect of ‘Congratulations, we got the contract, here is your money.’”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As former Oakland Mayor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sheng-thao\">Sheng Thao\u003c/a> prepares to go to trial next week — accused of participating in an alleged bribery scheme with the owners of Oakland’s recycling contractor — a key debate is expected to loom over the proceedings: whether the prosecution’s star witness is telling the truth or if the government built its case on the claims of an unreliable informant. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As former Oakland Mayor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sheng-thao\">Sheng Thao\u003c/a> prepares to go to trial next week — accused of participating in an alleged bribery scheme with the owners of Oakland’s recycling contractor — a key debate is expected to loom over the proceedings: whether the prosecution’s star witness is telling the truth or if the government built its case on the claims of an unreliable informant. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Thao, 41, her longtime partner, Andre Jones, 55, California Waste Solutions CEO David Duong, 68, and his son, Andy Duong, 37, face charges of bribery, conspiracy, and fraud. Andy Duong has also been charged with lying to the FBI. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Thao, 41, her longtime partner, Andre Jones, 55, California Waste Solutions CEO David Duong, 68, and his son, Andy Duong, 37, face charges of bribery, conspiracy, and fraud. Andy Duong has also been charged with lying to the FBI. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Prosecutors allege Thao pledged favorable treatment to the Duongs’ businesses in exchange for a promise of $300,000 paid to Jones and negative political mailers in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Prosecutors allege Thao pledged favorable treatment to the Duongs’ businesses in exchange for a promise of $300,000 paid to Jones and negative political mailers in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Each defendant has pleaded \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022612/ex-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-3-others-charged-with-bribery-sprawling-corruption-probe\">not guilty\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Each defendant has pleaded \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022612/ex-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-3-others-charged-with-bribery-sprawling-corruption-probe\">not guilty\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Prosecutors say they have copious evidence to prove the alleged scheme, including text messages, emails, Apple notes, taped phone calls and video recordings. But they’ll also be relying on the testimony of a key cooperating witness whose checkered past has become a primary focus of the defense. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Prosecutors say they have copious evidence to prove the alleged scheme, including text messages, emails, Apple notes, taped phone calls and video recordings. But they’ll also be relying on the testimony of a key cooperating witness whose checkered past has become a primary focus of the defense. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098349\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sheng Thao stands next to her attorney, Jeff Tsai, as he makes a statement outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098349\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sheng Thao stands next to her attorney, Jeff Tsai, as he makes a statement outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The witness, Oakland businessman and political operative Mario Juarez, co-founded a housing company with the Duongs that’s at the center of the alleged conspiracy. He became an informant in the FBI’s investigation after a falling out with the family and has pleaded guilty to participating in the alleged scheme. He’s expected to testify about his relationships with the defendants, as well as his role in the housing company. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The witness, Oakland businessman and political operative Mario Juarez, co-founded a housing company with the Duongs that’s at the center of the alleged conspiracy. He became an informant in the FBI’s investigation after a falling out with the family and has pleaded guilty to participating in the alleged scheme. He’s expected to testify about his relationships with the defendants, as well as his role in the housing company. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys have raised questions about Juarez’s credibility and what they’ve described as his “decadeslong history of fraud” — including instances where they say he falsely accused business partners of illegal activity in an effort to escape liability for his own actions.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys have raised questions about Juarez’s credibility and what they’ve described as his “decadeslong history of fraud” — including instances where they say he falsely accused business partners of illegal activity in an effort to escape liability for his own actions.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While primarily focused on the Duongs and their relationship with Thao, the prosecution has also exposed behind-the-scenes interactions between the family and other elected officials. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A list of high-profile politicians has been named as potential witnesses who could testify in the trial — including Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, Oakland City Councilmember Kevin Jenkins and former Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Another elected official, former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo, has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in a related case and is expected to take the stand as a government witness.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Jury selection begins Oct. 13 with opening statements planned immediately after. The trial is estimated to last around six weeks, wrapping up around Thanksgiving. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Prosecutors allege that in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election, Thao, Jones and the Duongs began discussing a deal that would help get Thao elected and benefit the Duongs’ companies. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the fall of 2022, the Duongs had recently gone into business with Juarez on Evolutionary Homes, a company that aimed to convert shipping containers into housing for people experiencing homelessness. The plan was to market the container units to local Bay Area governments. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Prosecutors allege the Duongs agreed to finance campaign mailers that negatively portrayed Thao’s opponents in the race, Loren Taylor and Ignacio de la Fuente, and pay her longtime partner Jones $300,000 through a no-show job at Evolutionary Homes. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In exchange, they say, Thao committed the city of Oakland to purchasing housing units from Evolutionary Homes and agreed to help appoint people hand-picked by the Duongs and Juarez to director-level city positions if she won the election. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In exchange, they say, Thao committed the city of Oakland to purchasing housing units from Evolutionary Homes and agreed to help appoint people hand-picked by the Duongs and Juarez to director-level city positions if she won the election. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When it became evident that Thao was going to win, prosecutors say Juarez texted Andy Duong, “So we may go to jail … But we are $100 million richer.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the months that followed, prosecutors say Juarez began paying Jones, together with money from David and Andy Duong. And they say the defendants began discussing how to expand their deal, with Jones being paid as much as $3 million if the city purchased 300 housing units from Evolutionary Homes. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At one meeting, Thao allegedly proposed using Oakland’s emergency powers to make it easier for the city to buy the container houses outside of a typical competitive bidding process. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But prosecutors say Thao’s relationship with the Duongs began taking a turn after she went on a trade delegation to Vietnam in late July and early August 2023 that was sponsored by a business association chaired by David Duong, and a reporter began asking questions about Azevedo’s suspected drug use and activity involving prostitutes on the trip. Thao’s staffers are expected to testify they heard her telling David Duong that if a story came out about inappropriate conduct on the trip, she could no longer work with him. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103158\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">FBI agents raid a home on Maiden Lane where Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao allegedly lives in Oakland on Thursday, June 20, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They also described a documented “counter-attack history” — instances where Juarez alleged misconduct by others in response to accusations or lawsuits lodged against him. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Juarez, they said, “has repeatedly falsely accused business partners of crimes and other wrongdoing in efforts to escape liability for his own actions — just as he did here.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In one example cited by attorneys, Juarez filed a restraining order against a man who sued him in August 2011, claiming Juarez shorted him and his wife out of $220,000 they loaned him. A year earlier, Juarez filed a different restraining order against an attorney following an altercation inside a property in Oakland’s Fruitvale district. The attorney was representing Juarez’s landlord, who was trying to evict him and others from the property.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chief District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied the motions. But in a hearing several months later, she cautioned prosecutors that questions about Juarez’s credibility could pose a major issue for their case. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“You could have as your main witness someone who himself is a liar. That is the problem,” she said at the hearing in September. “What I can tell you is it is a huge mess, and if in fact there is fire where there’s so much smoke, then the jury gets to hear about the credibility of this individual.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While only one other elected official has been charged with participating in a related Evolutionary Homes bribery scheme to date, prosecutors have listed several high-profile East Bay politicians as potential witnesses in Thao’s case. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Prosecutors say they plan to introduce evidence at trial showing that Juarez and Andy Duong also bribed former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo. In February, Azevedo \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073176/former-san-leandro-city-councilmember-pleads-guilty-in-federal-bribery-case\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> in a related case that involved promises of kickback payments in exchange for ensuring the city of San Leandro purchased container home units from Evolutionary Homes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Prosecutors say they plan to introduce evidence at trial showing that Juarez and Andy Duong also bribed former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo. In February, Azevedo \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073176/former-san-leandro-city-councilmember-pleads-guilty-in-federal-bribery-case\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> in a related case that involved promises of kickback payments in exchange for ensuring the city of San Leandro purchased container home units from Evolutionary Homes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Government attorneys say they intend to show documents, recordings and witness testimony demonstrating that Andy Duong and Juarez had discussions with Oakland City Councilmembers Kevin Jenkins, Rebecca Kaplan, and Nikki Fortunato Bas — now an Alameda County supervisor — as well as Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, in furtherance of the charged conspiracy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Government attorneys say they intend to show documents, recordings and witness testimony demonstrating that Andy Duong and Juarez had discussions with Oakland City Councilmembers Kevin Jenkins, Rebecca Kaplan, and Nikki Fortunato Bas — now an Alameda County supervisor — as well as Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, in furtherance of the charged conspiracy. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Juarez, prosecutors say, will testify that he and Andy Duong discussed potential bribery deals with other city council members in San Leandro, Berkeley and Alameda. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Juarez is also expected to testify that Andy Duong told him he took photos and recorded videos of politicians so he could later use them as leverage or blackmail. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Juarez is also expected to testify that Andy Duong told him he took photos and recorded videos of politicians so he could later use them as leverage or blackmail. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103409\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks with KQED politics reporters Marisa Lagos and Scott Shafer for Political Breakdown at the KQED offices in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 2024.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103409\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks with KQED politics reporters Marisa Lagos and Scott Shafer for Political Breakdown at the KQED offices in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 2024.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/11/20/ag-rob-bonta-told-he-was-in-compromising-video-amid-east-bay-corruption-probe/\">May 2024 letter\u003c/a> to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Juarez claimed Andy Duong had a recording of Bonta in “a compromising situation.” Court records show the FBI interviewed Bonta in September 2024 as part of the investigation into Thao and the Duongs. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12065004/california-ag-rob-bonta-wont-rule-out-a-run-for-governor-amid-campaign-fund-questions\">Bonta told KQED\u003c/a> he spent $468,000 in legal fees so an attorney could guide him through that process.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/11/20/ag-rob-bonta-told-he-was-in-compromising-video-amid-east-bay-corruption-probe/\">May 2024 letter\u003c/a> to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Juarez claimed Andy Duong had a recording of Bonta in “a compromising situation.” Court records show the FBI interviewed Bonta in September 2024 as part of the investigation into Thao and the Duongs. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12065004/california-ag-rob-bonta-wont-rule-out-a-run-for-governor-amid-campaign-fund-questions\">Bonta told KQED\u003c/a> he spent $468,000 in legal fees so an attorney could guide him through that process.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Over a year ago, maybe 14 months ago, the federal government reached out to me and said that they thought I may have information that would be relevant to the investigation,” Bonta said. “Having never done this before, I wanted to make sure I had an attorney who could guide me through the process and ensure that I provided everything that could be helpful.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Over a year ago, maybe 14 months ago, the federal government reached out to me and said that they thought I may have information that would be relevant to the investigation,” Bonta said. “Having never done this before, I wanted to make sure I had an attorney who could guide me through the process and ensure that I provided everything that could be helpful.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When asked about the letter, Bonta told KQED he had received it, but said that “the reference to any video is absolutely not true. It’s false, and there is no video.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When asked about the letter, Bonta told KQED he had received it, but said that “the reference to any video is absolutely not true. It’s false, and there is no video.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bonta has not been listed as a potential witness in the trial. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Prosecutors have filed transcripts, videos and audio recordings of phone calls with elected officials that FBI agents seized from Andy Duong’s phone, which appear to have been recorded \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101387/sheng-thao-case-recordings-reveal-taped-phone-calls-fbi-informant-appearing-to-describe-bribes\">without the politicians’ knowledge\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Prosecutors have filed transcripts, videos and audio recordings of phone calls with elected officials that FBI agents seized from Andy Duong’s phone, which appear to have been recorded \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101387/sheng-thao-case-recordings-reveal-taped-phone-calls-fbi-informant-appearing-to-describe-bribes\">without the politicians’ knowledge\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Two of them capture candid conversations in 2024 between Andy Duong and Jenkins, as well as with Bas, when she was president of the Oakland City Council. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Two of them capture candid conversations in 2024 between Andy Duong and Jenkins, as well as with Bas, when she was president of the Oakland City Council. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Also on the witness list is former Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson, who Thao directed to tour Evolutionary Homes’ showroom in January 2024, according to the indictment. Johnson \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12091317/oakland-councilmember-proposes-a-409000-severance-for-former-city-administrator\">resigned from his position with the city in May \u003c/a>amid a text messaging scandal that prosecutors attempted, unsuccessfully, to bar defense attorneys from asking about during the trial. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Also on the witness list is former Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson, who Thao directed to tour Evolutionary Homes’ showroom in January 2024, according to the indictment. Johnson \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12091317/oakland-councilmember-proposes-a-409000-severance-for-former-city-administrator\">resigned from his position with the city in May \u003c/a>amid a text messaging scandal that prosecutors attempted, unsuccessfully, to bar defense attorneys from asking about during the trial. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Other high-profile staffers who could be called to testify are Oakland’s current interim city administrator, Betsy Lake; former interim city administrators Harold Duffey and Steven Falk; Thao’s former chiefs of staff, Renia Webb and Leigh Hanson, as well as Brandon Harami, a former mayoral staffer who also worked on Thao’s 2022 campaign for mayor. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Other high-profile staffers who could be called to testify are Oakland’s current interim city administrator, Betsy Lake; former interim city administrators Harold Duffey and Steven Falk; Thao’s former chiefs of staff, Renia Webb and Leigh Hanson, as well as Brandon Harami, a former mayoral staffer who also worked on Thao’s 2022 campaign for mayor. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Court filings in the case have described other alleged bribery beyond the specific scheme that prosecutors hope to prove at trial. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The jury will be permitted to view two October 2022 cell phone videos of what appears to be Juarez toasting the formation of Evolutionary Homes. Sitting in the California Waste Solutions conference room are members of the Duong family. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In one of the videos, Juarez appears to describe payments the Duongs made in 2014 after winning the company’s recycling contract with the city. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The day after you won the city of Oakland contract, you were there, paying everybody,” Juarez can be heard saying in the video. “I was in your office. And — $50,000, $100,000 — whatever it was. And you said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I just want to do business with you.’” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the video, members of the Duong family do not correct Juarez when he mentions payments. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a July court filing, prosecutors described the video, saying that Juarez is expected to testify that his comments were in reference to bribes. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The government expects Juarez to testify that this statement refers to the Duongs giving cash to multiple public officials in exchange for their assistance in helping CWS [California Waste Solutions] secure the Oakland recycling contract in 2014,” the filing reads. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The government expects Juarez to testify that this statement refers to the Duongs giving cash to multiple public officials in exchange for their assistance in helping CWS [California Waste Solutions] secure the Oakland recycling contract in 2014,” the filing reads. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys either declined or did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment on the video. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Further allegations Juarez has made to the FBI about the Duongs paying elected officials are summarized in an August motion filed by attorneys representing David Duong. According to the filing, Juarez also told FBI investigators he had seen the Duongs delete evidence from a security system and that the family used vague consultant contracts to launder money to various individuals.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Further allegations Juarez has made to the FBI about the Duongs paying elected officials are summarized in an August motion filed by attorneys representing David Duong. According to the filing, Juarez also told FBI investigators he had seen the Duongs delete evidence from a security system and that the family used vague consultant contracts to launder money to various individuals.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys attempted to have those allegations excluded from the trial. That motion was denied.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to the filing, Juarez said he saw a “line of people” at California Waste Solutions’ office “waiting to be paid cash” by David Duong.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“[Individual 1] was paid $300,000 in cash in a black gym bag. Juarez knew the amount of cash because Juarez helped count the money,” the filing reads. “The cash to [Individual 1] was definitely for his help in obtaining the CWS contract; D. Duong told [Individual 1] something to the effect of ‘Congratulations, we got the contract, here is your money.’”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Prosecutors say Thao used her position to benefit the city’s recycling contractor in exchange for money and negative political mailers.",
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"title": "Ex-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Is Going on Trial for Bribery: Here’s What You Need to Know | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>As former Oakland Mayor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sheng-thao\">Sheng Thao\u003c/a> prepares to go to trial next week — accused of participating in an alleged bribery scheme with the owners of Oakland’s recycling contractor — a key debate is expected to loom over the proceedings: whether the prosecution’s star witness is telling the truth or if the government built its case on the claims of an unreliable informant. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thao, 41, her longtime partner, Andre Jones, 55, California Waste Solutions CEO David Duong, 68, and his son, Andy Duong, 37, face charges of bribery, conspiracy, and fraud. Andy Duong has also been charged with lying to the FBI. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors allege Thao pledged favorable treatment to the Duongs’ businesses in exchange for a promise of $300,000 paid to Jones and negative political mailers in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Each defendant has pleaded \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022612/ex-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-3-others-charged-with-bribery-sprawling-corruption-probe\">not guilty\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors say they have copious evidence to prove the alleged scheme, including text messages, emails, Apple notes, taped phone calls and video recordings. But they’ll also be relying on the testimony of a key cooperating witness whose checkered past has become a primary focus of the defense. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098349\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-11-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sheng Thao stands next to her attorney, Jeff Tsai, as he makes a statement outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The witness, Oakland businessman and political operative Mario Juarez, co-founded a housing company with the Duongs that’s at the center of the alleged conspiracy. He became an informant in the FBI’s investigation after a falling out with the family and has pleaded guilty to participating in the alleged scheme. He’s expected to testify about his relationships with the defendants, as well as his role in the housing company. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys have raised questions about Juarez’s credibility and what they’ve described as his “decadeslong history of fraud” — including instances where they say he falsely accused business partners of illegal activity in an effort to escape liability for his own actions.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While primarily focused on the Duongs and their relationship with Thao, the prosecution has also exposed behind-the-scenes interactions between the family and other elected officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A list of high-profile politicians has been named as potential witnesses who could testify in the trial — including Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, Oakland City Councilmember Kevin Jenkins and former Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another elected official, former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo, has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in a related case and is expected to take the stand as a government witness.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jury selection begins Oct. 13 with opening statements planned immediately after. The trial is estimated to last around six weeks, wrapping up around Thanksgiving. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The alleged quid pro quo\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors allege that in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election, Thao, Jones and the Duongs began discussing a deal that would help get Thao elected and benefit the Duongs’ companies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the fall of 2022, the Duongs had recently gone into business with Juarez on Evolutionary Homes, a company that aimed to convert shipping containers into housing for people experiencing homelessness. The plan was to market the container units to local Bay Area governments. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thao at the time was an Oakland City Council member running for mayor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-5 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data-id=\"12103337\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/Evolutionary_Homes_PROJECT_PRESENTATION_-_EHLLC_Model_ONE-copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103337\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/Evolutionary_Homes_PROJECT_PRESENTATION_-_EHLLC_Model_ONE-copy-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/Evolutionary_Homes_PROJECT_PRESENTATION_-_EHLLC_Model_ONE-copy-2-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/Evolutionary_Homes_PROJECT_PRESENTATION_-_EHLLC_Model_ONE-copy-2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/Evolutionary_Homes_PROJECT_PRESENTATION_-_EHLLC_Model_ONE-copy-2-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Evolutionary Homes’ rendering of a proposed container home unit for people who are exiting homelessness. (Courtesy of Evolutionary Homes)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1805\" height=\"889\" data-id=\"12103161\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/TaylorFraud-website-screenshot_2_accessed-via-WayBackMachine_11-07-2022.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103161\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/TaylorFraud-website-screenshot_2_accessed-via-WayBackMachine_11-07-2022.jpg 1805w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/TaylorFraud-website-screenshot_2_accessed-via-WayBackMachine_11-07-2022-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/TaylorFraud-website-screenshot_2_accessed-via-WayBackMachine_11-07-2022-1536x757.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1805px) 100vw, 1805px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A screenshot from the website Mario Juarez allegedly created to attack Oakland mayoral candidate Loren Taylor, accessed by the Wayback Machine on Nov. 7, 2022. (Courtesy of Wayback Machine)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors allege the Duongs agreed to finance campaign mailers that negatively portrayed Thao’s opponents in the race, Loren Taylor and Ignacio de la Fuente, and pay her longtime partner Jones $300,000 through a no-show job at Evolutionary Homes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In exchange, they say, Thao committed the city of Oakland to purchasing housing units from Evolutionary Homes and agreed to help appoint people hand-picked by the Duongs and Juarez to director-level city positions if she won the election. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Duongs’ recycling company, California Waste Solutions, already had a contract with Oakland to provide curbside recycling services, and Thao allegedly agreed that as mayor, she would also extend it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When it became evident that Thao was going to win, prosecutors say Juarez texted Andy Duong, “So we may go to jail … But we are $100 million richer.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Andy Duong allegedly replied, “Money buys everything.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"758\" height=\"577\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/indictment-texts-6651ab1e.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103464\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/indictment-texts-6651ab1e.png 758w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/indictment-texts-6651ab1e-160x122.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 758px) 100vw, 758px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A text message exchange between Andy Duong and Mario Juarez, identified as Co-Conspirator 1, according to the federal indictment against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. (Courtesy of U.S. District Court)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>In the months that followed, prosecutors say Juarez began paying Jones, together with money from David and Andy Duong. And they say the defendants began discussing how to expand their deal, with Jones being paid as much as $3 million if the city purchased 300 housing units from Evolutionary Homes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At one meeting, Thao allegedly proposed using Oakland’s emergency powers to make it easier for the city to buy the container houses outside of a typical competitive bidding process. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In March 2023, Juarez and Andy Duong began discussing Larry Gallegos as a potential candidate to serve in the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development — a position prosecutors say they believed would help further the Duongs’ businesses. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At their behest, prosecutors say Thao pressured the interim city administrator to appoint Gallegos. Despite the city administrator believing Gallegos didn’t have enough experience for the job, prosecutors say he appointed him interim deputy director of the department the following day. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr />\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=v2%3A2PACX-1vTRnkCBK8-xyeC_U6_qwyM9Es3WzLEpRhXB-1oELWuROivaP70Gkh-ll0Dw4g8nEJIEUkVN774ITfpE&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&width=100%25&height=650\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But prosecutors say Thao’s relationship with the Duongs began taking a turn after she went on a trade delegation to Vietnam in late July and early August 2023 that was sponsored by a business association chaired by David Duong, and a reporter began asking questions about Azevedo’s suspected drug use and activity involving prostitutes on the trip. Thao’s staffers are expected to testify they heard her telling David Duong that if a story came out about inappropriate conduct on the trip, she could no longer work with him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Several weeks later, prosecutors allege, David Duong, Andy Duong and Juarez met with an associate of the reporter at a restaurant in Livermore and gave the associate a check for $10,000, drawn from California Waste Solutions’ bank account, to kill the story. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By late November 2023, David Duong told his son and Juarez that Thao wasn’t ready to purchase the container homes and was waiting for another city or county government to order them first, prosecutors say. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-6 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12103404\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_004_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103404\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_004_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_004_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_004_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Andy Duong attends a private screening of The King of Trash on Jan. 10, 2026, at Regal Jack London in Oakland. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12103403\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_003_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103403\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_003_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_003_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/011026_KingofTrash-_GH_003_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">David Duong talks with attendees after a private screening of The King of Trash on Jan. 10, 2026, at Regal Jack London in Oakland. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then, in May 2024, the relationship between Juarez and the Duongs imploded. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In Juarez’s version of events, he told police that a group of ten men at California Waste Solutions’ offices beat him up in an attack ordered by the Duongs. In the Duongs’ version, Juarez had failed to deliver on his end of the deal and had shown up at the office, demanding more money and “holding them for hours.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A little more than a month later, Juarez sat down for an interview with the FBI. Agents executed search warrants at Thao’s, David Duong’s and Andy Duong’s homes two weeks later. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The defense’s case\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys are expected to work to undermine Juarez’s credibility as a witness by pointing to what they have described as “a steady pattern of dishonesty and fraud.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In motions filed last year, defense attorneys argued that the FBI had relied heavily on Juarez’s claims to secure search warrants of their client’s property, without providing the full details of Juarez’s background to the judges who signed off on them. Evidence seized should be suppressed, they argued. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The attorneys wrote that Juarez had been sued approximately 33 times between 1992 and 2022, including numerous fraud cases involving former business partners.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103158\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260903-ShengThaoTrial-21-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">FBI agents raid a home on Maiden Lane where Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao allegedly lives in Oakland on Thursday, June 20, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>They also described a documented “counter-attack history” — instances where Juarez alleged misconduct by others in response to accusations or lawsuits lodged against him. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Juarez, they said, “has repeatedly falsely accused business partners of crimes and other wrongdoing in efforts to escape liability for his own actions — just as he did here.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In one example cited by attorneys, Juarez filed a restraining order against a man who sued him in August 2011, claiming Juarez shorted him and his wife out of $220,000 they loaned him. A year earlier, Juarez filed a different restraining order against an attorney following an altercation inside a property in Oakland’s Fruitvale district. The attorney was representing Juarez’s landlord, who was trying to evict him and others from the property.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chief District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied the motions. But in a hearing several months later, she cautioned prosecutors that questions about Juarez’s credibility could pose a major issue for their case. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You could have as your main witness someone who himself is a liar. That is the problem,” she said at the hearing in September. “What I can tell you is it is a huge mess, and if in fact there is fire where there’s so much smoke, then the jury gets to hear about the credibility of this individual.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">High-profile officials caught in defendants’ orbit\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While only one other elected official has been charged with participating in a related Evolutionary Homes bribery scheme to date, prosecutors have listed several high-profile East Bay politicians as potential witnesses in Thao’s case. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors say they plan to introduce evidence at trial showing that Juarez and Andy Duong also bribed former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo. In February, Azevedo \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073176/former-san-leandro-city-councilmember-pleads-guilty-in-federal-bribery-case\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> in a related case that involved promises of kickback payments in exchange for ensuring the city of San Leandro purchased container home units from Evolutionary Homes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/250902_SanLeandroCityHall_GH-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103155\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/250902_SanLeandroCityHall_GH-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/250902_SanLeandroCityHall_GH-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/250902_SanLeandroCityHall_GH-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bryan Azevedo, San Leandro City Council member for District 2, during a council meeting on Aug. 2, 2025. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Government attorneys say they intend to show documents, recordings and witness testimony demonstrating that Andy Duong and Juarez had discussions with Oakland City Councilmembers Kevin Jenkins, Rebecca Kaplan, and Nikki Fortunato Bas — now an Alameda County supervisor — as well as Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, in furtherance of the charged conspiracy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Juarez, prosecutors say, will testify that he and Andy Duong discussed potential bribery deals with other city council members in San Leandro, Berkeley and Alameda. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Juarez is also expected to testify that Andy Duong told him he took photos and recorded videos of politicians so he could later use them as leverage or blackmail. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103409\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/241107-AttorneyGeneralBonta-09-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks with KQED politics reporters Marisa Lagos and Scott Shafer for Political Breakdown at the KQED offices in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/11/20/ag-rob-bonta-told-he-was-in-compromising-video-amid-east-bay-corruption-probe/\">May 2024 letter\u003c/a> to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Juarez claimed Andy Duong had a recording of Bonta in “a compromising situation.” Court records show the FBI interviewed Bonta in September 2024 as part of the investigation into Thao and the Duongs. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12065004/california-ag-rob-bonta-wont-rule-out-a-run-for-governor-amid-campaign-fund-questions\">Bonta told KQED\u003c/a> he spent $468,000 in legal fees so an attorney could guide him through that process.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Over a year ago, maybe 14 months ago, the federal government reached out to me and said that they thought I may have information that would be relevant to the investigation,” Bonta said. “Having never done this before, I wanted to make sure I had an attorney who could guide me through the process and ensure that I provided everything that could be helpful.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When asked about the letter, Bonta told KQED he had received it, but said that “the reference to any video is absolutely not true. It’s false, and there is no video.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bonta has not been listed as a potential witness in the trial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors have filed transcripts, videos and audio recordings of phone calls with elected officials that FBI agents seized from Andy Duong’s phone, which appear to have been recorded \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101387/sheng-thao-case-recordings-reveal-taped-phone-calls-fbi-informant-appearing-to-describe-bribes\">without the politicians’ knowledge\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Two of them capture candid conversations in 2024 between Andy Duong and Jenkins, as well as with Bas, when she was president of the Oakland City Council. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Both politicians are included on the government’s list of potential witnesses. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Also on the witness list is former Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson, who Thao directed to tour Evolutionary Homes’ showroom in January 2024, according to the indictment. Johnson \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12091317/oakland-councilmember-proposes-a-409000-severance-for-former-city-administrator\">resigned from his position with the city in May \u003c/a>amid a text messaging scandal that prosecutors attempted, unsuccessfully, to bar defense attorneys from asking about during the trial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other high-profile staffers who could be called to testify are Oakland’s current interim city administrator, Betsy Lake; former interim city administrators Harold Duffey and Steven Falk; Thao’s former chiefs of staff, Renia Webb and Leigh Hanson, as well as Brandon Harami, a former mayoral staffer who also worked on Thao’s 2022 campaign for mayor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Other allegations \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Court filings in the case have described other alleged bribery beyond the specific scheme that prosecutors hope to prove at trial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The jury will be permitted to view two October 2022 cell phone videos of what appears to be Juarez toasting the formation of Evolutionary Homes. Sitting in the California Waste Solutions conference room are members of the Duong family. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In one of the videos, Juarez appears to describe payments the Duongs made in 2014 after winning the company’s recycling contract with the city. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/SQfb9Mw6Qsc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/SQfb9Mw6Qsc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The day after you won the city of Oakland contract, you were there, paying everybody,” Juarez can be heard saying in the video. “I was in your office. And — $50,000, $100,000 — whatever it was. And you said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I just want to do business with you.’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the video, members of the Duong family do not correct Juarez when he mentions payments. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a July court filing, prosecutors described the video, saying that Juarez is expected to testify that his comments were in reference to bribes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The government expects Juarez to testify that this statement refers to the Duongs giving cash to multiple public officials in exchange for their assistance in helping CWS [California Waste Solutions] secure the Oakland recycling contract in 2014,” the filing reads. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys either declined or did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment on the video. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Further allegations Juarez has made to the FBI about the Duongs paying elected officials are summarized in an August motion filed by attorneys representing David Duong. According to the filing, Juarez also told FBI investigators he had seen the Duongs delete evidence from a security system and that the family used vague consultant contracts to launder money to various individuals.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys attempted to have those allegations excluded from the trial. That motion was denied.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the filing, Juarez said he saw a “line of people” at California Waste Solutions’ office “waiting to be paid cash” by David Duong.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“[Individual 1] was paid $300,000 in cash in a black gym bag. Juarez knew the amount of cash because Juarez helped count the money,” the filing reads. “The cash to [Individual 1] was definitely for his help in obtaining the CWS contract; D. Duong told [Individual 1] something to the effect of ‘Congratulations, we got the contract, here is your money.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "former-sf-da-employee-testifies-to-being-called-racial-slur-harassed-by-hr-director",
"title": "Former SF DA Employee Testifies to Being Called Racial Slur, Harassed by HR Director",
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"headTitle": "Former SF DA Employee Testifies to Being Called Racial Slur, Harassed by HR Director | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>A former employee of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-district-attorney\">San Francisco District Attorney’s Office\u003c/a> testified Wednesday that after a co-worker called her the [N-word] in the office, the department’s human resources manager didn’t document the incident and instead routinely harassed the complainant. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Twanda Bailey was the first witness in her lawsuit against the DA’s office, where she worked for 14 years before quitting in late 2015. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rebekah Evenson is presiding over the jury trial in a small San Francisco courtroom, after all San Francisco judges recused themselves.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By all accounts, Bailey was an exemplary lifelong public servant, receiving letters of recommendation for promotions and advancement in places like San Quentin State Prison and the San Francisco Unified School District. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By 2001, she was working in the DA’s office, where she routinely received top marks on her evaluations, with ratings from her supervisors as “exceeding expectations.” She eventually began working as an investigative assistant. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In January 2015, while under the leadership of George Gascón, the office had a mouse infestation, which Bailey had reported to human resources. On Jan. 22, Bailey’s co-worker Saras Larkin – who had previously been her supervisor – pointed out that she saw a mouse run by Bailey’s desk, which the plaintiff testified caused her to jump out of her chair. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261007-SFDACONFERENCE-NG-5_QED-KQED-1-057279c0.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261007-SFDACONFERENCE-NG-5_QED-KQED-1-057279c0.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261007-SFDACONFERENCE-NG-5_QED-KQED-1-057279c0-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261007-SFDACONFERENCE-NG-5_QED-KQED-1-057279c0-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Police Department Chief Derrick Lew speaks at a press conference outside the Warfield in San Francisco on Oct. 7, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey testified that Larkin then said, “You [N-words] is so scary.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said that she mumbled the phrase back to herself under her breath.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey said she told co-workers about the incident, but initially didn’t report it to human resources because the office’s HR director, Evette Taylor-Monachino, was good friends with Larkin. That, and two other Black women in the office, were either harassed or removed from the office.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I was scared,” Bailey said. “I didn’t want to get harassed.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eventually, a supervisor overheard her discussing it at a holiday party and told Bailey that they would report it, she said. But three months later, when Bailey went to HR to get a copy of her report, Taylor-Monachino told her there was no report or formal complaint. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey said Taylor-Monachino warned her that telling people in the office that Larkin called her a racial slur could create a “hostile work environment” for her. Bailey testified that she left that meeting crying. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey said that, from then on, Taylor-Monachino would give her “nasty, unpleasant looks” while laughing at her in the office on a daily basis. That took a toll on her, Bailey said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I felt like I was working in a war zone. I felt like I had to dodge the HR manager,” Bailey said on the stand as she started to cry. “I never experienced anything like this. I didn’t know if I was going to lose my job.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By April 2015, Bailey testified, she filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which eventually deemed her claim insufficient. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I felt that it was wrong that they didn’t do an investigation,” Bailey said. “It made me feel that I had to accept being called a scary [N-word].”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That summer, Bailey received numerous negative allegations against her in her performance evaluation, none of which she said were brought to her attention before being documented in her review. Bailey said she appealed that evaluation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In August 2015, Bailey filed a formal complaint against Taylor-Monachino, who was reassigned to different duties two months later, she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Soon, Bailey said she was waiting for a parking spot when Taylor-Monachino pulled up to her car, rolled her window down slightly, and made a pointing gesture at Bailey, which she interpreted as “you’re going to get it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey filed her lawsuit in December 2015, but the case was dismissed on appeal by the city attorney’s office. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1261\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11991291\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut-800x525.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut-1536x1009.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A section of the California seal hangs in San Francisco on the front of the State of California Earl Warren building on Jan. 22, 2007. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the California Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://supreme.courts.ca.gov/sites/default/files/supremecourt/default/documents/1-10-s265223-app-pet-rev-102620.pdf\">overturned that ruling in 2024\u003c/a>, saying a single instance of being called that slur by a co-worker with no oversight of an employee was enough to proceed, as that particular racial epithet carries “the stinging barbs of history, which catch and tear the psyche the way thorns tear at skin.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As Bailey testified, her attorney, Daniel Bacon, attempted to admit a trove of documents as evidence, including Bailey’s performance reviews from the DA’s office, her handwritten notes documenting months of alleged harassment, and more. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Judge Evenson repeatedly warned Bacon not to read from documents or refer to documents not yet admitted into evidence, as Deputy City Attorney Matthew Yan objected to many of those documents being admitted. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During her cross-examination by Yan, Bailey described her relationship with Larkin as a “working friend,” but said she later developed some animosity towards Larkin for repeatedly breaking office rules, like leaving work for hours at a time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“She was always protected,” Bailey said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yan insinuated that Bailey may have misheard what Larkin said to her, saying that would have been the only day anyone ever heard Larkin use a racial slur. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You heard your longtime friend call you a racial slur and you didn’t confront her about it?” Yan said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“No, I didn’t. I walked away. I heard her correctly,” Bailey said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey testified that she worked for the San Francisco Department of Public Health in 2018, but only lasted one week at that job. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I wasn’t the same. I had trouble concentrating,” she said. “I was frightened of supervisors. I didn’t know what would happen.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Judge Evenson has limited the jury trial to 30 hours for each side, with the trial expected to conclude in less than two weeks.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bailey testified that Larkin then said, “You [N-words] is so scary.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bailey said she told co-workers about the incident, but initially didn’t report it to human resources because the office’s HR director, Evette Taylor-Monachino, was good friends with Larkin. That, and two other Black women in the office, were either harassed or removed from the office.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Eventually, a supervisor overheard her discussing it at a holiday party and told Bailey that they would report it, she said. But three months later, when Bailey went to HR to get a copy of her report, Taylor-Monachino told her there was no report or formal complaint. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bailey said Taylor-Monachino warned her that telling people in the office that Larkin called her a racial slur could create a “hostile work environment” for her. Bailey testified that she left that meeting crying. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bailey said that, from then on, Taylor-Monachino would give her “nasty, unpleasant looks” while laughing at her in the office on a daily basis. That took a toll on her, Bailey said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>By April 2015, Bailey testified, she filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which eventually deemed her claim insufficient. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I felt that it was wrong that they didn’t do an investigation,” Bailey said. “It made me feel that I had to accept being called a scary [N-word].”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That summer, Bailey received numerous negative allegations against her in her performance evaluation, none of which she said were brought to her attention before being documented in her review. Bailey said she appealed that evaluation. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In August 2015, Bailey filed a formal complaint against Taylor-Monachino, who was reassigned to different duties two months later, she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Soon, Bailey said she was waiting for a parking spot when Taylor-Monachino pulled up to her car, rolled her window down slightly, and made a pointing gesture at Bailey, which she interpreted as “you’re going to get it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bailey filed her lawsuit in December 2015, but the case was dismissed on appeal by the city attorney’s office. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11991291\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A section of the California seal hangs in San Francisco on the front of the State of California Earl Warren building on Jan. 22, 2007.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the California Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://supreme.courts.ca.gov/sites/default/files/supremecourt/default/documents/1-10-s265223-app-pet-rev-102620.pdf\">overturned that ruling in 2024\u003c/a>, saying a single instance of being called that slur by a co-worker with no oversight of an employee was enough to proceed, as that particular racial epithet carries “the stinging barbs of history, which catch and tear the psyche the way thorns tear at skin.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As Bailey testified, her attorney, Daniel Bacon, attempted to admit a trove of documents as evidence, including Bailey’s performance reviews from the DA’s office, her handwritten notes documenting months of alleged harassment, and more. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>During her cross-examination by Yan, Bailey described her relationship with Larkin as a “working friend,” but said she later developed some animosity towards Larkin for repeatedly breaking office rules, like leaving work for hours at a time. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Yan insinuated that Bailey may have misheard what Larkin said to her, saying that would have been the only day anyone ever heard Larkin use a racial slur. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bailey testified that she worked for the San Francisco Department of Public Health in 2018, but only lasted one week at that job. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Judge Evenson has limited the jury trial to 30 hours for each side, with the trial expected to conclude in less than two weeks.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Twanda Bailey’s drawn-out legal battle against the district attorney finally went to trial on Wednesday. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>A former employee of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-district-attorney\">San Francisco District Attorney’s Office\u003c/a> testified Wednesday that after a co-worker called her the [N-word] in the office, the department’s human resources manager didn’t document the incident and instead routinely harassed the complainant. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Twanda Bailey was the first witness in her lawsuit against the DA’s office, where she worked for 14 years before quitting in late 2015. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rebekah Evenson is presiding over the jury trial in a small San Francisco courtroom, after all San Francisco judges recused themselves.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By all accounts, Bailey was an exemplary lifelong public servant, receiving letters of recommendation for promotions and advancement in places like San Quentin State Prison and the San Francisco Unified School District. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By 2001, she was working in the DA’s office, where she routinely received top marks on her evaluations, with ratings from her supervisors as “exceeding expectations.” She eventually began working as an investigative assistant. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In January 2015, while under the leadership of George Gascón, the office had a mouse infestation, which Bailey had reported to human resources. On Jan. 22, Bailey’s co-worker Saras Larkin – who had previously been her supervisor – pointed out that she saw a mouse run by Bailey’s desk, which the plaintiff testified caused her to jump out of her chair. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261007-SFDACONFERENCE-NG-5_QED-KQED-1-057279c0.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261007-SFDACONFERENCE-NG-5_QED-KQED-1-057279c0.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261007-SFDACONFERENCE-NG-5_QED-KQED-1-057279c0-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261007-SFDACONFERENCE-NG-5_QED-KQED-1-057279c0-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Police Department Chief Derrick Lew speaks at a press conference outside the Warfield in San Francisco on Oct. 7, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey testified that Larkin then said, “You [N-words] is so scary.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said that she mumbled the phrase back to herself under her breath.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey said she told co-workers about the incident, but initially didn’t report it to human resources because the office’s HR director, Evette Taylor-Monachino, was good friends with Larkin. That, and two other Black women in the office, were either harassed or removed from the office.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I was scared,” Bailey said. “I didn’t want to get harassed.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eventually, a supervisor overheard her discussing it at a holiday party and told Bailey that they would report it, she said. But three months later, when Bailey went to HR to get a copy of her report, Taylor-Monachino told her there was no report or formal complaint. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey said Taylor-Monachino warned her that telling people in the office that Larkin called her a racial slur could create a “hostile work environment” for her. Bailey testified that she left that meeting crying. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey said that, from then on, Taylor-Monachino would give her “nasty, unpleasant looks” while laughing at her in the office on a daily basis. That took a toll on her, Bailey said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I felt like I was working in a war zone. I felt like I had to dodge the HR manager,” Bailey said on the stand as she started to cry. “I never experienced anything like this. I didn’t know if I was going to lose my job.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By April 2015, Bailey testified, she filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which eventually deemed her claim insufficient. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I felt that it was wrong that they didn’t do an investigation,” Bailey said. “It made me feel that I had to accept being called a scary [N-word].”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That summer, Bailey received numerous negative allegations against her in her performance evaluation, none of which she said were brought to her attention before being documented in her review. Bailey said she appealed that evaluation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In August 2015, Bailey filed a formal complaint against Taylor-Monachino, who was reassigned to different duties two months later, she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Soon, Bailey said she was waiting for a parking spot when Taylor-Monachino pulled up to her car, rolled her window down slightly, and made a pointing gesture at Bailey, which she interpreted as “you’re going to get it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey filed her lawsuit in December 2015, but the case was dismissed on appeal by the city attorney’s office. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1261\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11991291\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut-800x525.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/73076353_qut-1536x1009.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A section of the California seal hangs in San Francisco on the front of the State of California Earl Warren building on Jan. 22, 2007. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the California Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://supreme.courts.ca.gov/sites/default/files/supremecourt/default/documents/1-10-s265223-app-pet-rev-102620.pdf\">overturned that ruling in 2024\u003c/a>, saying a single instance of being called that slur by a co-worker with no oversight of an employee was enough to proceed, as that particular racial epithet carries “the stinging barbs of history, which catch and tear the psyche the way thorns tear at skin.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As Bailey testified, her attorney, Daniel Bacon, attempted to admit a trove of documents as evidence, including Bailey’s performance reviews from the DA’s office, her handwritten notes documenting months of alleged harassment, and more. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Judge Evenson repeatedly warned Bacon not to read from documents or refer to documents not yet admitted into evidence, as Deputy City Attorney Matthew Yan objected to many of those documents being admitted. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During her cross-examination by Yan, Bailey described her relationship with Larkin as a “working friend,” but said she later developed some animosity towards Larkin for repeatedly breaking office rules, like leaving work for hours at a time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“She was always protected,” Bailey said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yan insinuated that Bailey may have misheard what Larkin said to her, saying that would have been the only day anyone ever heard Larkin use a racial slur. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You heard your longtime friend call you a racial slur and you didn’t confront her about it?” Yan said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“No, I didn’t. I walked away. I heard her correctly,” Bailey said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bailey testified that she worked for the San Francisco Department of Public Health in 2018, but only lasted one week at that job. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I wasn’t the same. I had trouble concentrating,” she said. “I was frightened of supervisors. I didn’t know what would happen.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Judge Evenson has limited the jury trial to 30 hours for each side, with the trial expected to conclude in less than two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "3-california-residents-sue-ice-officers-under-new-no-kings-law",
"title": "3 California Residents Sue ICE Officers Under New ‘No Kings’ Law",
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"headTitle": "3 California Residents Sue ICE Officers Under New ‘No Kings’ Law | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Three citizens have sued federal \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/immigration\">immigration \u003c/a>agents for violating their constitutional rights through wrongful arrests and detentions, in the first tests of California’s new No Kings Act.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The law — which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Tuesday as part of a package of bills meant to push back on the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement — aims to create a pathway for residents to seek accountability from the officers carrying out that agenda. Legal experts warn, however, that the law and the lawsuits relying on it face unlikely odds in federal court.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>All three plaintiffs had preexisting lawsuits against the government and amended those complaints this week after the law’s signing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That includes Javier Ramirez, who was arrested on June 12, 2025, amid roving immigration raids in the Los Angeles area and less than a week after President Donald Trump sent more than 2,000 National Guardsmen and U.S. Marines into the region. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://youtu.be/KXHFkYjpoeg\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ramirez, who exports cars to Mexico and splits his time between Los Angeles and Tijuana, was at his family’s car lot in Montebello when agents drove up and walked in through a gate, left slightly open, according to security footage of the incident. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ramirez told KQED the agents ignored posted signs saying “No Trespassing” and “Private Property.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“One of them points me out and yells, ‘Hey, just get him, he’s Mexican,’” Ramirez said, recounting the arrest. “That’s when they threw me down to the ground. I yelled at them, I’m telling them, ‘You know what, I have my passport. I was born here.’ They didn’t care. They didn’t care. They didn’t even check out my wallet or anything like that.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the video, shared by his lawyer, agents can be seen wrestling Ramirez to the ground and kneeling on his back while an agent stands with another detained man nearby. Ramirez can be heard in the recordings telling agents he’s a citizen. His brother offered to give the officers Ramirez’ diabetes medication, according to his lawsuit, but they declined to take it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He spent four days in a federal detention facility. There, he fainted due to lack of medical care before he was released, he said. The case against him was later dropped. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He’s now suing the U.S. and 20 agents who were involved in his arrest and detention for various rights violations, including unlawful detention, denial of due process and excessive use of force. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I want justice,” Ramirez said. “I have kids as well, and as a proud Latino I also teach my kids to speak Spanish, and I don’t want them to, in the near future, just by looking Hispanic or them talking Spanish, have this happen to them.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Maria Garcia Baldizzone, an attorney representing Ramirez and the two other cases amended after the No Kings Act was signed, said all three cases involve U.S. citizens being wrongfully and violently detained, seemingly just for “looking Latino.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Our clients have been beaten by ICE agents or Border Patrol agents, they’ve been thrown to the ground,” Garcia Baldizzone said. “One of the other ones we filed [Tuesday] was Cary Lopez. She was nine months pregnant, and they had twisted her arm and pressed her body and her pregnant belly against their cars.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://youtu.be/cqGkGxKNSHQ\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The third case involved a man named Angel Piña who said he was with his wife when he witnessed federal agents harassing three minors. Piña’s wife called 911, and soon after, an agent tackled him to the ground and two others piled on top. He was arrested and taken by ambulance to the hospital after suffering injuries to his head, ankle and shoulder. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://youtu.be/lV77pDgNLlM\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Garcia Baldizzone said all three cases are seeking compensatory damages for the suffering that the plaintiffs endured and punitive damages from the individual agents for these violations of rights. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping to hold these agents accountable for what they’ve done to our clients, what they have done to other people and to show them that it’s not right, that what they’re doing is not right,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Whether the cases will succeed, however, remains to be seen. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Although Congress has passed laws establishing a right to sue local and state officials for violating constitutional rights, the Legislature has never done the same for federal officials, said Kevin Johnson, a distinguished professor of law emeritus at the UC Davis School of Law.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a man named Webster Bivens in 1971 who sued six agents for violating his constitutional rights. Cases in later years seeking accountability from federal officials cited the Bivens ruling, but Johnson said two rulings in the past decade have significantly limited the ability to bring such suits, called Bivens actions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The No Kings Act, introduced by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener, aims to establish that right in state law, where none exists in federal legislation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“ICE and Border Patrol have escaped that accountability for far too long due to a loophole in the law,” Wiener said in a statement following Newsom’s signing. “The No Kings Act provides long overdue accountability to end the impunity powering ICE and Border Patrol’s terror campaign, and put Cary, Javier, Angel, and thousands of others on the pathway to justice.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Regulating the federal government with state law, however, is not that simple, Johnson said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Here you have a complicated situation where you have the state passing a law that seeks to restrict or at least provide the possibility of an action against a federal officer conducting a federal business,” Johnson said. “And so the question will be, can a state regulate a federal law enforcement officer?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Johnson answered his own question in no uncertain terms. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think the suits will probably be dismissed for conflicting with federal law … so I don’t see these actions going anywhere. They could end up on appeal, perhaps,” Johnson said. “I’m sympathetic with the concept of providing a right to relief, but I don’t see how the state government can regulate the federal law enforcement functions.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California follows New York, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts, which passed similar laws earlier this year meant to create a cause of action in their respective states for suing federal officials, according to \u003ca href=\"https://protectdemocracy.org/work/protect-democracy-applauds-california-legislatures-passage-of-the-no-kings-act/\">Protecting Democracy\u003c/a>, a co-sponsor of the No Kings Act. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Time will tell whether the ensuing lawsuits are able to withstand legal scrutiny and secure the compensation plaintiffs are seeking. But Johnson said that regardless of their ultimate success, the No Kings Act and other recently signed laws send a message. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“All these laws — there’s 21 signed in one day by the governor — they’re sending a strong message to the federal government that California is not just going to roll over and play dead when it comes to the immigration enforcement operations,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I want justice,” Ramirez said. “I have kids as well, and as a proud Latino I also teach my kids to speak Spanish, and I don’t want them to, in the near future, just by looking Hispanic or them talking Spanish, have this happen to them.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The third case involved a man named Angel Piña who said he was with his wife when he witnessed federal agents harassing three minors. Piña’s wife called 911, and soon after, an agent tackled him to the ground and two others piled on top. He was arrested and taken by ambulance to the hospital after suffering injuries to his head, ankle and shoulder. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Garcia Baldizzone said all three cases are seeking compensatory damages for the suffering that the plaintiffs endured and punitive damages from the individual agents for these violations of rights. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping to hold these agents accountable for what they’ve done to our clients, what they have done to other people and to show them that it’s not right, that what they’re doing is not right,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Whether the cases will succeed, however, remains to be seen. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Although Congress has passed laws establishing a right to sue local and state officials for violating constitutional rights, the Legislature has never done the same for federal officials, said Kevin Johnson, a distinguished professor of law emeritus at the UC Davis School of Law.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a man named Webster Bivens in 1971 who sued six agents for violating his constitutional rights. Cases in later years seeking accountability from federal officials cited the Bivens ruling, but Johnson said two rulings in the past decade have significantly limited the ability to bring such suits, called Bivens actions. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a man named Webster Bivens in 1971 who sued six agents for violating his constitutional rights. Cases in later years seeking accountability from federal officials cited the Bivens ruling, but Johnson said two rulings in the past decade have significantly limited the ability to bring such suits, called Bivens actions. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The No Kings Act, introduced by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener, aims to establish that right in state law, where none exists in federal legislation. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“ICE and Border Patrol have escaped that accountability for far too long due to a loophole in the law,” Wiener said in a statement following Newsom’s signing. “The No Kings Act provides long overdue accountability to end the impunity powering ICE and Border Patrol’s terror campaign, and put Cary, Javier, Angel, and thousands of others on the pathway to justice.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Regulating the federal government with state law, however, is not that simple, Johnson said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Here you have a complicated situation where you have the state passing a law that seeks to restrict or at least provide the possibility of an action against a federal officer conducting a federal business,” Johnson said. “And so the question will be, can a state regulate a federal law enforcement officer?”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I think the suits will probably be dismissed for conflicting with federal law … so I don’t see these actions going anywhere. They could end up on appeal, perhaps,” Johnson said. “I’m sympathetic with the concept of providing a right to relief, but I don’t see how the state government can regulate the federal law enforcement functions.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California follows New York, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts, which passed similar laws earlier this year meant to create a cause of action in their respective states for suing federal officials, according to \u003ca href=\"https://protectdemocracy.org/work/protect-democracy-applauds-california-legislatures-passage-of-the-no-kings-act/\">Protecting Democracy\u003c/a>, a co-sponsor of the No Kings Act. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Time will tell whether the ensuing lawsuits are able to withstand legal scrutiny and secure the compensation plaintiffs are seeking. But Johnson said that regardless of their ultimate success, the No Kings Act and other recently signed laws send a message. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“All these laws — there’s 21 signed in one day by the governor — they’re sending a strong message to the federal government that California is not just going to roll over and play dead when it comes to the immigration enforcement operations,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The suits were amended after Gov. Gavin Newsom passed a new law creating legal mechanisms to sue federal immigration officers.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Three citizens have sued federal \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/immigration\">immigration \u003c/a>agents for violating their constitutional rights through wrongful arrests and detentions, in the first tests of California’s new No Kings Act.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The law — which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Tuesday as part of a package of bills meant to push back on the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement — aims to create a pathway for residents to seek accountability from the officers carrying out that agenda. Legal experts warn, however, that the law and the lawsuits relying on it face unlikely odds in federal court.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>All three plaintiffs had preexisting lawsuits against the government and amended those complaints this week after the law’s signing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That includes Javier Ramirez, who was arrested on June 12, 2025, amid roving immigration raids in the Los Angeles area and less than a week after President Donald Trump sent more than 2,000 National Guardsmen and U.S. Marines into the region. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/KXHFkYjpoeg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/KXHFkYjpoeg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ramirez, who exports cars to Mexico and splits his time between Los Angeles and Tijuana, was at his family’s car lot in Montebello when agents drove up and walked in through a gate, left slightly open, according to security footage of the incident. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ramirez told KQED the agents ignored posted signs saying “No Trespassing” and “Private Property.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“One of them points me out and yells, ‘Hey, just get him, he’s Mexican,’” Ramirez said, recounting the arrest. “That’s when they threw me down to the ground. I yelled at them, I’m telling them, ‘You know what, I have my passport. I was born here.’ They didn’t care. They didn’t care. They didn’t even check out my wallet or anything like that.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the video, shared by his lawyer, agents can be seen wrestling Ramirez to the ground and kneeling on his back while an agent stands with another detained man nearby. Ramirez can be heard in the recordings telling agents he’s a citizen. His brother offered to give the officers Ramirez’ diabetes medication, according to his lawsuit, but they declined to take it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He spent four days in a federal detention facility. There, he fainted due to lack of medical care before he was released, he said. The case against him was later dropped. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He’s now suing the U.S. and 20 agents who were involved in his arrest and detention for various rights violations, including unlawful detention, denial of due process and excessive use of force. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I want justice,” Ramirez said. “I have kids as well, and as a proud Latino I also teach my kids to speak Spanish, and I don’t want them to, in the near future, just by looking Hispanic or them talking Spanish, have this happen to them.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Maria Garcia Baldizzone, an attorney representing Ramirez and the two other cases amended after the No Kings Act was signed, said all three cases involve U.S. citizens being wrongfully and violently detained, seemingly just for “looking Latino.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Our clients have been beaten by ICE agents or Border Patrol agents, they’ve been thrown to the ground,” Garcia Baldizzone said. “One of the other ones we filed [Tuesday] was Cary Lopez. She was nine months pregnant, and they had twisted her arm and pressed her body and her pregnant belly against their cars.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/cqGkGxKNSHQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/cqGkGxKNSHQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The third case involved a man named Angel Piña who said he was with his wife when he witnessed federal agents harassing three minors. Piña’s wife called 911, and soon after, an agent tackled him to the ground and two others piled on top. He was arrested and taken by ambulance to the hospital after suffering injuries to his head, ankle and shoulder. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/lV77pDgNLlM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/lV77pDgNLlM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Garcia Baldizzone said all three cases are seeking compensatory damages for the suffering that the plaintiffs endured and punitive damages from the individual agents for these violations of rights. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping to hold these agents accountable for what they’ve done to our clients, what they have done to other people and to show them that it’s not right, that what they’re doing is not right,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Whether the cases will succeed, however, remains to be seen. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Although Congress has passed laws establishing a right to sue local and state officials for violating constitutional rights, the Legislature has never done the same for federal officials, said Kevin Johnson, a distinguished professor of law emeritus at the UC Davis School of Law.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a man named Webster Bivens in 1971 who sued six agents for violating his constitutional rights. Cases in later years seeking accountability from federal officials cited the Bivens ruling, but Johnson said two rulings in the past decade have significantly limited the ability to bring such suits, called Bivens actions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The No Kings Act, introduced by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener, aims to establish that right in state law, where none exists in federal legislation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“ICE and Border Patrol have escaped that accountability for far too long due to a loophole in the law,” Wiener said in a statement following Newsom’s signing. “The No Kings Act provides long overdue accountability to end the impunity powering ICE and Border Patrol’s terror campaign, and put Cary, Javier, Angel, and thousands of others on the pathway to justice.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Regulating the federal government with state law, however, is not that simple, Johnson said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Here you have a complicated situation where you have the state passing a law that seeks to restrict or at least provide the possibility of an action against a federal officer conducting a federal business,” Johnson said. “And so the question will be, can a state regulate a federal law enforcement officer?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Johnson answered his own question in no uncertain terms. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think the suits will probably be dismissed for conflicting with federal law … so I don’t see these actions going anywhere. They could end up on appeal, perhaps,” Johnson said. “I’m sympathetic with the concept of providing a right to relief, but I don’t see how the state government can regulate the federal law enforcement functions.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California follows New York, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts, which passed similar laws earlier this year meant to create a cause of action in their respective states for suing federal officials, according to \u003ca href=\"https://protectdemocracy.org/work/protect-democracy-applauds-california-legislatures-passage-of-the-no-kings-act/\">Protecting Democracy\u003c/a>, a co-sponsor of the No Kings Act. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Time will tell whether the ensuing lawsuits are able to withstand legal scrutiny and secure the compensation plaintiffs are seeking. But Johnson said that regardless of their ultimate success, the No Kings Act and other recently signed laws send a message. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“All these laws — there’s 21 signed in one day by the governor — they’re sending a strong message to the federal government that California is not just going to roll over and play dead when it comes to the immigration enforcement operations,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "lyft-agrees-to-272-million-wage-theft-lawsuit-as-uber-fights-on",
"title": "Lyft Agrees to $272 Million Wage Theft Lawsuit as Uber Fights On",
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"headTitle": "Lyft Agrees to $272 Million Wage Theft Lawsuit as Uber Fights On | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/lyft\">Lyft\u003c/a> has agreed to pay more than $272 million to settle a state lawsuit alleging it committed wage theft by misclassifying California drivers as independent contractors, rather than employees, from 2016 to 2020. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Attorney General Rob Bonta \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-city-attorneys-san-francisco-san-diego-and-los-angeles\">announced\u003c/a> the deal on Thursday alongside city attorneys for San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. He said Lyft, which has argued its drivers were always properly classified, spent years trying to push the case into private arbitration.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“All the while Lyft grew into a multibillion-dollar company, and a household name. Its success depended on its drivers, many of whom came from immigrant communities and communities of color, and still, Lyft failed to protect those drivers and failed to pay them fairly,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He called it the largest worker misclassification settlement in California history. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is that eligible drivers are going to get paid. That’s money in the pockets of the workers who drove this company’s success,” the attorney general said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1255\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/M6A2496_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102488\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/M6A2496_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/M6A2496_qed-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/M6A2496_qed-1536x964.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Taking care of his mother and family, Uber and Lyft driver Malik Ali calls on Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to help drivers keep a living wage. “You see one driver, but you don’t see the family behind. At least give us our share. I have to work every day because of the strict rules for the driver, which is ripping us off. I can’t afford to miss days to pay my rent. They don’t see the family behind us.” (Sruti Mamidanna/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most of the money, at least $237 million, is set to go to drivers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This was rent that didn’t get paid, food that wasn’t there for hungry kids. We’ve waited six years for this,” said Alvaro Bolainez, vice president of Rideshare Drivers United, a union representing over 20,000 drivers, in a statement. “It’s a big settlement — but it’s not big enough to cover the real harm that’s happened to drivers over the years.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The settlement still needs a judge’s approval. In a statement, Lyft said the deal “closes a chapter from a very different time, before Prop 22,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/prop-22\">the 2020 ballot measure\u003c/a> that let app-based companies keep treating drivers as contractors. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The debate over driver classification has raged in California for more than a decade. As independent contractors, Lyft and Uber drivers don’t get overtime, paid sick leave or unemployment insurance, and the state’s minimum wage doesn’t apply to them. Proposition 22 instead guarantees an earnings floor for time spent on trips, plus some health and accident coverage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California’s lawsuit against Lyft, joined by the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, was first brought in 2020. The case was later merged with the Labor Commissioner’s separate suit and with private suits by drivers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>With litigation underway, Lyft joined Uber and other gig companies in putting forward the state ballot measure to exempt ride-share and delivery drivers from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11774025/which-jobs-will-be-impacted-by-ab-5-californias-landmark-employment-measure\">AB 5\u003c/a>, a state law that would have made many of them employees. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a win for the companies, voters approved the measure in November 2020, and it took effect the following month. That’s why the new settlement only covers work done through Dec. 15, 2020.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The companies fought the case at nearly every turn. A state appeals court upheld a 2020 order requiring them to reclassify drivers as employees, though Proposition 22 passed weeks later. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12008292/uber-and-lyfts-appeal-in-california-labor-case-wont-be-heard-by-supreme-court\">declined to hear their bid\u003c/a> to move the state’s claims into private arbitration.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Uber, the other defendant in the case, is still fighting. “The job is not done when it comes to protecting drivers here in California who have been misclassified, and Uber is a major violator,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED reached out to Uber but did not hear back in time for publication.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Silicon Valley’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898302/how-the-gig-economy-changes-work-one-janitors-story\">gigification\u003c/a> of labor is not limited to ride-share driving. A host of other companies in everything from home services to food delivery treat workers as independent contractors instead of employees with all the benefits that classification would entail. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In September, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a $131.5 million enforcement action \u003ca href=\"https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/09/mayor-mamdani-wins-record--131-5-million-from-doordash-for-deliv\">against DoorDash\u003c/a> for violations of New York City’s Delivery Worker Laws regarding minimum-pay rules for workers who are contractors by law.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This was rent that didn’t get paid, food that wasn’t there for hungry kids. We’ve waited six years for this,” said Alvaro Bolainez, vice president of Rideshare Drivers United, a union representing over 20,000 drivers, in a statement. “It’s a big settlement — but it’s not big enough to cover the real harm that’s happened to drivers over the years.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The debate over driver classification has raged in California for more than a decade. As independent contractors, Lyft and Uber drivers don’t get overtime, paid sick leave or unemployment insurance, and the state’s minimum wage doesn’t apply to them. Proposition 22 instead guarantees an earnings floor for time spent on trips, plus some health and accident coverage.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California’s lawsuit against Lyft, joined by the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, was first brought in 2020. The case was later merged with the Labor Commissioner’s separate suit and with private suits by drivers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>With litigation underway, Lyft joined Uber and other gig companies in putting forward the state ballot measure to exempt ride-share and delivery drivers from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11774025/which-jobs-will-be-impacted-by-ab-5-californias-landmark-employment-measure\">AB 5\u003c/a>, a state law that would have made many of them employees. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a win for the companies, voters approved the measure in November 2020, and it took effect the following month. That’s why the new settlement only covers work done through Dec. 15, 2020.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The companies fought the case at nearly every turn. A state appeals court upheld a 2020 order requiring them to reclassify drivers as employees, though Proposition 22 passed weeks later. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12008292/uber-and-lyfts-appeal-in-california-labor-case-wont-be-heard-by-supreme-court\">declined to hear their bid\u003c/a> to move the state’s claims into private arbitration.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The companies fought the case at nearly every turn. A state appeals court upheld a 2020 order requiring them to reclassify drivers as employees, though Proposition 22 passed weeks later. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12008292/uber-and-lyfts-appeal-in-california-labor-case-wont-be-heard-by-supreme-court\">declined to hear their bid\u003c/a> to move the state’s claims into private arbitration.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Uber, the other defendant in the case, is still fighting. “The job is not done when it comes to protecting drivers here in California who have been misclassified, and Uber is a major violator,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED reached out to Uber but did not hear back in time for publication.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Silicon Valley’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898302/how-the-gig-economy-changes-work-one-janitors-story\">gigification\u003c/a> of labor is not limited to ride-share driving. A host of other companies in everything from home services to food delivery treat workers as independent contractors instead of employees with all the benefits that classification would entail. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In September, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a $131.5 million enforcement action \u003ca href=\"https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/09/mayor-mamdani-wins-record--131-5-million-from-doordash-for-deliv\">against DoorDash\u003c/a> for violations of New York City’s Delivery Worker Laws regarding minimum-pay rules for workers who are contractors by law.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A state lawsuit alleged the rideshare giant misclassified California drivers as independent contractors for four years. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/lyft\">Lyft\u003c/a> has agreed to pay more than $272 million to settle a state lawsuit alleging it committed wage theft by misclassifying California drivers as independent contractors, rather than employees, from 2016 to 2020. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Attorney General Rob Bonta \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-city-attorneys-san-francisco-san-diego-and-los-angeles\">announced\u003c/a> the deal on Thursday alongside city attorneys for San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. He said Lyft, which has argued its drivers were always properly classified, spent years trying to push the case into private arbitration.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“All the while Lyft grew into a multibillion-dollar company, and a household name. Its success depended on its drivers, many of whom came from immigrant communities and communities of color, and still, Lyft failed to protect those drivers and failed to pay them fairly,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He called it the largest worker misclassification settlement in California history. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is that eligible drivers are going to get paid. That’s money in the pockets of the workers who drove this company’s success,” the attorney general said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1255\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/M6A2496_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102488\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/M6A2496_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/M6A2496_qed-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/M6A2496_qed-1536x964.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Taking care of his mother and family, Uber and Lyft driver Malik Ali calls on Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to help drivers keep a living wage. “You see one driver, but you don’t see the family behind. At least give us our share. I have to work every day because of the strict rules for the driver, which is ripping us off. I can’t afford to miss days to pay my rent. They don’t see the family behind us.” (Sruti Mamidanna/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most of the money, at least $237 million, is set to go to drivers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This was rent that didn’t get paid, food that wasn’t there for hungry kids. We’ve waited six years for this,” said Alvaro Bolainez, vice president of Rideshare Drivers United, a union representing over 20,000 drivers, in a statement. “It’s a big settlement — but it’s not big enough to cover the real harm that’s happened to drivers over the years.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The settlement still needs a judge’s approval. In a statement, Lyft said the deal “closes a chapter from a very different time, before Prop 22,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/prop-22\">the 2020 ballot measure\u003c/a> that let app-based companies keep treating drivers as contractors. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The debate over driver classification has raged in California for more than a decade. As independent contractors, Lyft and Uber drivers don’t get overtime, paid sick leave or unemployment insurance, and the state’s minimum wage doesn’t apply to them. Proposition 22 instead guarantees an earnings floor for time spent on trips, plus some health and accident coverage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California’s lawsuit against Lyft, joined by the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, was first brought in 2020. The case was later merged with the Labor Commissioner’s separate suit and with private suits by drivers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>With litigation underway, Lyft joined Uber and other gig companies in putting forward the state ballot measure to exempt ride-share and delivery drivers from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11774025/which-jobs-will-be-impacted-by-ab-5-californias-landmark-employment-measure\">AB 5\u003c/a>, a state law that would have made many of them employees. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a win for the companies, voters approved the measure in November 2020, and it took effect the following month. That’s why the new settlement only covers work done through Dec. 15, 2020.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The companies fought the case at nearly every turn. A state appeals court upheld a 2020 order requiring them to reclassify drivers as employees, though Proposition 22 passed weeks later. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12008292/uber-and-lyfts-appeal-in-california-labor-case-wont-be-heard-by-supreme-court\">declined to hear their bid\u003c/a> to move the state’s claims into private arbitration.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Uber, the other defendant in the case, is still fighting. “The job is not done when it comes to protecting drivers here in California who have been misclassified, and Uber is a major violator,” Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED reached out to Uber but did not hear back in time for publication.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Silicon Valley’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898302/how-the-gig-economy-changes-work-one-janitors-story\">gigification\u003c/a> of labor is not limited to ride-share driving. A host of other companies in everything from home services to food delivery treat workers as independent contractors instead of employees with all the benefits that classification would entail. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In September, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a $131.5 million enforcement action \u003ca href=\"https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/09/mayor-mamdani-wins-record--131-5-million-from-doordash-for-deliv\">against DoorDash\u003c/a> for violations of New York City’s Delivery Worker Laws regarding minimum-pay rules for workers who are contractors by law.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "sf-naacp-calls-on-san-francisco-unified-to-hold-racist-behavior-accountable",
"title": "SF NAACP Calls on San Francisco Unified to Hold Racist Behavior Accountable",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>The NAACP San Francisco branch, along with parents and community advocates, accused the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sfusd\">city’s public school district\u003c/a> of failing to take action against anti-Black rhetoric after multiple incidents at district high schools. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Sept. 4, a Black student at Lincoln High School was called the “N-word” during a passing period, according to representatives for the NAACP and Coleman Advocates, a racial justice nonprofit. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Coleman Advocates Youth Justice Director Rachel Jones said that after the student used the “N-word,” a physical altercation ensued. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Video footage of the incident, posted by KTSF, shows a child being shoved in the school hallway. Board of Education candidate \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DdXZAgoAQ6I/?img_index=2\">Laurance Lee said\u003c/a> on social media that the television station reported that a “Chinese American special education student was attacked after class,” and had been bullied before. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jones said Wednesday that “a physical response to a conflict is unacceptable, but racial slurs also cause significant harm and trauma.” She said the student had previously used the language last year, prompting classmates to ask administrators to intervene — but they didn’t feel that they got the support they needed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12036911\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The San Francisco Unified School District Administrative Offices in San Francisco on April 18, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is not an isolated incident,” said Yolanda Williams, the vice president of the NAACP San Francisco branch. “Every Black child that enters the San Francisco Unified School District deserves respect, they deserve to be safe and they deserve to be in an educational environment that is free from racial hostility.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Following the incident, Lincoln administrators sent an email to families, saying they had been made aware of “multiple instances of hate speech” on campus.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“At Lincoln, there is no place for slurs of any kind … discriminatory, hateful or demeaning language,” the letter reads. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SFUSD said in a statement that district leaders were meeting with the families involved in the Sept. 4 incident, as well as community stakeholders, including the NAACP. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We are implementing restorative practices to ensure that students directly impacted by the incident receive the support they need,” the district wrote via email. “We are also focused on providing support for the broader Lincoln High School community to ensure every student has access to any resources they need and that it is made clear that we do not accept behavior of this kind anywhere at SFUSD.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The incident at Lincoln occurred just days after SFUSD announced that it had removed Lowell High School’s varsity baseball coaching staff and that the team would \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097872/sfs-lowell-hs-baseball-team-to-forfeit-3-games-remove-coaches-after-investigation\">forfeit three games\u003c/a> next spring after an incident of racial taunting last season. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The coaches have been on leave since May, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/lowell-high-racial-misconduct-baseball-22271411.php\">reports surfaced\u003c/a> that they were present during the school’s junior varsity championship game against Lincoln High School, where “alleged race-based taunting by Lowell’s varsity players” occurred.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“In this school district today, the N-word is used repeatedly at the elementary, middle and high school levels,” Rev. Amos C. Brown said Wednesday. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He said that after the Sept. 4 incident, the school was slow to respond, and he blamed the school’s principal for not taking independent ownership for the letter sent to families. He called the message “generalized,” and said it lacked specific details or information about what, if any, repercussions there have been for the students involved. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The district did not respond to a question about whether it had taken any disciplinary action.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Far too many principals have sought to sweep under the rug instances when Black children have been victimized by racialized, bigoted language,” Amos said, noting that Superintendent Maria Su has met with the NAACP and “been supportive.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Virginia Marshall, a member of the NAACP, addressed Su specifically: “However, you must get the word out to your principals. You must get to word out to your assistant superintendents … to say to them, ‘the N word is never ever allowed.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12046127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Maria Su speaks during a press conference at the school district offices in San Francisco on April 21, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 1979, the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP sued SFUSD, alleging that the district was engaging in racial discrimination and maintaining segregated schools. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The case led to a consent decree requiring the district to accelerate efforts to achieve academic excellence for all students, particularly African American and Latino students, and to eliminate racial and ethnic segregation in schools and programs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“During that time, under the consent decree of the early years, African American students thrived in SFUSD,” Marshall said. “We fear that we are at that threshold again — we should not have to sue the school district for our children to thrive.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The organizations called on the district to increase accountability for racist language and behavior on its campuses. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Marshall said the schools must make it “their number one priority to make sure that all children receive a great education, and that all children are safe and all children feel that they are part of [their] school.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We are implementing restorative practices to ensure that students directly impacted by the incident receive the support they need,” the district wrote via email. “We are also focused on providing support for the broader Lincoln High School community to ensure every student has access to any resources they need and that it is made clear that we do not accept behavior of this kind anywhere at SFUSD.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The incident at Lincoln occurred just days after SFUSD announced that it had removed Lowell High School’s varsity baseball coaching staff and that the team would \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097872/sfs-lowell-hs-baseball-team-to-forfeit-3-games-remove-coaches-after-investigation\">forfeit three games\u003c/a> next spring after an incident of racial taunting last season. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The incident at Lincoln occurred just days after SFUSD announced that it had removed Lowell High School’s varsity baseball coaching staff and that the team would \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097872/sfs-lowell-hs-baseball-team-to-forfeit-3-games-remove-coaches-after-investigation\">forfeit three games\u003c/a> next spring after an incident of racial taunting last season. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The coaches have been on leave since May, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/lowell-high-racial-misconduct-baseball-22271411.php\">reports surfaced\u003c/a> that they were present during the school’s junior varsity championship game against Lincoln High School, where “alleged race-based taunting by Lowell’s varsity players” occurred.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The coaches have been on leave since May, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/lowell-high-racial-misconduct-baseball-22271411.php\">reports surfaced\u003c/a> that they were present during the school’s junior varsity championship game against Lincoln High School, where “alleged race-based taunting by Lowell’s varsity players” occurred.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“In this school district today, the N-word is used repeatedly at the elementary, middle and high school levels,” Rev. Amos C. Brown said Wednesday. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He said that after the Sept. 4 incident, the school was slow to respond, and he blamed the school’s principal for not taking independent ownership for the letter sent to families. He called the message “generalized,” and said it lacked specific details or information about what, if any, repercussions there have been for the students involved. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He said that after the Sept. 4 incident, the school was slow to respond, and he blamed the school’s principal for not taking independent ownership for the letter sent to families. He called the message “generalized,” and said it lacked specific details or information about what, if any, repercussions there have been for the students involved. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The district did not respond to a question about whether it had taken any disciplinary action.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Far too many principals have sought to sweep under the rug instances when Black children have been victimized by racialized, bigoted language,” Amos said, noting that Superintendent Maria Su has met with the NAACP and “been supportive.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Far too many principals have sought to sweep under the rug instances when Black children have been victimized by racialized, bigoted language,” Amos said, noting that Superintendent Maria Su has met with the NAACP and “been supportive.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Virginia Marshall, a member of the NAACP, addressed Su specifically: “However, you must get the word out to your principals. You must get to word out to your assistant superintendents … to say to them, ‘the N word is never ever allowed.’”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Virginia Marshall, a member of the NAACP, addressed Su specifically: “However, you must get the word out to your principals. You must get to word out to your assistant superintendents … to say to them, ‘the N word is never ever allowed.’”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12046127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Maria Su speaks during a press conference at the school district offices in San Francisco on April 21, 2025.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12046127\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Maria Su speaks during a press conference at the school district offices in San Francisco on April 21, 2025.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 1979, the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP sued SFUSD, alleging that the district was engaging in racial discrimination and maintaining segregated schools. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The case led to a consent decree requiring the district to accelerate efforts to achieve academic excellence for all students, particularly African American and Latino students, and to eliminate racial and ethnic segregation in schools and programs. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The case led to a consent decree requiring the district to accelerate efforts to achieve academic excellence for all students, particularly African American and Latino students, and to eliminate racial and ethnic segregation in schools and programs. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“During that time, under the consent decree of the early years, African American students thrived in SFUSD,” Marshall said. “We fear that we are at that threshold again — we should not have to sue the school district for our children to thrive.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“During that time, under the consent decree of the early years, African American students thrived in SFUSD,” Marshall said. “We fear that we are at that threshold again — we should not have to sue the school district for our children to thrive.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The organizations called on the district to increase accountability for racist language and behavior on its campuses. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Marshall said the schools must make it “their number one priority to make sure that all children receive a great education, and that all children are safe and all children feel that they are part of [their] school.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Marshall said the schools must make it “their number one priority to make sure that all children receive a great education, and that all children are safe and all children feel that they are part of [their] school.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "San Francisco Unified said in a statement that district leaders are meeting with families affected by the racist incident on a school campus.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The NAACP San Francisco branch, along with parents and community advocates, accused the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sfusd\">city’s public school district\u003c/a> of failing to take action against anti-Black rhetoric after multiple incidents at district high schools. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Sept. 4, a Black student at Lincoln High School was called the “N-word” during a passing period, according to representatives for the NAACP and Coleman Advocates, a racial justice nonprofit. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Coleman Advocates Youth Justice Director Rachel Jones said that after the student used the “N-word,” a physical altercation ensued. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Video footage of the incident, posted by KTSF, shows a child being shoved in the school hallway. Board of Education candidate \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DdXZAgoAQ6I/?img_index=2\">Laurance Lee said\u003c/a> on social media that the television station reported that a “Chinese American special education student was attacked after class,” and had been bullied before. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jones said Wednesday that “a physical response to a conflict is unacceptable, but racial slurs also cause significant harm and trauma.” She said the student had previously used the language last year, prompting classmates to ask administrators to intervene — but they didn’t feel that they got the support they needed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12036911\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The San Francisco Unified School District Administrative Offices in San Francisco on April 18, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is not an isolated incident,” said Yolanda Williams, the vice president of the NAACP San Francisco branch. “Every Black child that enters the San Francisco Unified School District deserves respect, they deserve to be safe and they deserve to be in an educational environment that is free from racial hostility.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Following the incident, Lincoln administrators sent an email to families, saying they had been made aware of “multiple instances of hate speech” on campus.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“At Lincoln, there is no place for slurs of any kind … discriminatory, hateful or demeaning language,” the letter reads. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SFUSD said in a statement that district leaders were meeting with the families involved in the Sept. 4 incident, as well as community stakeholders, including the NAACP. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We are implementing restorative practices to ensure that students directly impacted by the incident receive the support they need,” the district wrote via email. “We are also focused on providing support for the broader Lincoln High School community to ensure every student has access to any resources they need and that it is made clear that we do not accept behavior of this kind anywhere at SFUSD.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The incident at Lincoln occurred just days after SFUSD announced that it had removed Lowell High School’s varsity baseball coaching staff and that the team would \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097872/sfs-lowell-hs-baseball-team-to-forfeit-3-games-remove-coaches-after-investigation\">forfeit three games\u003c/a> next spring after an incident of racial taunting last season. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The coaches have been on leave since May, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/lowell-high-racial-misconduct-baseball-22271411.php\">reports surfaced\u003c/a> that they were present during the school’s junior varsity championship game against Lincoln High School, where “alleged race-based taunting by Lowell’s varsity players” occurred.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“In this school district today, the N-word is used repeatedly at the elementary, middle and high school levels,” Rev. Amos C. Brown said Wednesday. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He said that after the Sept. 4 incident, the school was slow to respond, and he blamed the school’s principal for not taking independent ownership for the letter sent to families. He called the message “generalized,” and said it lacked specific details or information about what, if any, repercussions there have been for the students involved. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The district did not respond to a question about whether it had taken any disciplinary action.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Far too many principals have sought to sweep under the rug instances when Black children have been victimized by racialized, bigoted language,” Amos said, noting that Superintendent Maria Su has met with the NAACP and “been supportive.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Virginia Marshall, a member of the NAACP, addressed Su specifically: “However, you must get the word out to your principals. You must get to word out to your assistant superintendents … to say to them, ‘the N word is never ever allowed.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12046127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250421-SFUSDCentralCuts-09-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Maria Su speaks during a press conference at the school district offices in San Francisco on April 21, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 1979, the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP sued SFUSD, alleging that the district was engaging in racial discrimination and maintaining segregated schools. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The case led to a consent decree requiring the district to accelerate efforts to achieve academic excellence for all students, particularly African American and Latino students, and to eliminate racial and ethnic segregation in schools and programs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“During that time, under the consent decree of the early years, African American students thrived in SFUSD,” Marshall said. “We fear that we are at that threshold again — we should not have to sue the school district for our children to thrive.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The organizations called on the district to increase accountability for racist language and behavior on its campuses. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Marshall said the schools must make it “their number one priority to make sure that all children receive a great education, and that all children are safe and all children feel that they are part of [their] school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "sf-supervisors-suspend-sheriffs-oversight-official-for-alleged-misconduct",
"title": "SF Supervisors Suspend Sheriff’s Oversight Official for Alleged Misconduct",
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"headTitle": "SF Supervisors Suspend Sheriff’s Oversight Official for Alleged Misconduct | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">The San Francisco Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> voted Tuesday to suspend and file misconduct charges \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101463/san-francisco-supervisors-to-weigh-removal-of-sheriffs-oversight-president\">against a sheriff’s oversight official\u003c/a>, moving a step closer to removing him from his post.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The motion, passed by 10 out of 11 city supervisors, followed a city anti-corruption investigation into Sheriff’s Oversight Board President William Palmer. It found that he used his public position for his personal benefit multiple times over the course of his tenure.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“When you are appointed to serve the public in any position within San Francisco, you need to uphold that position with integrity,” said Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who first introduced the charges against Palmer. “When you abuse your power or break the trust of the public, you should not be allowed to continue to serve the people of San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The charges will then be forwarded to an ethics committee hearing, before heading back to the supervisors for a final decision.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sherrill called for the investigation after a damning \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/william-palmer-san-francisco-sheriff-22395646.php\">investigation\u003c/a> into Palmer this summer, which alleged that he picked up a woman experiencing a mental health crisis off the street, pressured her to have sex and gave her drugs. Palmer told the paper he was acting in his official capacity when requesting access to the woman, conducting an official investigation on behalf of the board. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12024441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Supervisor Stephen Sherrill speaks during a press conference with elected and public safety officials and labor leaders in front of City Hall in San Francisco on Jan. 28, 2025, to reaffirm San Francisco’s commitment to being a Sanctuary City. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The city watchdog’s \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/OIG_Report_Official_Misconduct_William_Palmer_President_Sheriffs_Department_Ov_Yo2yQCP.pdf\">report\u003c/a> released earlier this month found that Palmer violated city law 14 times between December 2025 and July 2026. In one example of official misconduct, the report detailed a 2025 traffic stop by San Francisco sheriff’s deputies in the Tenderloin for Palmer’s expired registration. In the 51-minute stop, Palmer repeated that he was the president of the Oversight Board at least six times, referenced his relationship with Sheriff Paul Miyamoto and threatened retaliation against the deputies.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Months later, San Francisco Police briefly detained Palmer for questioning, as part of an investigation into a missing, “at-risk” woman. Again, the commissioner used his position in an attempt to influence and intimidate, the report alleged. Palmer told officers he was President of the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board at least six times, and “repeatedly threatened to sue” the officers. Palmer was not arrested and does not face criminal charges for the incident.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The woman was eventually transported to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on a mental health hold. A few hours after the encounter, Palmer emailed the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office from his city email. Palmer wrote that he was seeking “professional guidance” about the day’s events, and described himself as the woman’s life coach. He signed the email as “President, Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Late that night, Palmer called a secure ward at the hospital, told a nurse that he was president of the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board, and insisted that he be allowed to speak to the woman because he was conducting an investigation and needed to take her statement.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Palmer did not immediately respond to a KQED request for comment. However, in a previous statement to KQED, he said he takes his “responsibilities as a public officer seriously,” and disagrees “with significant factual and legal conclusions contained” in the watchdog report.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Palmer was appointed to the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board, based on his personal experiences with the carceral system. Now 55, Palmer spent more than 30 years in prison for a crime he committed as a teenager. He was released in 2019, and a court of appeal later found that his sentence amounted to excessive punishment. He’s since served as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/justinphillips/article/sf-generational-incarceration-jail-17827159.php\">vocal advocate\u003c/a> for people in jails.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Palmer’s tenure on the board, however, has involved multiple run-ins with law enforcement. A woman accused Palmer of rape, though criminal charges were \u003ca href=\"https://sfpublicdefender.org/2024/04/03/all-charges-dismissed-against-william-palmer-sf-sheriffs-dept-oversight-board-member/\">dismissed\u003c/a> in 2024. Three other women accused him of violence, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/jail-oversight-criminal-allegations-22194091.php\">\u003cem>Chronicle’s\u003c/em>\u003c/a> reporting — which also said another woman took out a restraining order against him. That, the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em> reports, is in addition to several traffic violations and almost $10,000 in parking fees over six years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sherrill emphasized that officials needed to act in the most “legally defensive way. We didn’t touch on some of those potential criminal challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Obviously I am horrified by those accusations,” he said, referring to the allegations in the \u003cem>Chronicle’s\u003c/em> reporting. “I don’t want to put those aside, but it’s important for us on the Board of Supervisors to work with the information that we have to move forward as quickly as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie has repeatedly referenced the allegations against Palmer as part of his push for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096437/sf-mayor-backers-renew-push-for-increased-mayoral-power\">Proposition F\u003c/a>, a ballot measure which would expand both the mayor and board’s authority to allow the removal of most commissioners without cause. Some progressives, including Supervisor Jackie Fielder, the Democratic Socialists of America San Francisco and former Supervisor Dean Preston, have opposed the mayor, saying that it’s already easy for the mayor to remove officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Palmer’s term as a commissioner ends in March, unless he is removed sooner. His tenure as board president closes at the end of September. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">The San Francisco Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> voted Tuesday to suspend and file misconduct charges \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101463/san-francisco-supervisors-to-weigh-removal-of-sheriffs-oversight-president\">against a sheriff’s oversight official\u003c/a>, moving a step closer to removing him from his post.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The motion, passed by 10 out of 11 city supervisors, followed a city anti-corruption investigation into Sheriff’s Oversight Board President William Palmer. It found that he used his public position for his personal benefit multiple times over the course of his tenure.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The motion, passed by 10 out of 11 city supervisors, followed a city anti-corruption investigation into Sheriff’s Oversight Board President William Palmer. It found that he used his public position for his personal benefit multiple times over the course of his tenure.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“When you are appointed to serve the public in any position within San Francisco, you need to uphold that position with integrity,” said Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who first introduced the charges against Palmer. “When you abuse your power or break the trust of the public, you should not be allowed to continue to serve the people of San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“When you are appointed to serve the public in any position within San Francisco, you need to uphold that position with integrity,” said Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who first introduced the charges against Palmer. “When you abuse your power or break the trust of the public, you should not be allowed to continue to serve the people of San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The charges will then be forwarded to an ethics committee hearing, before heading back to the supervisors for a final decision.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Sherrill called for the investigation after a damning \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/william-palmer-san-francisco-sheriff-22395646.php\">investigation\u003c/a> into Palmer this summer, which alleged that he picked up a woman experiencing a mental health crisis off the street, pressured her to have sex and gave her drugs. Palmer told the paper he was acting in his official capacity when requesting access to the woman, conducting an official investigation on behalf of the board. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Sherrill called for the investigation after a damning \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/william-palmer-san-francisco-sheriff-22395646.php\">investigation\u003c/a> into Palmer this summer, which alleged that he picked up a woman experiencing a mental health crisis off the street, pressured her to have sex and gave her drugs. Palmer told the paper he was acting in his official capacity when requesting access to the woman, conducting an official investigation on behalf of the board. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12024441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Supervisor Stephen Sherrill speaks during a press conference with elected and public safety officials and labor leaders in front of City Hall in San Francisco on Jan. 28, 2025, to reaffirm San Francisco’s commitment to being a Sanctuary City.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12024441\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Supervisor Stephen Sherrill speaks during a press conference with elected and public safety officials and labor leaders in front of City Hall in San Francisco on Jan. 28, 2025, to reaffirm San Francisco’s commitment to being a Sanctuary City.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The city watchdog’s \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/OIG_Report_Official_Misconduct_William_Palmer_President_Sheriffs_Department_Ov_Yo2yQCP.pdf\">report\u003c/a> released earlier this month found that Palmer violated city law 14 times between December 2025 and July 2026. In one example of official misconduct, the report detailed a 2025 traffic stop by San Francisco sheriff’s deputies in the Tenderloin for Palmer’s expired registration. In the 51-minute stop, Palmer repeated that he was the president of the Oversight Board at least six times, referenced his relationship with Sheriff Paul Miyamoto and threatened retaliation against the deputies.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The city watchdog’s \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/OIG_Report_Official_Misconduct_William_Palmer_President_Sheriffs_Department_Ov_Yo2yQCP.pdf\">report\u003c/a> released earlier this month found that Palmer violated city law 14 times between December 2025 and July 2026. In one example of official misconduct, the report detailed a 2025 traffic stop by San Francisco sheriff’s deputies in the Tenderloin for Palmer’s expired registration. In the 51-minute stop, Palmer repeated that he was the president of the Oversight Board at least six times, referenced his relationship with Sheriff Paul Miyamoto and threatened retaliation against the deputies.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Months later, San Francisco Police briefly detained Palmer for questioning, as part of an investigation into a missing, “at-risk” woman. Again, the commissioner used his position in an attempt to influence and intimidate, the report alleged. Palmer told officers he was President of the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board at least six times, and “repeatedly threatened to sue” the officers. Palmer was not arrested and does not face criminal charges for the incident.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Months later, San Francisco Police briefly detained Palmer for questioning, as part of an investigation into a missing, “at-risk” woman. Again, the commissioner used his position in an attempt to influence and intimidate, the report alleged. Palmer told officers he was President of the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board at least six times, and “repeatedly threatened to sue” the officers. Palmer was not arrested and does not face criminal charges for the incident.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The woman was eventually transported to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on a mental health hold. A few hours after the encounter, Palmer emailed the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office from his city email. Palmer wrote that he was seeking “professional guidance” about the day’s events, and described himself as the woman’s life coach. He signed the email as “President, Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Palmer did not immediately respond to a KQED request for comment. However, in a previous statement to KQED, he said he takes his “responsibilities as a public officer seriously,” and disagrees “with significant factual and legal conclusions contained” in the watchdog report.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Palmer did not immediately respond to a KQED request for comment. However, in a previous statement to KQED, he said he takes his “responsibilities as a public officer seriously,” and disagrees “with significant factual and legal conclusions contained” in the watchdog report.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Palmer was appointed to the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board, based on his personal experiences with the carceral system. Now 55, Palmer spent more than 30 years in prison for a crime he committed as a teenager. He was released in 2019, and a court of appeal later found that his sentence amounted to excessive punishment. He’s since served as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/justinphillips/article/sf-generational-incarceration-jail-17827159.php\">vocal advocate\u003c/a> for people in jails.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Palmer was appointed to the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board, based on his personal experiences with the carceral system. Now 55, Palmer spent more than 30 years in prison for a crime he committed as a teenager. He was released in 2019, and a court of appeal later found that his sentence amounted to excessive punishment. He’s since served as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/justinphillips/article/sf-generational-incarceration-jail-17827159.php\">vocal advocate\u003c/a> for people in jails.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Palmer’s tenure on the board, however, has involved multiple run-ins with law enforcement. A woman accused Palmer of rape, though criminal charges were \u003ca href=\"https://sfpublicdefender.org/2024/04/03/all-charges-dismissed-against-william-palmer-sf-sheriffs-dept-oversight-board-member/\">dismissed\u003c/a> in 2024. Three other women accused him of violence, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/jail-oversight-criminal-allegations-22194091.php\">\u003cem>Chronicle’s\u003c/em>\u003c/a> reporting — which also said another woman took out a restraining order against him. That, the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em> reports, is in addition to several traffic violations and almost $10,000 in parking fees over six years.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Palmer’s tenure on the board, however, has involved multiple run-ins with law enforcement. A woman accused Palmer of rape, though criminal charges were \u003ca href=\"https://sfpublicdefender.org/2024/04/03/all-charges-dismissed-against-william-palmer-sf-sheriffs-dept-oversight-board-member/\">dismissed\u003c/a> in 2024. Three other women accused him of violence, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/jail-oversight-criminal-allegations-22194091.php\">\u003cem>Chronicle’s\u003c/em>\u003c/a> reporting — which also said another woman took out a restraining order against him. That, the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em> reports, is in addition to several traffic violations and almost $10,000 in parking fees over six years.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Sherrill emphasized that officials needed to act in the most “legally defensive way. We didn’t touch on some of those potential criminal challenges.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Sherrill emphasized that officials needed to act in the most “legally defensive way. We didn’t touch on some of those potential criminal challenges.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Obviously I am horrified by those accusations,” he said, referring to the allegations in the \u003cem>Chronicle’s\u003c/em> reporting. “I don’t want to put those aside, but it’s important for us on the Board of Supervisors to work with the information that we have to move forward as quickly as possible.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Obviously I am horrified by those accusations,” he said, referring to the allegations in the \u003cem>Chronicle’s\u003c/em> reporting. “I don’t want to put those aside, but it’s important for us on the Board of Supervisors to work with the information that we have to move forward as quickly as possible.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie has repeatedly referenced the allegations against Palmer as part of his push for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096437/sf-mayor-backers-renew-push-for-increased-mayoral-power\">Proposition F\u003c/a>, a ballot measure which would expand both the mayor and board’s authority to allow the removal of most commissioners without cause. Some progressives, including Supervisor Jackie Fielder, the Democratic Socialists of America San Francisco and former Supervisor Dean Preston, have opposed the mayor, saying that it’s already easy for the mayor to remove officials. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie has repeatedly referenced the allegations against Palmer as part of his push for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096437/sf-mayor-backers-renew-push-for-increased-mayoral-power\">Proposition F\u003c/a>, a ballot measure which would expand both the mayor and board’s authority to allow the removal of most commissioners without cause. Some progressives, including Supervisor Jackie Fielder, the Democratic Socialists of America San Francisco and former Supervisor Dean Preston, have opposed the mayor, saying that it’s already easy for the mayor to remove officials. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Palmer’s term as a commissioner ends in March, unless he is removed sooner. His tenure as board president closes at the end of September. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "William Palmer’s term as commissioner has involved multiple allegations of violence and several encounters with law enforcement.",
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"title": "SF Supervisors Suspend Sheriff’s Oversight Official for Alleged Misconduct | KQED",
"description": "William Palmer’s term as commissioner has involved multiple allegations of violence and several encounters with law enforcement.",
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"headline": "SF Supervisors Suspend Sheriff’s Oversight Official for Alleged Misconduct",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">The San Francisco Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> voted Tuesday to suspend and file misconduct charges \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101463/san-francisco-supervisors-to-weigh-removal-of-sheriffs-oversight-president\">against a sheriff’s oversight official\u003c/a>, moving a step closer to removing him from his post.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The motion, passed by 10 out of 11 city supervisors, followed a city anti-corruption investigation into Sheriff’s Oversight Board President William Palmer. It found that he used his public position for his personal benefit multiple times over the course of his tenure.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“When you are appointed to serve the public in any position within San Francisco, you need to uphold that position with integrity,” said Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who first introduced the charges against Palmer. “When you abuse your power or break the trust of the public, you should not be allowed to continue to serve the people of San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The charges will then be forwarded to an ethics committee hearing, before heading back to the supervisors for a final decision.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sherrill called for the investigation after a damning \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/william-palmer-san-francisco-sheriff-22395646.php\">investigation\u003c/a> into Palmer this summer, which alleged that he picked up a woman experiencing a mental health crisis off the street, pressured her to have sex and gave her drugs. Palmer told the paper he was acting in his official capacity when requesting access to the woman, conducting an official investigation on behalf of the board. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12024441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-49-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Supervisor Stephen Sherrill speaks during a press conference with elected and public safety officials and labor leaders in front of City Hall in San Francisco on Jan. 28, 2025, to reaffirm San Francisco’s commitment to being a Sanctuary City. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The city watchdog’s \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/OIG_Report_Official_Misconduct_William_Palmer_President_Sheriffs_Department_Ov_Yo2yQCP.pdf\">report\u003c/a> released earlier this month found that Palmer violated city law 14 times between December 2025 and July 2026. In one example of official misconduct, the report detailed a 2025 traffic stop by San Francisco sheriff’s deputies in the Tenderloin for Palmer’s expired registration. In the 51-minute stop, Palmer repeated that he was the president of the Oversight Board at least six times, referenced his relationship with Sheriff Paul Miyamoto and threatened retaliation against the deputies.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Months later, San Francisco Police briefly detained Palmer for questioning, as part of an investigation into a missing, “at-risk” woman. Again, the commissioner used his position in an attempt to influence and intimidate, the report alleged. Palmer told officers he was President of the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board at least six times, and “repeatedly threatened to sue” the officers. Palmer was not arrested and does not face criminal charges for the incident.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The woman was eventually transported to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on a mental health hold. A few hours after the encounter, Palmer emailed the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office from his city email. Palmer wrote that he was seeking “professional guidance” about the day’s events, and described himself as the woman’s life coach. He signed the email as “President, Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Late that night, Palmer called a secure ward at the hospital, told a nurse that he was president of the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board, and insisted that he be allowed to speak to the woman because he was conducting an investigation and needed to take her statement.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Palmer did not immediately respond to a KQED request for comment. However, in a previous statement to KQED, he said he takes his “responsibilities as a public officer seriously,” and disagrees “with significant factual and legal conclusions contained” in the watchdog report.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Palmer was appointed to the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board, based on his personal experiences with the carceral system. Now 55, Palmer spent more than 30 years in prison for a crime he committed as a teenager. He was released in 2019, and a court of appeal later found that his sentence amounted to excessive punishment. He’s since served as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/justinphillips/article/sf-generational-incarceration-jail-17827159.php\">vocal advocate\u003c/a> for people in jails.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Palmer’s tenure on the board, however, has involved multiple run-ins with law enforcement. A woman accused Palmer of rape, though criminal charges were \u003ca href=\"https://sfpublicdefender.org/2024/04/03/all-charges-dismissed-against-william-palmer-sf-sheriffs-dept-oversight-board-member/\">dismissed\u003c/a> in 2024. Three other women accused him of violence, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/jail-oversight-criminal-allegations-22194091.php\">\u003cem>Chronicle’s\u003c/em>\u003c/a> reporting — which also said another woman took out a restraining order against him. That, the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em> reports, is in addition to several traffic violations and almost $10,000 in parking fees over six years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sherrill emphasized that officials needed to act in the most “legally defensive way. We didn’t touch on some of those potential criminal challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Obviously I am horrified by those accusations,” he said, referring to the allegations in the \u003cem>Chronicle’s\u003c/em> reporting. “I don’t want to put those aside, but it’s important for us on the Board of Supervisors to work with the information that we have to move forward as quickly as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie has repeatedly referenced the allegations against Palmer as part of his push for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096437/sf-mayor-backers-renew-push-for-increased-mayoral-power\">Proposition F\u003c/a>, a ballot measure which would expand both the mayor and board’s authority to allow the removal of most commissioners without cause. Some progressives, including Supervisor Jackie Fielder, the Democratic Socialists of America San Francisco and former Supervisor Dean Preston, have opposed the mayor, saying that it’s already easy for the mayor to remove officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Palmer’s term as a commissioner ends in March, unless he is removed sooner. His tenure as board president closes at the end of September. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "a-new-beginning-oakland-police-to-exit-federal-oversight-after-23-years",
"title": "‘A New Beginning’ : Oakland Police to Exit Federal Oversight After 23 Years",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>A judge released Oakland’s police force on Tuesday from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101593/oakland-police-could-finally-emerge-from-oversight-23-years-after-riders\">more than 20 years of federal oversight\u003c/a>, thought to be the longest for any American law enforcement agency.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The department will regain full independence after U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick said that the “season for judicial oversight is over.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“While it was important for this court to play the role it has, now it’s important for the court to get out of the way, and let the people of Oakland and their leaders fill their future,” Orrick told the San Francisco courtroom, filled with Oakland city officials.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OPD has been subject to court oversight since 2003, when it settled an $11 million class action lawsuit in the wake of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101891855/oakland-police-departments-brutality-corruption-and-cover-up-and-long-road-toward-reform\">notorious police brutality\u003c/a> and corruption scandal. Four officers, known as the “Riders,” were accused of beating, planting evidence and falsely arresting West Oakland residents, and engaging in intimidation, beatings, kidnapping and racial discrimination.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260929-phillipburtonfederalbuilding-00133_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101966\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260929-phillipburtonfederalbuilding-00133_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260929-phillipburtonfederalbuilding-00133_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260929-phillipburtonfederalbuilding-00133_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse in San Francisco on Sept. 29, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The department agreed to a federally mandated consent decree that required it to implement 51 organizational reforms related to the use of force, discipline, supervision, training and internal affairs investigations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>James Chanin, who has represented the plaintiffs in the case, called the department’s change since then “astronomic.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They’re a much different department than they were. It’s like night and day,” he told the court on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Initially, court oversight was expected to last between five and seven years. Instead, it’s been delayed by repeated \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/04/10/high-ranking-oakland-cops-including-deputy-chief-face-serious-discipline-for-allegedly-botching-investigation/\">missteps\u003c/a>, backsliding, a revolving door of police chiefs and multiple city administrations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OPD met most of the requirements years ago, and has been responsible for sustaining them since 2022. But they’ve continued to fall short of a few of the tasks, keeping them in limbo. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, court-appointed monitor Robert S. Warshaw reported that the department had fallen out of compliance with its requirement to investigate serious misconduct allegations in a timely manner, leaving open the possibility that Orrick would keep OPD under the court’s watch longer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The settlement requires OPD to complete at least 85% of internal affairs investigations related to “the most serious allegations of misconduct” within 180 days of reporting. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Between January and March of this year, though, Warshaw found that just 77 of 93, or 83%, of these investigations were completed in time.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Both Chanin and plaintiffs’ other attorney, John Burris, said that while they were disappointed by the slip, they both supported ending the negotiated settlement agreement, or NSA.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We have been involved in pushing this rock up the hill for 23 years, and every time we got close, it’s fallen back down,” Burris told the court. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Today, I am hoping to say we’ve pushed this rock as far as we can … and it’s up to the city to push it [the rest of the way].”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s not about today, it’s about tomorrow,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Brigid Martin, Oakland’s special counsel, said in response that the city “has absolute certainty about what will happen tomorrow, and then next day and the day after that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“NSA compliance is not a temporary obligation; it is the core of Oakland’s police operation,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251023-MAYOR-LEE-PRESSER-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12061256\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251023-MAYOR-LEE-PRESSER-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251023-MAYOR-LEE-PRESSER-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251023-MAYOR-LEE-PRESSER-MD-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">James Beere, who was selected as Oakland Police Chief this year, speaks at a press conference at Oakland City Hall on Oct. 23, 2025 (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Oakland Police Chief James Beere said that the department had to make “hard decisions” between completing investigations within a 180-day timeline and achieving the thoroughness required in complex cases.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The expectation for our investigation is not an excuse, but the expectations are not the same as they were twenty years ago,” Beere said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Orrick said that while missing the investigation timeline matters, he believes Beere and Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s leadership will hold the department accountable.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Today is not a ceiling, it’s a floor,” Warshaw said in court. “The city should see this not as the end of something, but as a new beginning.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“While it was important for this court to play the role it has, now it’s important for the court to get out of the way, and let the people of Oakland and their leaders fill their future,” Orrick told the San Francisco courtroom, filled with Oakland city officials.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Initially, court oversight was expected to last between five and seven years. Instead, it’s been delayed by repeated \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/04/10/high-ranking-oakland-cops-including-deputy-chief-face-serious-discipline-for-allegedly-botching-investigation/\">missteps\u003c/a>, backsliding, a revolving door of police chiefs and multiple city administrations.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, court-appointed monitor Robert S. Warshaw reported that the department had fallen out of compliance with its requirement to investigate serious misconduct allegations in a timely manner, leaving open the possibility that Orrick would keep OPD under the court’s watch longer.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The settlement requires OPD to complete at least 85% of internal affairs investigations related to “the most serious allegations of misconduct” within 180 days of reporting. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Between January and March of this year, though, Warshaw found that just 77 of 93, or 83%, of these investigations were completed in time.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Both Chanin and plaintiffs’ other attorney, John Burris, said that while they were disappointed by the slip, they both supported ending the negotiated settlement agreement, or NSA.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We have been involved in pushing this rock up the hill for 23 years, and every time we got close, it’s fallen back down,” Burris told the court. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Today, I am hoping to say we’ve pushed this rock as far as we can … and it’s up to the city to push it [the rest of the way].”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Brigid Martin, Oakland’s special counsel, said in response that the city “has absolute certainty about what will happen tomorrow, and then next day and the day after that.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“NSA compliance is not a temporary obligation; it is the core of Oakland’s police operation,” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Oakland Police Chief James Beere said that the department had to make “hard decisions” between completing investigations within a 180-day timeline and achieving the thoroughness required in complex cases.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The expectation for our investigation is not an excuse, but the expectations are not the same as they were twenty years ago,” Beere said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Orrick said that while missing the investigation timeline matters, he believes Beere and Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s leadership will hold the department accountable.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Today is not a ceiling, it’s a floor,” Warshaw said in court. “The city should see this not as the end of something, but as a new beginning.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Oakland’s police department came under a consent decree in 2003, after a massive police brutality scandal rocked the city’s law enforcement agency.",
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"title": "‘A New Beginning’ : Oakland Police to Exit Federal Oversight After 23 Years | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>A judge released Oakland’s police force on Tuesday from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101593/oakland-police-could-finally-emerge-from-oversight-23-years-after-riders\">more than 20 years of federal oversight\u003c/a>, thought to be the longest for any American law enforcement agency.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The department will regain full independence after U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick said that the “season for judicial oversight is over.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“While it was important for this court to play the role it has, now it’s important for the court to get out of the way, and let the people of Oakland and their leaders fill their future,” Orrick told the San Francisco courtroom, filled with Oakland city officials.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OPD has been subject to court oversight since 2003, when it settled an $11 million class action lawsuit in the wake of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101891855/oakland-police-departments-brutality-corruption-and-cover-up-and-long-road-toward-reform\">notorious police brutality\u003c/a> and corruption scandal. Four officers, known as the “Riders,” were accused of beating, planting evidence and falsely arresting West Oakland residents, and engaging in intimidation, beatings, kidnapping and racial discrimination.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260929-phillipburtonfederalbuilding-00133_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101966\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260929-phillipburtonfederalbuilding-00133_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260929-phillipburtonfederalbuilding-00133_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260929-phillipburtonfederalbuilding-00133_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse in San Francisco on Sept. 29, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The department agreed to a federally mandated consent decree that required it to implement 51 organizational reforms related to the use of force, discipline, supervision, training and internal affairs investigations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>James Chanin, who has represented the plaintiffs in the case, called the department’s change since then “astronomic.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They’re a much different department than they were. It’s like night and day,” he told the court on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Initially, court oversight was expected to last between five and seven years. Instead, it’s been delayed by repeated \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/04/10/high-ranking-oakland-cops-including-deputy-chief-face-serious-discipline-for-allegedly-botching-investigation/\">missteps\u003c/a>, backsliding, a revolving door of police chiefs and multiple city administrations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OPD met most of the requirements years ago, and has been responsible for sustaining them since 2022. But they’ve continued to fall short of a few of the tasks, keeping them in limbo. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, court-appointed monitor Robert S. Warshaw reported that the department had fallen out of compliance with its requirement to investigate serious misconduct allegations in a timely manner, leaving open the possibility that Orrick would keep OPD under the court’s watch longer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The settlement requires OPD to complete at least 85% of internal affairs investigations related to “the most serious allegations of misconduct” within 180 days of reporting. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Between January and March of this year, though, Warshaw found that just 77 of 93, or 83%, of these investigations were completed in time.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Both Chanin and plaintiffs’ other attorney, John Burris, said that while they were disappointed by the slip, they both supported ending the negotiated settlement agreement, or NSA.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We have been involved in pushing this rock up the hill for 23 years, and every time we got close, it’s fallen back down,” Burris told the court. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Today, I am hoping to say we’ve pushed this rock as far as we can … and it’s up to the city to push it [the rest of the way].”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s not about today, it’s about tomorrow,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Brigid Martin, Oakland’s special counsel, said in response that the city “has absolute certainty about what will happen tomorrow, and then next day and the day after that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“NSA compliance is not a temporary obligation; it is the core of Oakland’s police operation,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251023-MAYOR-LEE-PRESSER-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12061256\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251023-MAYOR-LEE-PRESSER-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251023-MAYOR-LEE-PRESSER-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251023-MAYOR-LEE-PRESSER-MD-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">James Beere, who was selected as Oakland Police Chief this year, speaks at a press conference at Oakland City Hall on Oct. 23, 2025 (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Oakland Police Chief James Beere said that the department had to make “hard decisions” between completing investigations within a 180-day timeline and achieving the thoroughness required in complex cases.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The expectation for our investigation is not an excuse, but the expectations are not the same as they were twenty years ago,” Beere said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Orrick said that while missing the investigation timeline matters, he believes Beere and Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s leadership will hold the department accountable.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Today is not a ceiling, it’s a floor,” Warshaw said in court. “The city should see this not as the end of something, but as a new beginning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "santa-clara-county-sues-restaurant-owners-under-new-wage-theft-law",
"title": "Santa Clara County Sues Restaurant Owners Under New Wage-Theft Law",
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"headTitle": "Santa Clara County Sues Restaurant Owners Under New Wage-Theft Law | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>In a novel move aimed at curbing wage theft, attorneys for Santa Clara County are seeking stiff penalties from local restaurant employers who allegedly evaded for more than a decade state regulators’ orders to pay employees.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28698686-complaint-liangs-village-filed/\">lawsuit\u003c/a>, which county officials said is one of the first of its kind, wields a recently passed state law that encourages local governments to help tackle a pervasive problem: business owners who owe wages but never pay, leaving thousands of workers statewide without restitution.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It signals to the employer community that there are civil prosecutors out there that will track you down,” said Tony LoPresti, Santa Clara County counsel. His office filed the complaint on Tuesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court, arguing that the defendants profited from unlawful practices that gave them an unfair advantage over law-abiding employers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We want them to comply with the law while they are operating, and we want them to make the workers who they stole from whole,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12099677\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti speaks during a press conference in San José on Sept. 14, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>California workers lose billions of dollars annually to paycheck violations, an amount that’s estimated to \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/wage-theft-bigger-problem-forms-theft-workers/\">be larger\u003c/a> than other types of robberies. Just one kind of wage theft, failure to pay the minimum wage, costs workers in San José, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego metro areas more than $2.3 billion annually, according to a 2024 \u003ca href=\"https://www.smlr.rutgers.edu/news-events/smlr-news/minimum-wage-theft-rises-sharply-california\">Rutgers University \u003c/a>study. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The California Labor Commissioner’s Office, tasked with enforcing state labor laws, investigates worker complaints and helps recover owed wages. But winning a case, often after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906889/california-workers-face-years-long-waits-for-justice-in-wage-theft-cases-state-data-shows\">a yearslong wait\u003c/a> due to agency backlogs and short staffing, is no guarantee of collecting payment. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“When the Labor Commissioner’s Office and public prosecutors work together, we strengthen accountability and expand access to justice for workers,” California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement. “Enforcing judgments is a critical part of ensuring workers are paid the wages they are owed and their rights are protected.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Many businesses skirt settling wage judgments by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979626/workers-lost-millions-to-californias-worst-known-wage-thief-and-hes-still-in-business\">hiding assets\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">closing operations\u003c/a> and reopening under a new name — a “shell game” that has become rampant, according to LoPresti. In Santa Clara County, hundreds of employers failed to settle $23.3 million in judgments between 2013 and 2024, according to a county analysis of Labor Commissioner data. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California lawmakers have responded to the problem by stiffening penalties for employers who fail to settle those debts and increasing the authority of the state — as well as public civil prosecutors — to recover unpaid wages.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB261\">SB 261\u003c/a>, a bill that went into effect this year, makes noncompliant businesses liable for up to three times the amount of an outstanding wage judgment plus attorney’s fees, which LoPresti said would help cover the costs of investigating and litigating these cases. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Suddenly a business is running this huge financial risk in not paying its wage theft judgment,” said LoPresti, who pushed for the change as chair of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.calcivilprosecutors.org/about/\">Civil Prosecutors Coalition\u003c/a>, an association of city and county attorneys in California that collaborates on litigation strategies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the Santa Clara County Counsel’s complaint, the owners of a Cupertino-based Taiwanese restaurant could be liable for more than $800,000 after ignoring wage-theft judgments first recorded by the state in 2013. The county said the seven impacted cooks and kitchen employees were required to work 12-hour days with minimal breaks, and irregular pay periods.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2019, the Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Liang’s Kitchen Cupertino to halt operations until the business addressed an initial $93,000 debt plus ongoing late fines. But the family owners instead shuttered their restaurant and reopened out of the same location under the name Liang’s Village, which became a busy establishment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County has a first-in-the-nation \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">program\u003c/a> that can suspend a restaurant’s permit to operate until it settles wage violations, but it only works when the business name matches the one in Labor Commissioner records. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Liang family could not be reached for comment. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The employers’ alleged brazen actions illustrate the kind of “shady maneuvers” some unscrupulous employers use to avoid paying workers the money they are owed, said Terri Gerstein, a former labor bureau chief at the New York State Attorney General’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12037905\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Santa Clara County Superior Court in San José on March 24, 2025. (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“This kind of lawsuit is important because it shows the commitment of the county to take action on behalf of workers, sending a strong message to employers that they have to comply with the law, and that if they don’t, the county is going to do something about it,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The legal action comes as local governments have stepped up efforts to protect workers’ rights, and state and federal labor enforcement agencies continue to struggle with underfunding and shortstaffing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco became the nation’s first city to establish a municipal labor department to investigate workplace complaints 25 years ago. Now, dozens of cities and counties nationwide — including San Diego, Seattle, Austin and Cleveland — have similar initiatives. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The push to protect workers locally from abuses has grown under the employer-friendly first and current Trump administrations, said Gerstein, who now runs New York University’s Wagner Labor Initiative. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She pointed to New York City officials’ recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/new-york-city/doordash-settlement-nyc-how-pay/6550655/\">announcement\u003c/a> that DoorDash agreed to pay $131 million to settle claims that the company underpaid 260,000 delivery workers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Cities and counties getting involved has made a very big difference for the workers themselves involved in these cases, for employers in these communities,” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a novel move aimed at curbing wage theft, attorneys for Santa Clara County are seeking stiff penalties from local restaurant employers who allegedly evaded for more than a decade state regulators’ orders to pay employees.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28698686-complaint-liangs-village-filed/\">lawsuit\u003c/a>, which county officials said is one of the first of its kind, wields a recently passed state law that encourages local governments to help tackle a pervasive problem: business owners who owe wages but never pay, leaving thousands of workers statewide without restitution.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28698686-complaint-liangs-village-filed/\">lawsuit\u003c/a>, which county officials said is one of the first of its kind, wields a recently passed state law that encourages local governments to help tackle a pervasive problem: business owners who owe wages but never pay, leaving thousands of workers statewide without restitution.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It signals to the employer community that there are civil prosecutors out there that will track you down,” said Tony LoPresti, Santa Clara County counsel. His office filed the complaint on Tuesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court, arguing that the defendants profited from unlawful practices that gave them an unfair advantage over law-abiding employers. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“It signals to the employer community that there are civil prosecutors out there that will track you down,” said Tony LoPresti, Santa Clara County counsel. His office filed the complaint on Tuesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court, arguing that the defendants profited from unlawful practices that gave them an unfair advantage over law-abiding employers. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We want them to comply with the law while they are operating, and we want them to make the workers who they stole from whole,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12099677\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti speaks during a press conference in San José on Sept. 14, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California workers lose billions of dollars annually to paycheck violations, an amount that’s estimated to \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/wage-theft-bigger-problem-forms-theft-workers/\">be larger\u003c/a> than other types of robberies. Just one kind of wage theft, failure to pay the minimum wage, costs workers in San José, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego metro areas more than $2.3 billion annually, according to a 2024 \u003ca href=\"https://www.smlr.rutgers.edu/news-events/smlr-news/minimum-wage-theft-rises-sharply-california\">Rutgers University \u003c/a>study. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>California workers lose billions of dollars annually to paycheck violations, an amount that’s estimated to \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/wage-theft-bigger-problem-forms-theft-workers/\">be larger\u003c/a> than other types of robberies. Just one kind of wage theft, failure to pay the minimum wage, costs workers in San José, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego metro areas more than $2.3 billion annually, according to a 2024 \u003ca href=\"https://www.smlr.rutgers.edu/news-events/smlr-news/minimum-wage-theft-rises-sharply-california\">Rutgers University \u003c/a>study. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The California Labor Commissioner’s Office, tasked with enforcing state labor laws, investigates worker complaints and helps recover owed wages. But winning a case, often after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906889/california-workers-face-years-long-waits-for-justice-in-wage-theft-cases-state-data-shows\">a yearslong wait\u003c/a> due to agency backlogs and short staffing, is no guarantee of collecting payment. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The California Labor Commissioner’s Office, tasked with enforcing state labor laws, investigates worker complaints and helps recover owed wages. But winning a case, often after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906889/california-workers-face-years-long-waits-for-justice-in-wage-theft-cases-state-data-shows\">a yearslong wait\u003c/a> due to agency backlogs and short staffing, is no guarantee of collecting payment. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“When the Labor Commissioner’s Office and public prosecutors work together, we strengthen accountability and expand access to justice for workers,” California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement. “Enforcing judgments is a critical part of ensuring workers are paid the wages they are owed and their rights are protected.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“When the Labor Commissioner’s Office and public prosecutors work together, we strengthen accountability and expand access to justice for workers,” California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement. “Enforcing judgments is a critical part of ensuring workers are paid the wages they are owed and their rights are protected.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Many businesses skirt settling wage judgments by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979626/workers-lost-millions-to-californias-worst-known-wage-thief-and-hes-still-in-business\">hiding assets\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">closing operations\u003c/a> and reopening under a new name — a “shell game” that has become rampant, according to LoPresti. In Santa Clara County, hundreds of employers failed to settle $23.3 million in judgments between 2013 and 2024, according to a county analysis of Labor Commissioner data. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Many businesses skirt settling wage judgments by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979626/workers-lost-millions-to-californias-worst-known-wage-thief-and-hes-still-in-business\">hiding assets\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">closing operations\u003c/a> and reopening under a new name — a “shell game” that has become rampant, according to LoPresti. In Santa Clara County, hundreds of employers failed to settle $23.3 million in judgments between 2013 and 2024, according to a county analysis of Labor Commissioner data. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California lawmakers have responded to the problem by stiffening penalties for employers who fail to settle those debts and increasing the authority of the state — as well as public civil prosecutors — to recover unpaid wages.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB261\">SB 261\u003c/a>, a bill that went into effect this year, makes noncompliant businesses liable for up to three times the amount of an outstanding wage judgment plus attorney’s fees, which LoPresti said would help cover the costs of investigating and litigating these cases. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Suddenly a business is running this huge financial risk in not paying its wage theft judgment,” said LoPresti, who pushed for the change as chair of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.calcivilprosecutors.org/about/\">Civil Prosecutors Coalition\u003c/a>, an association of city and county attorneys in California that collaborates on litigation strategies. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to the Santa Clara County Counsel’s complaint, the owners of a Cupertino-based Taiwanese restaurant could be liable for more than $800,000 after ignoring wage-theft judgments first recorded by the state in 2013. The county said the seven impacted cooks and kitchen employees were required to work 12-hour days with minimal breaks, and irregular pay periods.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>According to the Santa Clara County Counsel’s complaint, the owners of a Cupertino-based Taiwanese restaurant could be liable for more than $800,000 after ignoring wage-theft judgments first recorded by the state in 2013. The county said the seven impacted cooks and kitchen employees were required to work 12-hour days with minimal breaks, and irregular pay periods.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2019, the Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Liang’s Kitchen Cupertino to halt operations until the business addressed an initial $93,000 debt plus ongoing late fines. But the family owners instead shuttered their restaurant and reopened out of the same location under the name Liang’s Village, which became a busy establishment.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 2019, the Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Liang’s Kitchen Cupertino to halt operations until the business addressed an initial $93,000 debt plus ongoing late fines. But the family owners instead shuttered their restaurant and reopened out of the same location under the name Liang’s Village, which became a busy establishment.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County has a first-in-the-nation \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">program\u003c/a> that can suspend a restaurant’s permit to operate until it settles wage violations, but it only works when the business name matches the one in Labor Commissioner records. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County has a first-in-the-nation \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">program\u003c/a> that can suspend a restaurant’s permit to operate until it settles wage violations, but it only works when the business name matches the one in Labor Commissioner records. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Liang family could not be reached for comment. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The employers’ alleged brazen actions illustrate the kind of “shady maneuvers” some unscrupulous employers use to avoid paying workers the money they are owed, said Terri Gerstein, a former labor bureau chief at the New York State Attorney General’s Office.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This kind of lawsuit is important because it shows the commitment of the county to take action on behalf of workers, sending a strong message to employers that they have to comply with the law, and that if they don’t, the county is going to do something about it,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“This kind of lawsuit is important because it shows the commitment of the county to take action on behalf of workers, sending a strong message to employers that they have to comply with the law, and that if they don’t, the county is going to do something about it,” she said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The legal action comes as local governments have stepped up efforts to protect workers’ rights, and state and federal labor enforcement agencies continue to struggle with underfunding and shortstaffing. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>San Francisco became the nation’s first city to establish a municipal labor department to investigate workplace complaints 25 years ago. Now, dozens of cities and counties nationwide — including San Diego, Seattle, Austin and Cleveland — have similar initiatives. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>San Francisco became the nation’s first city to establish a municipal labor department to investigate workplace complaints 25 years ago. Now, dozens of cities and counties nationwide — including San Diego, Seattle, Austin and Cleveland — have similar initiatives. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The push to protect workers locally from abuses has grown under the employer-friendly first and current Trump administrations, said Gerstein, who now runs New York University’s Wagner Labor Initiative. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She pointed to New York City officials’ recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/new-york-city/doordash-settlement-nyc-how-pay/6550655/\">announcement\u003c/a> that DoorDash agreed to pay $131 million to settle claims that the company underpaid 260,000 delivery workers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>She pointed to New York City officials’ recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/new-york-city/doordash-settlement-nyc-how-pay/6550655/\">announcement\u003c/a> that DoorDash agreed to pay $131 million to settle claims that the company underpaid 260,000 delivery workers.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Cities and counties getting involved has made a very big difference for the workers themselves involved in these cases, for employers in these communities,” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The lawsuit on Tuesday against a local restaurant employer is one of the first under a state law that went into effect this year, according to county officials. ",
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"title": "Santa Clara County Sues Restaurant Owners Under New Wage-Theft Law | KQED",
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"headline": "Santa Clara County Sues Restaurant Owners Under New Wage-Theft Law",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>In a novel move aimed at curbing wage theft, attorneys for Santa Clara County are seeking stiff penalties from local restaurant employers who allegedly evaded for more than a decade state regulators’ orders to pay employees.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28698686-complaint-liangs-village-filed/\">lawsuit\u003c/a>, which county officials said is one of the first of its kind, wields a recently passed state law that encourages local governments to help tackle a pervasive problem: business owners who owe wages but never pay, leaving thousands of workers statewide without restitution.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It signals to the employer community that there are civil prosecutors out there that will track you down,” said Tony LoPresti, Santa Clara County counsel. His office filed the complaint on Tuesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court, arguing that the defendants profited from unlawful practices that gave them an unfair advantage over law-abiding employers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We want them to comply with the law while they are operating, and we want them to make the workers who they stole from whole,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12099677\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260914-GilroyICEFolo-01-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti speaks during a press conference in San José on Sept. 14, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>California workers lose billions of dollars annually to paycheck violations, an amount that’s estimated to \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/wage-theft-bigger-problem-forms-theft-workers/\">be larger\u003c/a> than other types of robberies. Just one kind of wage theft, failure to pay the minimum wage, costs workers in San José, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego metro areas more than $2.3 billion annually, according to a 2024 \u003ca href=\"https://www.smlr.rutgers.edu/news-events/smlr-news/minimum-wage-theft-rises-sharply-california\">Rutgers University \u003c/a>study. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The California Labor Commissioner’s Office, tasked with enforcing state labor laws, investigates worker complaints and helps recover owed wages. But winning a case, often after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906889/california-workers-face-years-long-waits-for-justice-in-wage-theft-cases-state-data-shows\">a yearslong wait\u003c/a> due to agency backlogs and short staffing, is no guarantee of collecting payment. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“When the Labor Commissioner’s Office and public prosecutors work together, we strengthen accountability and expand access to justice for workers,” California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement. “Enforcing judgments is a critical part of ensuring workers are paid the wages they are owed and their rights are protected.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Many businesses skirt settling wage judgments by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979626/workers-lost-millions-to-californias-worst-known-wage-thief-and-hes-still-in-business\">hiding assets\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">closing operations\u003c/a> and reopening under a new name — a “shell game” that has become rampant, according to LoPresti. In Santa Clara County, hundreds of employers failed to settle $23.3 million in judgments between 2013 and 2024, according to a county analysis of Labor Commissioner data. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California lawmakers have responded to the problem by stiffening penalties for employers who fail to settle those debts and increasing the authority of the state — as well as public civil prosecutors — to recover unpaid wages.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB261\">SB 261\u003c/a>, a bill that went into effect this year, makes noncompliant businesses liable for up to three times the amount of an outstanding wage judgment plus attorney’s fees, which LoPresti said would help cover the costs of investigating and litigating these cases. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Suddenly a business is running this huge financial risk in not paying its wage theft judgment,” said LoPresti, who pushed for the change as chair of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.calcivilprosecutors.org/about/\">Civil Prosecutors Coalition\u003c/a>, an association of city and county attorneys in California that collaborates on litigation strategies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the Santa Clara County Counsel’s complaint, the owners of a Cupertino-based Taiwanese restaurant could be liable for more than $800,000 after ignoring wage-theft judgments first recorded by the state in 2013. The county said the seven impacted cooks and kitchen employees were required to work 12-hour days with minimal breaks, and irregular pay periods.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2019, the Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Liang’s Kitchen Cupertino to halt operations until the business addressed an initial $93,000 debt plus ongoing late fines. But the family owners instead shuttered their restaurant and reopened out of the same location under the name Liang’s Village, which became a busy establishment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County has a first-in-the-nation \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">program\u003c/a> that can suspend a restaurant’s permit to operate until it settles wage violations, but it only works when the business name matches the one in Labor Commissioner records. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Liang family could not be reached for comment. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The employers’ alleged brazen actions illustrate the kind of “shady maneuvers” some unscrupulous employers use to avoid paying workers the money they are owed, said Terri Gerstein, a former labor bureau chief at the New York State Attorney General’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12037905\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240324_SANTACLARASUPERIORCOURT_GC-2-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Santa Clara County Superior Court in San José on March 24, 2025. (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“This kind of lawsuit is important because it shows the commitment of the county to take action on behalf of workers, sending a strong message to employers that they have to comply with the law, and that if they don’t, the county is going to do something about it,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The legal action comes as local governments have stepped up efforts to protect workers’ rights, and state and federal labor enforcement agencies continue to struggle with underfunding and shortstaffing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco became the nation’s first city to establish a municipal labor department to investigate workplace complaints 25 years ago. Now, dozens of cities and counties nationwide — including San Diego, Seattle, Austin and Cleveland — have similar initiatives. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The push to protect workers locally from abuses has grown under the employer-friendly first and current Trump administrations, said Gerstein, who now runs New York University’s Wagner Labor Initiative. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She pointed to New York City officials’ recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/new-york-city/doordash-settlement-nyc-how-pay/6550655/\">announcement\u003c/a> that DoorDash agreed to pay $131 million to settle claims that the company underpaid 260,000 delivery workers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Cities and counties getting involved has made a very big difference for the workers themselves involved in these cases, for employers in these communities,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "oakland-police-could-finally-emerge-from-oversight-23-years-after-riders",
"title": "Oakland Police Could Finally Emerge From Oversight, 23 Years After ‘Riders’",
"publishDate": 1790686800,
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"headTitle": "Oakland Police Could Finally Emerge From Oversight, 23 Years After ‘Riders’ | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-police-department\">Oakland’s police force\u003c/a> could emerge Tuesday from more than two decades of federal court oversight following a major brutality and corruption scandal in 2000.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At a long-awaited hearing, the city plans to argue that the Oakland Police Department is reformed and ask federal Judge William Orrick for full independence. But a monitoring report this month showing the department is failing to perform internal investigations quickly enough could leave it in limbo for longer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OPD has spent the last 23 years under a federally mandated consent decree following a class-action civil rights lawsuit brought by 119 residents. They alleged that a group of officers known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101891855/oakland-police-departments-brutality-corruption-and-cover-up-and-long-road-toward-reform\">the Riders\u003c/a> planted evidence and falsely arrested them, and engaged in intimidation, beatings, kidnapping and racial discrimination. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2003, the parties reached a settlement that required OPD to pay $11 million in restitution and implement 51 operational reforms related to the use of force, discipline, supervision, training and internal affairs investigations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12017328\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Oakland Police Department on Nov. 12, 2016. (Alex Emslie/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The Riders scandal sowed deep mistrust toward Oakland law enforcement, as OPD worked to reform its culture amid repeated \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/04/10/high-ranking-oakland-cops-including-deputy-chief-face-serious-discipline-for-allegedly-botching-investigation/\">missteps\u003c/a>, backsliding, a revolving door of police chiefs and multiple city administrations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After finally \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12085228/oakland-police-judge-clears-path-for-possible-end-to-federal-oversight\">coming into compliance\u003c/a> with all 51 tasks in May, it appeared that OPD was on track to be released from oversight this week. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is the first time in 23 years that OPD has achieved each of the 51 tasks in the [settlement agreement],” Orrick said during the spring hearing. “No one can say, ‘mission accomplished.’ But I do congratulate the city and OPD for getting this far.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But court-appointed monitor Robert S. Warshaw’s progress report earlier this month found that OPD had again fallen below the threshold for timely investigations into severe misconduct violations, threatening that decision. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The settlement requires that at least 85% of internal affairs investigations related to “the most serious allegations of misconduct” should be completed within 180 days of reporting. Between January and March of this year, 77 of 93, or 83%, of these investigations were completed in time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The timeliness of [Internal Affairs Bureau] investigations is an important issue in the [negotiated settlement agreement],” Warshaw wrote. “Members of the public, as well as sworn and non-sworn employees of the Department, are entitled to learn of the results of investigations that are overseen by the Internal Affairs Bureau.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In response to the report, Oakland’s Coalition for Police Accountability, a civilian-led advocacy group, submitted a \u003ca href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4496116/1767/allen-v-city-of-oakland/\">letter\u003c/a> to Orrick, urging him not to release the department from oversight or add additional conditions to its decision. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Other cities have exited federal oversight only to back-slide,” the letter reads. “OPD did not bother to prioritize compliance at such a critical juncture; it seems naively optimistic to expect more energetic efforts if they are left to answer to no one.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the letter, the coalition accused the city of underfunding its police commission, an independent oversight body, which will assume responsibility for auditing OPD’s accountability to reforms if court oversight ends. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If OPD is released this week, the coalition argued, it should require that the city provide funding to fully staff the Office of the Inspector General, the police commission’s monitoring arm. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The [negotiated settlement agreement] has been a 23-year project that represents an enormous amount of time and money for the City, and decades-long commitment by plaintiffs, and the Court,” the letter reads. “To terminate now, without necessary funding for independent civilian oversight, would jeopardize all that work.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The commission wrote in its \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.41858/gov.uscourts.cand.41858.1768.0.pdf\">own statement\u003c/a> to the court that they too believe their funding levels “do not provide the institutional resources the work demands.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Still, other activist groups have urged the court to end its oversight. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12046794\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An Oakland Police Department Vehicle in Oakland on July 1, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Safe Oakland, a coalition of Oakland civil rights, faith, business and neighborhood leaders, wrote its own letter expressing “strong support” for concluding the settlement agreement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“For twenty-three years, a federal court has held Oakland to the standard of constitutional policing,” Safe Oakland wrote. “The time has come for Oakland to hold itself to that standard, and for the community to share in that responsibility. We stand ready to do our part.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Warshaw also expressed confidence in the city, despite the recent backslide: “Mayor [Barbara] Lee and her administration, as well as Chief [James] Beere, who is now the permanent Chief of Police, and OPD’s executive team, have worked diligently to foster a culture of accountability,” he wrote in his September report. “City leadership remains an imperative part of the sustainability process, and we are encouraged by the commitment of the Mayor and her team.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In their statement to the court, attorneys for the plaintiffs John Burris and James Chanin harshly criticized the department for falling behind in compliance, calling it “incomprehensible and bitterly disappointing that OPD is once again in this position.” However, they acknowledged a transformation of the department and strides made, and urged the court to end the settlement agreement in its current form. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They have asked the court to end their role in the case, and for Orrick and Warshaw to continue their oversight for one more year, without them. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Burris told KQED that while personally, he hasn’t come to a conclusion about whether he thinks OPD should be released Tuesday, he’s hopeful that the city now has the right people in place to hold the department accountable without outside interference. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I will say this: At some point, the department has to run itself, and the city has to be responsible,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At a long-awaited hearing, the city plans to argue that the Oakland Police Department is reformed and ask federal Judge William Orrick for full independence. But a monitoring report this month showing the department is failing to perform internal investigations quickly enough could leave it in limbo for longer.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>OPD has spent the last 23 years under a federally mandated consent decree following a class-action civil rights lawsuit brought by 119 residents. They alleged that a group of officers known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101891855/oakland-police-departments-brutality-corruption-and-cover-up-and-long-road-toward-reform\">the Riders\u003c/a> planted evidence and falsely arrested them, and engaged in intimidation, beatings, kidnapping and racial discrimination. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2003, the parties reached a settlement that required OPD to pay $11 million in restitution and implement 51 operational reforms related to the use of force, discipline, supervision, training and internal affairs investigations. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Riders scandal sowed deep mistrust toward Oakland law enforcement, as OPD worked to reform its culture amid repeated \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/04/10/high-ranking-oakland-cops-including-deputy-chief-face-serious-discipline-for-allegedly-botching-investigation/\">missteps\u003c/a>, backsliding, a revolving door of police chiefs and multiple city administrations. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After finally \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12085228/oakland-police-judge-clears-path-for-possible-end-to-federal-oversight\">coming into compliance\u003c/a> with all 51 tasks in May, it appeared that OPD was on track to be released from oversight this week. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This is the first time in 23 years that OPD has achieved each of the 51 tasks in the [settlement agreement],” Orrick said during the spring hearing. “No one can say, ‘mission accomplished.’ But I do congratulate the city and OPD for getting this far.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But court-appointed monitor Robert S. Warshaw’s progress report earlier this month found that OPD had again fallen below the threshold for timely investigations into severe misconduct violations, threatening that decision. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The settlement requires that at least 85% of internal affairs investigations related to “the most serious allegations of misconduct” should be completed within 180 days of reporting. Between January and March of this year, 77 of 93, or 83%, of these investigations were completed in time. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The settlement requires that at least 85% of internal affairs investigations related to “the most serious allegations of misconduct” should be completed within 180 days of reporting. Between January and March of this year, 77 of 93, or 83%, of these investigations were completed in time. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The timeliness of [Internal Affairs Bureau] investigations is an important issue in the [negotiated settlement agreement],” Warshaw wrote. “Members of the public, as well as sworn and non-sworn employees of the Department, are entitled to learn of the results of investigations that are overseen by the Internal Affairs Bureau.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In response to the report, Oakland’s Coalition for Police Accountability, a civilian-led advocacy group, submitted a \u003ca href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4496116/1767/allen-v-city-of-oakland/\">letter\u003c/a> to Orrick, urging him not to release the department from oversight or add additional conditions to its decision. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Other cities have exited federal oversight only to back-slide,” the letter reads. “OPD did not bother to prioritize compliance at such a critical juncture; it seems naively optimistic to expect more energetic efforts if they are left to answer to no one.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Other cities have exited federal oversight only to back-slide,” the letter reads. “OPD did not bother to prioritize compliance at such a critical juncture; it seems naively optimistic to expect more energetic efforts if they are left to answer to no one.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the letter, the coalition accused the city of underfunding its police commission, an independent oversight body, which will assume responsibility for auditing OPD’s accountability to reforms if court oversight ends. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the letter, the coalition accused the city of underfunding its police commission, an independent oversight body, which will assume responsibility for auditing OPD’s accountability to reforms if court oversight ends. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If OPD is released this week, the coalition argued, it should require that the city provide funding to fully staff the Office of the Inspector General, the police commission’s monitoring arm. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>If OPD is released this week, the coalition argued, it should require that the city provide funding to fully staff the Office of the Inspector General, the police commission’s monitoring arm. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The [negotiated settlement agreement] has been a 23-year project that represents an enormous amount of time and money for the City, and decades-long commitment by plaintiffs, and the Court,” the letter reads. “To terminate now, without necessary funding for independent civilian oversight, would jeopardize all that work.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The [negotiated settlement agreement] has been a 23-year project that represents an enormous amount of time and money for the City, and decades-long commitment by plaintiffs, and the Court,” the letter reads. “To terminate now, without necessary funding for independent civilian oversight, would jeopardize all that work.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The commission wrote in its \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.41858/gov.uscourts.cand.41858.1768.0.pdf\">own statement\u003c/a> to the court that they too believe their funding levels “do not provide the institutional resources the work demands.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The commission wrote in its \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.41858/gov.uscourts.cand.41858.1768.0.pdf\">own statement\u003c/a> to the court that they too believe their funding levels “do not provide the institutional resources the work demands.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Still, other activist groups have urged the court to end its oversight. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12046794\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An Oakland Police Department Vehicle in Oakland on July 1, 2025.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12046794\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An Oakland Police Department Vehicle in Oakland on July 1, 2025.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Safe Oakland, a coalition of Oakland civil rights, faith, business and neighborhood leaders, wrote its own letter expressing “strong support” for concluding the settlement agreement. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“For twenty-three years, a federal court has held Oakland to the standard of constitutional policing,” Safe Oakland wrote. “The time has come for Oakland to hold itself to that standard, and for the community to share in that responsibility. We stand ready to do our part.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“For twenty-three years, a federal court has held Oakland to the standard of constitutional policing,” Safe Oakland wrote. “The time has come for Oakland to hold itself to that standard, and for the community to share in that responsibility. We stand ready to do our part.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Warshaw also expressed confidence in the city, despite the recent backslide: “Mayor [Barbara] Lee and her administration, as well as Chief [James] Beere, who is now the permanent Chief of Police, and OPD’s executive team, have worked diligently to foster a culture of accountability,” he wrote in his September report. “City leadership remains an imperative part of the sustainability process, and we are encouraged by the commitment of the Mayor and her team.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In their statement to the court, attorneys for the plaintiffs John Burris and James Chanin harshly criticized the department for falling behind in compliance, calling it “incomprehensible and bitterly disappointing that OPD is once again in this position.” However, they acknowledged a transformation of the department and strides made, and urged the court to end the settlement agreement in its current form. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Burris told KQED that while personally, he hasn’t come to a conclusion about whether he thinks OPD should be released Tuesday, he’s hopeful that the city now has the right people in place to hold the department accountable without outside interference. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Burris told KQED that while personally, he hasn’t come to a conclusion about whether he thinks OPD should be released Tuesday, he’s hopeful that the city now has the right people in place to hold the department accountable without outside interference. \u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "A federal judge will decide whether the Oakland law enforcement agency can come under local control again, after a recent setback on court-ordered reforms.",
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"title": "Oakland Police Could Finally Emerge From Oversight, 23 Years After ‘Riders’ | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-police-department\">Oakland’s police force\u003c/a> could emerge Tuesday from more than two decades of federal court oversight following a major brutality and corruption scandal in 2000.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At a long-awaited hearing, the city plans to argue that the Oakland Police Department is reformed and ask federal Judge William Orrick for full independence. But a monitoring report this month showing the department is failing to perform internal investigations quickly enough could leave it in limbo for longer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OPD has spent the last 23 years under a federally mandated consent decree following a class-action civil rights lawsuit brought by 119 residents. They alleged that a group of officers known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101891855/oakland-police-departments-brutality-corruption-and-cover-up-and-long-road-toward-reform\">the Riders\u003c/a> planted evidence and falsely arrested them, and engaged in intimidation, beatings, kidnapping and racial discrimination. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2003, the parties reached a settlement that required OPD to pay $11 million in restitution and implement 51 operational reforms related to the use of force, discipline, supervision, training and internal affairs investigations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12017328\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OaklandPoliceDepartment2-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Oakland Police Department on Nov. 12, 2016. (Alex Emslie/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The Riders scandal sowed deep mistrust toward Oakland law enforcement, as OPD worked to reform its culture amid repeated \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/04/10/high-ranking-oakland-cops-including-deputy-chief-face-serious-discipline-for-allegedly-botching-investigation/\">missteps\u003c/a>, backsliding, a revolving door of police chiefs and multiple city administrations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After finally \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12085228/oakland-police-judge-clears-path-for-possible-end-to-federal-oversight\">coming into compliance\u003c/a> with all 51 tasks in May, it appeared that OPD was on track to be released from oversight this week. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is the first time in 23 years that OPD has achieved each of the 51 tasks in the [settlement agreement],” Orrick said during the spring hearing. “No one can say, ‘mission accomplished.’ But I do congratulate the city and OPD for getting this far.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But court-appointed monitor Robert S. Warshaw’s progress report earlier this month found that OPD had again fallen below the threshold for timely investigations into severe misconduct violations, threatening that decision. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The settlement requires that at least 85% of internal affairs investigations related to “the most serious allegations of misconduct” should be completed within 180 days of reporting. Between January and March of this year, 77 of 93, or 83%, of these investigations were completed in time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The timeliness of [Internal Affairs Bureau] investigations is an important issue in the [negotiated settlement agreement],” Warshaw wrote. “Members of the public, as well as sworn and non-sworn employees of the Department, are entitled to learn of the results of investigations that are overseen by the Internal Affairs Bureau.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In response to the report, Oakland’s Coalition for Police Accountability, a civilian-led advocacy group, submitted a \u003ca href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4496116/1767/allen-v-city-of-oakland/\">letter\u003c/a> to Orrick, urging him not to release the department from oversight or add additional conditions to its decision. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Other cities have exited federal oversight only to back-slide,” the letter reads. “OPD did not bother to prioritize compliance at such a critical juncture; it seems naively optimistic to expect more energetic efforts if they are left to answer to no one.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the letter, the coalition accused the city of underfunding its police commission, an independent oversight body, which will assume responsibility for auditing OPD’s accountability to reforms if court oversight ends. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If OPD is released this week, the coalition argued, it should require that the city provide funding to fully staff the Office of the Inspector General, the police commission’s monitoring arm. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The [negotiated settlement agreement] has been a 23-year project that represents an enormous amount of time and money for the City, and decades-long commitment by plaintiffs, and the Court,” the letter reads. “To terminate now, without necessary funding for independent civilian oversight, would jeopardize all that work.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The commission wrote in its \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.41858/gov.uscourts.cand.41858.1768.0.pdf\">own statement\u003c/a> to the court that they too believe their funding levels “do not provide the institutional resources the work demands.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Still, other activist groups have urged the court to end its oversight. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12046794\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250702-OAKLAND-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An Oakland Police Department Vehicle in Oakland on July 1, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Safe Oakland, a coalition of Oakland civil rights, faith, business and neighborhood leaders, wrote its own letter expressing “strong support” for concluding the settlement agreement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“For twenty-three years, a federal court has held Oakland to the standard of constitutional policing,” Safe Oakland wrote. “The time has come for Oakland to hold itself to that standard, and for the community to share in that responsibility. We stand ready to do our part.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Warshaw also expressed confidence in the city, despite the recent backslide: “Mayor [Barbara] Lee and her administration, as well as Chief [James] Beere, who is now the permanent Chief of Police, and OPD’s executive team, have worked diligently to foster a culture of accountability,” he wrote in his September report. “City leadership remains an imperative part of the sustainability process, and we are encouraged by the commitment of the Mayor and her team.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In their statement to the court, attorneys for the plaintiffs John Burris and James Chanin harshly criticized the department for falling behind in compliance, calling it “incomprehensible and bitterly disappointing that OPD is once again in this position.” However, they acknowledged a transformation of the department and strides made, and urged the court to end the settlement agreement in its current form. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They have asked the court to end their role in the case, and for Orrick and Warshaw to continue their oversight for one more year, without them. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Burris told KQED that while personally, he hasn’t come to a conclusion about whether he thinks OPD should be released Tuesday, he’s hopeful that the city now has the right people in place to hold the department accountable without outside interference. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I will say this: At some point, the department has to run itself, and the city has to be responsible,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "newsom-vetoes-bill-to-fund-immigration-attorneys-in-rural-california",
"title": "Newsom Vetoes Bill to Support Immigration Attorneys in Rural California",
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"headTitle": "Newsom Vetoes Bill to Support Immigration Attorneys in Rural California | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have fortified a pipeline of new \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/immigration\">immigration\u003c/a> lawyers to work in rural parts of California that are home to many immigrants but few attorneys equipped to help them. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The bill, \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB1194/id/3456227\">SB 1194\u003c/a>, authored by Central Valley Sen. Anna Caballero, would have codified an existing legal fellowship pilot program placing newly minted lawyers at immigrant-serving community organizations in underserved regions such as the Central Valley, Inland Empire and Central Coast, and pairing them with experienced immigration lawyers from urban areas who provide intensive training and mentorship.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The legislature sent it to the governor’s desk at a time when the Trump administration has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097313/northern-california-ice-arrests-surged-this-summer\">ramped up immigration arrests\u003c/a> in the state and across the country to new levels as part of the president’s mass deportation campaign.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since 2019, the pilot program has received about $2.5 million a year, and the current budget provides $7.5 million — three years worth of funding — so the program is expected to continue operating for now. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/ICEGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096570\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/ICEGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/ICEGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/ICEGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">U.S. Border Patrol produced a show of force outside the Japanese American National Museum where Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a redistricting press conference on Aug. 14, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>But advocates say SB 1194 would have made it permanent and ensured the funding builds capacity in rural and underserved areas, which the budget language does not.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In his veto message on Sunday evening, Newsom said he shared Caballero’s commitment “to ensure California maintains the capacity to provide legal representation for vulnerable immigrant communities as arrests and detentions rise.” But he said that’s taken care of by the budget, which includes a total of nearly $150 million for immigration services, including the $7.5 million and another $34 million for nonprofit organizations to provide legal aid.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“As such, this bill, which creates an unfunded program on top of this work, is duplicative and unnecessary,” Newsom wrote.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Advocates who sponsored the measure said they were deeply disappointed that the governor rejected a chance to protect “a proven, community-driven program.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The veto “underscores the Newsom administration’s failure to acknowledge grassroots-led solutions developed by rural communities and sends the message that these regions, and the immigrant communities that call them home, can be ignored without consequence or accountability,” said Jackie Gonzalez, co-director of the Sacramento-based Immigrant Defense Advocates.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Data show that people who have legal representation are \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/closure/\">far more likely to succeed\u003c/a> in fighting deportation than those without. And \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/addressrep/\">a new report shows \u003c/a>that where an immigrant lives affects whether they can find an attorney to represent them in immigration proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“For too long, the resources California has invested to expand access to immigration legal services have failed to reach communities in the Central Valley,” Caballero said. The fellowship program “creates a pipeline in the Central Valley for high-quality immigration legal services by training the next generation of lawyers to serve individuals, families and communities that need them the most.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The pilot program began during the first Trump administration. So far, it has trained about 20 attorneys who’ve provided pro bono representation to nearly 2,500 people across 39 counties, she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California has the largest number of immigrants of any state. People vulnerable to immigration enforcement include people with green cards or other lawful status, as well as the more than 2 million California residents who are unauthorized immigrants, many of whom have lived in the state for decades.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Adriana Melgoza, executive director of the Watsonville Law Center, said that on the Central Coast, longtime agricultural workers have often been in this country so long they have not only U.S.-born children but U.S.-born grandchildren, yet no way to become legal residents. She said she’s also seen an uptick in immigration arrests in the region.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Any arrest in our community brings fear for the entire community,” she said. “Children who are citizens are really afraid to go to school because they fear that they’re not going to come back to a parent…. We’re traumatizing our next generation.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/GettyImages-2279628970-scaled-e1790630969215.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101706\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An ICE deportation officer’s badge in Dallas on Monday, June 1, 2026. (Angela Piazza/The Dallas Morning News via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>But Melgoza, whose organization was part of the original pilot program, said her area, including Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, is a “legal desert,” with a severe lack of immigration lawyers and a growing need.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“A lot of the clients that we’re representing in removal defense have options to fight their case,” she said. “But if they don’t have an attorney, people face straight deportation without even the chance… to exercise their rights.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nearly three decades worth of data on immigration court outcomes made available by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University, shows that nearly seven out of 10 individuals who lack lawyers are ordered deported, while fewer than three out of 10 face deportation if they have an attorney.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fellowship program not only provides three years of training for new immigration lawyers, but also assists nonprofit organizations in rural areas in developing their capacity to become legal service providers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s key, according to Gonzalez, because it allows those groups to apply for a larger pool of state funding for immigration legal services. Those funds, administered by the state Department of Social Services, are only available to organizations that can show at least three years of expertise.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/005_KQED_630Sansome_02052020_1455_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12077382\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/005_KQED_630Sansome_02052020_1455_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/005_KQED_630Sansome_02052020_1455_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/005_KQED_630Sansome_02052020_1455_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building at 630 Sansome St. on Feb. 5, 2020. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“The fellowship has been a resounding success by all measures,” Gonzalez said. “It has recruited young attorneys back home to serve their communities… and all of the participating organizations have acquired three years of [capacity-building], making them eligible to obtain funding that has previously predominantly only been available to larger organizations in wealthier metropolitan hubs.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But this year’s budget strips out language directing the funds to historically underserved areas and instead calls for “sustainable, cost-effective fellowship strategies.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>With the veto killing a chance to enshrine the fellowship into law, Gonzalez said she fears the program could be reshaped into something “that no longer prioritizes rural communities at all.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SB 1194 was one of an array of bills on the governor’s desk aimed at strengthening California’s support for immigrants at risk of deportation and exercising state oversight of immigration detention.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Newsom has until Sep. 30 to sign or veto the remaining legislation.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The bill, \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB1194/id/3456227\">SB 1194\u003c/a>, authored by Central Valley Sen. Anna Caballero, would have codified an existing legal fellowship pilot program placing newly minted lawyers at immigrant-serving community organizations in underserved regions such as the Central Valley, Inland Empire and Central Coast, and pairing them with experienced immigration lawyers from urban areas who provide intensive training and mentorship.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The legislature sent it to the governor’s desk at a time when the Trump administration has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097313/northern-california-ice-arrests-surged-this-summer\">ramped up immigration arrests\u003c/a> in the state and across the country to new levels as part of the president’s mass deportation campaign.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Since 2019, the pilot program has received about $2.5 million a year, and the current budget provides $7.5 million — three years worth of funding — so the program is expected to continue operating for now. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Since 2019, the pilot program has received about $2.5 million a year, and the current budget provides $7.5 million — three years worth of funding — so the program is expected to continue operating for now. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But advocates say SB 1194 would have made it permanent and ensured the funding builds capacity in rural and underserved areas, which the budget language does not.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In his veto message on Sunday evening, Newsom said he shared Caballero’s commitment “to ensure California maintains the capacity to provide legal representation for vulnerable immigrant communities as arrests and detentions rise.” But he said that’s taken care of by the budget, which includes a total of nearly $150 million for immigration services, including the $7.5 million and another $34 million for nonprofit organizations to provide legal aid.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“As such, this bill, which creates an unfunded program on top of this work, is duplicative and unnecessary,” Newsom wrote.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In his veto message on Sunday evening, Newsom said he shared Caballero’s commitment “to ensure California maintains the capacity to provide legal representation for vulnerable immigrant communities as arrests and detentions rise.” But he said that’s taken care of by the budget, which includes a total of nearly $150 million for immigration services, including the $7.5 million and another $34 million for nonprofit organizations to provide legal aid.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“As such, this bill, which creates an unfunded program on top of this work, is duplicative and unnecessary,” Newsom wrote.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Advocates who sponsored the measure said they were deeply disappointed that the governor rejected a chance to protect “a proven, community-driven program.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The veto “underscores the Newsom administration’s failure to acknowledge grassroots-led solutions developed by rural communities and sends the message that these regions, and the immigrant communities that call them home, can be ignored without consequence or accountability,” said Jackie Gonzalez, co-director of the Sacramento-based Immigrant Defense Advocates.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Data show that people who have legal representation are \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/closure/\">far more likely to succeed\u003c/a> in fighting deportation than those without. And \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/addressrep/\">a new report shows \u003c/a>that where an immigrant lives affects whether they can find an attorney to represent them in immigration proceedings.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Data show that people who have legal representation are \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/closure/\">far more likely to succeed\u003c/a> in fighting deportation than those without. And \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/addressrep/\">a new report shows \u003c/a>that where an immigrant lives affects whether they can find an attorney to represent them in immigration proceedings.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“For too long, the resources California has invested to expand access to immigration legal services have failed to reach communities in the Central Valley,” Caballero said. The fellowship program “creates a pipeline in the Central Valley for high-quality immigration legal services by training the next generation of lawyers to serve individuals, families and communities that need them the most.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“For too long, the resources California has invested to expand access to immigration legal services have failed to reach communities in the Central Valley,” Caballero said. The fellowship program “creates a pipeline in the Central Valley for high-quality immigration legal services by training the next generation of lawyers to serve individuals, families and communities that need them the most.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The pilot program began during the first Trump administration. So far, it has trained about 20 attorneys who’ve provided pro bono representation to nearly 2,500 people across 39 counties, she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The pilot program began during the first Trump administration. So far, it has trained about 20 attorneys who’ve provided pro bono representation to nearly 2,500 people across 39 counties, she said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California has the largest number of immigrants of any state. People vulnerable to immigration enforcement include people with green cards or other lawful status, as well as the more than 2 million California residents who are unauthorized immigrants, many of whom have lived in the state for decades.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>California has the largest number of immigrants of any state. People vulnerable to immigration enforcement include people with green cards or other lawful status, as well as the more than 2 million California residents who are unauthorized immigrants, many of whom have lived in the state for decades.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Adriana Melgoza, executive director of the Watsonville Law Center, said that on the Central Coast, longtime agricultural workers have often been in this country so long they have not only U.S.-born children but U.S.-born grandchildren, yet no way to become legal residents. She said she’s also seen an uptick in immigration arrests in the region.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Adriana Melgoza, executive director of the Watsonville Law Center, said that on the Central Coast, longtime agricultural workers have often been in this country so long they have not only U.S.-born children but U.S.-born grandchildren, yet no way to become legal residents. She said she’s also seen an uptick in immigration arrests in the region.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Any arrest in our community brings fear for the entire community,” she said. “Children who are citizens are really afraid to go to school because they fear that they’re not going to come back to a parent…. We’re traumatizing our next generation.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Any arrest in our community brings fear for the entire community,” she said. “Children who are citizens are really afraid to go to school because they fear that they’re not going to come back to a parent…. We’re traumatizing our next generation.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But Melgoza, whose organization was part of the original pilot program, said her area, including Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, is a “legal desert,” with a severe lack of immigration lawyers and a growing need.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“A lot of the clients that we’re representing in removal defense have options to fight their case,” she said. “But if they don’t have an attorney, people face straight deportation without even the chance… to exercise their rights.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nearly three decades worth of data on immigration court outcomes made available by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University, shows that nearly seven out of 10 individuals who lack lawyers are ordered deported, while fewer than three out of 10 face deportation if they have an attorney.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nearly three decades worth of data on immigration court outcomes made available by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University, shows that nearly seven out of 10 individuals who lack lawyers are ordered deported, while fewer than three out of 10 face deportation if they have an attorney.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The fellowship program not only provides three years of training for new immigration lawyers, but also assists nonprofit organizations in rural areas in developing their capacity to become legal service providers. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s key, according to Gonzalez, because it allows those groups to apply for a larger pool of state funding for immigration legal services. Those funds, administered by the state Department of Social Services, are only available to organizations that can show at least three years of expertise.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That’s key, according to Gonzalez, because it allows those groups to apply for a larger pool of state funding for immigration legal services. Those funds, administered by the state Department of Social Services, are only available to organizations that can show at least three years of expertise.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The fellowship has been a resounding success by all measures,” Gonzalez said. “It has recruited young attorneys back home to serve their communities… and all of the participating organizations have acquired three years of [capacity-building], making them eligible to obtain funding that has previously predominantly only been available to larger organizations in wealthier metropolitan hubs.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But this year’s budget strips out language directing the funds to historically underserved areas and instead calls for “sustainable, cost-effective fellowship strategies.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>With the veto killing a chance to enshrine the fellowship into law, Gonzalez said she fears the program could be reshaped into something “that no longer prioritizes rural communities at all.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>SB 1194 was one of an array of bills on the governor’s desk aimed at strengthening California’s support for immigrants at risk of deportation and exercising state oversight of immigration detention.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Newsom has until Sep. 30 to sign or veto the remaining legislation.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The governor said the proposal duplicates existing efforts to support residents facing deportation.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have fortified a pipeline of new \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/immigration\">immigration\u003c/a> lawyers to work in rural parts of California that are home to many immigrants but few attorneys equipped to help them. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The bill, \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB1194/id/3456227\">SB 1194\u003c/a>, authored by Central Valley Sen. Anna Caballero, would have codified an existing legal fellowship pilot program placing newly minted lawyers at immigrant-serving community organizations in underserved regions such as the Central Valley, Inland Empire and Central Coast, and pairing them with experienced immigration lawyers from urban areas who provide intensive training and mentorship.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The legislature sent it to the governor’s desk at a time when the Trump administration has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097313/northern-california-ice-arrests-surged-this-summer\">ramped up immigration arrests\u003c/a> in the state and across the country to new levels as part of the president’s mass deportation campaign.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since 2019, the pilot program has received about $2.5 million a year, and the current budget provides $7.5 million — three years worth of funding — so the program is expected to continue operating for now. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/ICEGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12096570\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/ICEGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/ICEGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/ICEGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">U.S. Border Patrol produced a show of force outside the Japanese American National Museum where Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a redistricting press conference on Aug. 14, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>But advocates say SB 1194 would have made it permanent and ensured the funding builds capacity in rural and underserved areas, which the budget language does not.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In his veto message on Sunday evening, Newsom said he shared Caballero’s commitment “to ensure California maintains the capacity to provide legal representation for vulnerable immigrant communities as arrests and detentions rise.” But he said that’s taken care of by the budget, which includes a total of nearly $150 million for immigration services, including the $7.5 million and another $34 million for nonprofit organizations to provide legal aid.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“As such, this bill, which creates an unfunded program on top of this work, is duplicative and unnecessary,” Newsom wrote.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Advocates who sponsored the measure said they were deeply disappointed that the governor rejected a chance to protect “a proven, community-driven program.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The veto “underscores the Newsom administration’s failure to acknowledge grassroots-led solutions developed by rural communities and sends the message that these regions, and the immigrant communities that call them home, can be ignored without consequence or accountability,” said Jackie Gonzalez, co-director of the Sacramento-based Immigrant Defense Advocates.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Data show that people who have legal representation are \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/closure/\">far more likely to succeed\u003c/a> in fighting deportation than those without. And \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/addressrep/\">a new report shows \u003c/a>that where an immigrant lives affects whether they can find an attorney to represent them in immigration proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“For too long, the resources California has invested to expand access to immigration legal services have failed to reach communities in the Central Valley,” Caballero said. The fellowship program “creates a pipeline in the Central Valley for high-quality immigration legal services by training the next generation of lawyers to serve individuals, families and communities that need them the most.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The pilot program began during the first Trump administration. So far, it has trained about 20 attorneys who’ve provided pro bono representation to nearly 2,500 people across 39 counties, she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California has the largest number of immigrants of any state. People vulnerable to immigration enforcement include people with green cards or other lawful status, as well as the more than 2 million California residents who are unauthorized immigrants, many of whom have lived in the state for decades.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Adriana Melgoza, executive director of the Watsonville Law Center, said that on the Central Coast, longtime agricultural workers have often been in this country so long they have not only U.S.-born children but U.S.-born grandchildren, yet no way to become legal residents. She said she’s also seen an uptick in immigration arrests in the region.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Any arrest in our community brings fear for the entire community,” she said. “Children who are citizens are really afraid to go to school because they fear that they’re not going to come back to a parent…. We’re traumatizing our next generation.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/GettyImages-2279628970-scaled-e1790630969215.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101706\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An ICE deportation officer’s badge in Dallas on Monday, June 1, 2026. (Angela Piazza/The Dallas Morning News via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>But Melgoza, whose organization was part of the original pilot program, said her area, including Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, is a “legal desert,” with a severe lack of immigration lawyers and a growing need.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“A lot of the clients that we’re representing in removal defense have options to fight their case,” she said. “But if they don’t have an attorney, people face straight deportation without even the chance… to exercise their rights.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nearly three decades worth of data on immigration court outcomes made available by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University, shows that nearly seven out of 10 individuals who lack lawyers are ordered deported, while fewer than three out of 10 face deportation if they have an attorney.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fellowship program not only provides three years of training for new immigration lawyers, but also assists nonprofit organizations in rural areas in developing their capacity to become legal service providers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s key, according to Gonzalez, because it allows those groups to apply for a larger pool of state funding for immigration legal services. Those funds, administered by the state Department of Social Services, are only available to organizations that can show at least three years of expertise.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/005_KQED_630Sansome_02052020_1455_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12077382\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/005_KQED_630Sansome_02052020_1455_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/005_KQED_630Sansome_02052020_1455_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/005_KQED_630Sansome_02052020_1455_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building at 630 Sansome St. on Feb. 5, 2020. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“The fellowship has been a resounding success by all measures,” Gonzalez said. “It has recruited young attorneys back home to serve their communities… and all of the participating organizations have acquired three years of [capacity-building], making them eligible to obtain funding that has previously predominantly only been available to larger organizations in wealthier metropolitan hubs.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But this year’s budget strips out language directing the funds to historically underserved areas and instead calls for “sustainable, cost-effective fellowship strategies.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>With the veto killing a chance to enshrine the fellowship into law, Gonzalez said she fears the program could be reshaped into something “that no longer prioritizes rural communities at all.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SB 1194 was one of an array of bills on the governor’s desk aimed at strengthening California’s support for immigrants at risk of deportation and exercising state oversight of immigration detention.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Newsom has until Sep. 30 to sign or veto the remaining legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "sheng-thao-case-recordings-reveal-taped-phone-calls-fbi-informant-appearing-to-describe-bribes",
"title": "Sheng Thao Case: Recordings Reveal Taped Phone Calls, FBI Informant Appearing to Describe Bribes",
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"headTitle": "Sheng Thao Case: Recordings Reveal Taped Phone Calls, FBI Informant Appearing to Describe Bribes | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>A video recording filed in the federal corruption case of former Oakland Mayor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sheng-thao\">Sheng Thao\u003c/a> shows a key FBI informant describing the owners of a major recycling contractor paying people after they won a lucrative contract with the city of Oakland. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The video is part of a batch of files released this month that also includes taped phone calls with current and former elected officials. The calls, which appear to have been recorded without the politicians’ knowledge, seem to reveal close working relationships, and at times coordination, between Oakland city officials and the recycling company. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors argue the video shows a critical moment in the alleged corruption scheme between their star witness, a co-conspirator turned informant, and the Duong family, owners of California Waste Solutions, the city’s curbside recycling provider. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The company’s CEO, David Duong, and his son, Andy Duong, are facing bribery, conspiracy and mail and wire fraud charges alongside Thao and her longtime partner, Andre Jones. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The four are accused of engaging in a corrupt relationship in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election and in the months following. Prosecutors allege Thao promised she would use her authority as mayor to take actions to benefit the Duongs’ companies in exchange for financing negative political mailers and paying money to Jones through a no-show job. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>All four defendants have pleaded not guilty. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://youtu.be/SQfb9Mw6Qsc\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://youtube.com/shorts/D3w672owIBs?si=t5qlWwMQGSXrJs7B\">In the video from October 2022\u003c/a>, Mario Juarez, who has pleaded guilty to participating in the alleged bribery scheme, stands in front of a conference table and makes a toast, professing his loyalty to the Duongs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The day after you won the city of Oakland contract, you were there, paying everybody,” Juarez can be heard saying in the video while holding a bottle of what appears to be champagne. “Everybody was like fucking piranhas after you. I remember because I was there. I was in your office. And — $50,000, $100,000 — whatever it was. And you said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I just want to do business with you.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The toast appears to celebrate Evolutionary Homes, a housing company the Duongs and Juarez co-founded around that time that is at the center of the bribery prosecution. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the video, members of the Duong family do not correct Juarez when he mentions payments. At one point, when Juarez describes “piranhas,” Kristina Duong, California Waste Solutions’ chief financial officer, shakes her head yes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a July court filing, prosecutors described the video, saying that Juarez is expected to testify at trial that his comments were in reference to bribes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The government expects Juarez to testify that this statement refers to the Duongs giving cash to multiple public officials in exchange for their assistance in helping CWS [California Waste Solutions] secure the Oakland recycling contract in 2014,” the filing reads. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Juarez’s toast to the partnership between the Duongs and Juarez took place when the alleged conspiracy was forming, prosecutors say. By professing his past and future loyalty, prosecutors say Juarez was indicating to the Duongs that he could be trusted to keep their secrets and conduct business in their interest. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I defended your family, I defend CWS, I defend them physically,” Juarez can be heard saying in the video. “If anyone fucks with CWS, I step up to the plate, and I think I’ve proven that time and time again.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That very same day, prosecutors say Juarez reached out to Thao to set up a meeting to discuss the negative campaign mailers and the city’s commitment to purchase housing units from Evolutionary Homes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>An attorney for David Duong declined to comment on the video and other allegations Juarez has made. Lawyers representing Andy Duong did not immediately respond. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys for months have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12071314/fbi-informant-tested-corruption-case-against-oaklands-former-mayor\">raised questions about Juarez’s credibility as a witness\u003c/a>, pointing to what they’ve described as his “decades-long history of fraud,” and instances where they say Juarez falsely accused business partners of illegal activity in an effort to escape liability for his own actions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098344\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">US Postal Inspectors check documents at a home tied to David Duong, one of the multiple properties searched by law enforcement that included residences of members of a politically connected family who run the city’s contracted recycling company, California Waste Solutions, in Oakland, California, on June 20, 2024. (Ray Chavez/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>A second video, taken shortly after the first, shows Juarez making another speech. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Minus the profanity,” someone off-camera can be heard saying, followed by another person saying, “Keep it PG, please.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The videos were retrieved from Andy Duong’s phone and are among multiple audio and video files FBI agents seized. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One such file, described as a video depicting Andy Duong, former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo and others, remains under seal. The video was recorded in August 2023, during a trade delegation to Vietnam that Thao, the Duongs and other East Bay officials attended. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Azevedo, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073176/former-san-leandro-city-councilmember-pleads-guilty-in-federal-bribery-case\">pleaded guilty to accepting bribes\u003c/a> in a related case in February, is a cooperating government witness in the case involving Thao, Jones and the Duongs. Juarez is expected to testify that Andy Duong told him he often recorded politicians in case he needed to use it for leverage later on. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098354\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Andy Duong exits the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, on Jan. 17, 2025. Sheng Thao, the former mayor of Oakland, was criminally indicted by a federal grand jury after an FBI corruption investigation that centered on City Hall and the powerful Duong family that operates the city’s curbside recycling program, a source familiar with the matter told the Chronicle. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Court records show prosecutors are now planning to use many of those recordings as evidence in the trial against the Duongs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Andy Duong, who previously worked for his family’s business, is no longer actively employed by California Waste Solutions, an attorney for the company confirmed via phone on Thursday. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The attorney said Andy Duong is “on a leave of absence” but would not say when the leave began or why. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I don’t remember when it started. Quite some time ago,” said Doug Straus, an attorney with the Buchalter law firm. “It’s been, at least, many, many, many months.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">‘We got the contract, here is your money’ \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The video of Juarez talking about payments is not the only time allegations of wider public corruption have surfaced in the case. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a motion filed last month, attorneys for David Duong described allegations Juarez made to the FBI about the Duongs, including that the family has given millions of dollars in cash to elected officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Juarez knew the Duongs had paid bribes to public officials in the past. It was just how they did business,” the document reads. “Influence with politicians is part of the Duongs’ business plan. Influence came from the money they doled out and from the video evidence they kept.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098817\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The California Waste Solutions headquarters at 1211 Embarcadero, in Oakland, on Sept. 8, 2026. The company provides curbside recycling service in Oakland. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the motion, Juarez described seeing a line of people at California Waste Solutions’ headquarters waiting to be paid in cash by David Duong. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“[Individual 1] was paid $300,000 in cash in a black gym bag. Juarez knew the amount of cash because Juarez helped count the money,” the filing reads. “The cash to [Individual 1] was definitely for his help in obtaining the CWS contract; D. Duong told [Individual 1] something to the effect of ‘Congratulations, we got the contract, here is your money.’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Juarez claimed he saw another individual — identified in the filing as Individual 2 — receive $50,000, also in a black gym bag. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“[Individual 2] was angry he only got $50,000; [Individual 2] wanted more money,” it reads. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the document, Juarez told federal agents he was involved in bribing a political opponent of a city official. Juarez gave the individual $20,000 in front of a Starbucks. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Duongs paid two individuals $100,000 each for being lobbyists for California Waste Solutions, but those payments were not reported, Juarez alleged. He also claimed to have seen the Duongs delete footage from a security system. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Duong had blackmail on a lot of people. A. Duong used blackmail often,” the filing says Juarez alleged. “The Duongs and CWS started using vague consultant contracts to launder money to various individuals. Juarez knew money had been paid to [Individual 1], [Individual 8], and Brian Azevedo.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a motion filed Aug. 27, defense attorneys for David Duong pushed to have the video of Juarez and other allegations he has made kept out of the trial. They argued the allegations are unrelated to the charged conspiracy involving Thao, and could make the jury jump to the conclusion that the defendants have a propensity to commit bribery or have poor moral character. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Allowing Juarez to levy unsubstantiated accusations of obstruction, blackmail, and money laundering will only confuse the issues and encourage the jury to conclude that the Duongs are bad people and therefore likely guilty,” they wrote in the motion. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>U.S. Chief District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on Sept. 21 denied it, ruling that Juarez’s statements about other alleged bribes can be admitted as evidence. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The jury will ultimately decide whether Juarez’s statements reveal truth or not,” her order reads. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">‘I’m not f—ing with those bitches’ \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In one of the recorded phone calls filed in federal court, dated April 2019, Thao appears to give Andy Duong information about a closed session discussion related to a legal dispute between the city of Oakland and California Waste Solutions. Oakland had sued the company in 2017, accusing it of overcharging ratepayers. California Waste Solutions then filed its own claims against the city, alleging breach of contract and seeking $5 million.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the recording, Thao can be heard appearing to reference then-Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan and advising Andy Duong on how to prepare for a meeting the following day. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“So in the meeting, this is what you guys need to do, OK? You guys need to prepare and talk today amongst yourselves and how to figure out how to do this because … in the meeting tomorrow, that’s what Rebecca’s going to ask for, because she doesn’t know what the answer is for that part.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao holds a press conference at Oakland City Hall on June 24, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Thao can also be heard requesting to meet somewhere more private. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We just need to be further away from people,” Thao can be heard saying. “We don’t want people hearing us talk about this stuff, you know? But if it’s a private room, I prefer a private room, because we don’t really want to be seen with you guys.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kaplan, who is no longer a councilmember but is still working for the city, did not respond to KQED’s questions about the recording. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Four years later, in 2023, Thao was mayor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a call that September, she vented to Andy Duong about Councilmembers Treva Reid and Janani Ramachandran. In the call, Thao appears to express frustration that they were invited to an event. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You’re going to have to fucking pick and choose. Because I’m not fucking with those bitches,” she says on the call. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thao had recently returned from the trade delegation to Vietnam when the country’s \u003ca href=\"https://en.vietnamplus.vn/pm-pham-minh-chinh-receives-politicians-of-san-francisco-post268198.vnp\">prime minister\u003c/a> visited the Bay Area and met with local elected officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is stupid. I’m not going to stand around with these two bitches who constantly talk shit about me and make a big issue to their constituents. They’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah, the mayor is gone, she’s in Vietnam.’ You know, it’s like fuck you. Then why are you coming to see the prime minister?” Thao can be heard saying on the call. “Treva’s not a friend of mine. She should never be invited by you guys to do anything that sounds even cool.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thao’s attorneys did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment on the calls. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The files also include a recorded call between Andy Duong and Oakland City Councilmember Kevin Jenkins, and another with Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, who was president of the Oakland City Council at the time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the January 2024 call with Jenkins, Andy Duong follows up on an invitation to party on a yacht. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Duong and Jenkins can be heard joking with each other at the start of the call, referring to women as bitches. They then discuss the campaigns to recall Thao and then Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and Evolutionary Homes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Reached by phone, Jenkins told KQED that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the recording given that he is a government witness in the trial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the call with Bas, recorded in March that same year, she and Andy Duong can be heard discussing donations to her then-campaign for supervisor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Duong then tells Bas that he spoke to Thao and asks if she can put an item on an upcoming agenda to extend California Waste Solutions’ agreement with the city to acquire and develop property at the former Oakland Army Base for a new recycling facility. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Yup. OK. I’ll follow up on this right now,” she says. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In an email, Bas told KQED the city council never voted on or addressed Duong’s request. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“As I do with all constituent matters, I forwarded this inquiry to city staff for their independent review,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The video is part of a batch of files released this month that also includes taped phone calls with current and former elected officials. The calls, which appear to have been recorded without the politicians’ knowledge, seem to reveal close working relationships, and at times coordination, between Oakland city officials and the recycling company. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The company’s CEO, David Duong, and his son, Andy Duong, are facing bribery, conspiracy and mail and wire fraud charges alongside Thao and her longtime partner, Andre Jones. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The four are accused of engaging in a corrupt relationship in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election and in the months following. Prosecutors allege Thao promised she would use her authority as mayor to take actions to benefit the Duongs’ companies in exchange for financing negative political mailers and paying money to Jones through a no-show job. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://youtube.com/shorts/D3w672owIBs?si=t5qlWwMQGSXrJs7B\">In the video from October 2022\u003c/a>, Mario Juarez, who has pleaded guilty to participating in the alleged bribery scheme, stands in front of a conference table and makes a toast, professing his loyalty to the Duongs. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The day after you won the city of Oakland contract, you were there, paying everybody,” Juarez can be heard saying in the video while holding a bottle of what appears to be champagne. “Everybody was like fucking piranhas after you. I remember because I was there. I was in your office. And — $50,000, $100,000 — whatever it was. And you said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I just want to do business with you.’”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The day after you won the city of Oakland contract, you were there, paying everybody,” Juarez can be heard saying in the video while holding a bottle of what appears to be champagne. “Everybody was like fucking piranhas after you. I remember because I was there. I was in your office. And — $50,000, $100,000 — whatever it was. And you said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I just want to do business with you.’”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The toast appears to celebrate Evolutionary Homes, a housing company the Duongs and Juarez co-founded around that time that is at the center of the bribery prosecution. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The government expects Juarez to testify that this statement refers to the Duongs giving cash to multiple public officials in exchange for their assistance in helping CWS [California Waste Solutions] secure the Oakland recycling contract in 2014,” the filing reads. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Juarez’s toast to the partnership between the Duongs and Juarez took place when the alleged conspiracy was forming, prosecutors say. By professing his past and future loyalty, prosecutors say Juarez was indicating to the Duongs that he could be trusted to keep their secrets and conduct business in their interest. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I defended your family, I defend CWS, I defend them physically,” Juarez can be heard saying in the video. “If anyone fucks with CWS, I step up to the plate, and I think I’ve proven that time and time again.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That very same day, prosecutors say Juarez reached out to Thao to set up a meeting to discuss the negative campaign mailers and the city’s commitment to purchase housing units from Evolutionary Homes. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That very same day, prosecutors say Juarez reached out to Thao to set up a meeting to discuss the negative campaign mailers and the city’s commitment to purchase housing units from Evolutionary Homes. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>An attorney for David Duong declined to comment on the video and other allegations Juarez has made. Lawyers representing Andy Duong did not immediately respond. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys for months have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12071314/fbi-informant-tested-corruption-case-against-oaklands-former-mayor\">raised questions about Juarez’s credibility as a witness\u003c/a>, pointing to what they’ve described as his “decades-long history of fraud,” and instances where they say Juarez falsely accused business partners of illegal activity in an effort to escape liability for his own actions. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys for months have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12071314/fbi-informant-tested-corruption-case-against-oaklands-former-mayor\">raised questions about Juarez’s credibility as a witness\u003c/a>, pointing to what they’ve described as his “decades-long history of fraud,” and instances where they say Juarez falsely accused business partners of illegal activity in an effort to escape liability for his own actions. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098344\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">US Postal Inspectors check documents at a home tied to David Duong, one of the multiple properties searched by law enforcement that included residences of members of a politically connected family who run the city’s contracted recycling company, California Waste Solutions, in Oakland, California, on June 20, 2024.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Ray Chavez/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One such file, described as a video depicting Andy Duong, former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo and others, remains under seal. The video was recorded in August 2023, during a trade delegation to Vietnam that Thao, the Duongs and other East Bay officials attended. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098354\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Andy Duong exits the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, on Jan. 17, 2025. Sheng Thao, the former mayor of Oakland, was criminally indicted by a federal grand jury after an FBI corruption investigation that centered on City Hall and the powerful Duong family that operates the city’s curbside recycling program, a source familiar with the matter told the Chronicle.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098354\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Andy Duong exits the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, on Jan. 17, 2025. Sheng Thao, the former mayor of Oakland, was criminally indicted by a federal grand jury after an FBI corruption investigation that centered on City Hall and the powerful Duong family that operates the city’s curbside recycling program, a source familiar with the matter told the Chronicle.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Court records show prosecutors are now planning to use many of those recordings as evidence in the trial against the Duongs. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Andy Duong, who previously worked for his family’s business, is no longer actively employed by California Waste Solutions, an attorney for the company confirmed via phone on Thursday. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I don’t remember when it started. Quite some time ago,” said Doug Straus, an attorney with the Buchalter law firm. “It’s been, at least, many, many, many months.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I don’t remember when it started. Quite some time ago,” said Doug Straus, an attorney with the Buchalter law firm. “It’s been, at least, many, many, many months.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "‘We got the contract, here is your money’ ",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The video of Juarez talking about payments is not the only time allegations of wider public corruption have surfaced in the case. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a motion filed last month, attorneys for David Duong described allegations Juarez made to the FBI about the Duongs, including that the family has given millions of dollars in cash to elected officials. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Juarez knew the Duongs had paid bribes to public officials in the past. It was just how they did business,” the document reads. “Influence with politicians is part of the Duongs’ business plan. Influence came from the money they doled out and from the video evidence they kept.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098817\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The California Waste Solutions headquarters at 1211 Embarcadero, in Oakland, on Sept. 8, 2026. The company provides curbside recycling service in Oakland.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to the motion, Juarez described seeing a line of people at California Waste Solutions’ headquarters waiting to be paid in cash by David Duong. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“[Individual 1] was paid $300,000 in cash in a black gym bag. Juarez knew the amount of cash because Juarez helped count the money,” the filing reads. “The cash to [Individual 1] was definitely for his help in obtaining the CWS contract; D. Duong told [Individual 1] something to the effect of ‘Congratulations, we got the contract, here is your money.’” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Juarez claimed he saw another individual — identified in the filing as Individual 2 — receive $50,000, also in a black gym bag. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Duongs paid two individuals $100,000 each for being lobbyists for California Waste Solutions, but those payments were not reported, Juarez alleged. He also claimed to have seen the Duongs delete footage from a security system. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Duong had blackmail on a lot of people. A. Duong used blackmail often,” the filing says Juarez alleged. “The Duongs and CWS started using vague consultant contracts to launder money to various individuals. Juarez knew money had been paid to [Individual 1], [Individual 8], and Brian Azevedo.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a motion filed Aug. 27, defense attorneys for David Duong pushed to have the video of Juarez and other allegations he has made kept out of the trial. They argued the allegations are unrelated to the charged conspiracy involving Thao, and could make the jury jump to the conclusion that the defendants have a propensity to commit bribery or have poor moral character. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In a motion filed Aug. 27, defense attorneys for David Duong pushed to have the video of Juarez and other allegations he has made kept out of the trial. They argued the allegations are unrelated to the charged conspiracy involving Thao, and could make the jury jump to the conclusion that the defendants have a propensity to commit bribery or have poor moral character. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Allowing Juarez to levy unsubstantiated accusations of obstruction, blackmail, and money laundering will only confuse the issues and encourage the jury to conclude that the Duongs are bad people and therefore likely guilty,” they wrote in the motion. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>U.S. Chief District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on Sept. 21 denied it, ruling that Juarez’s statements about other alleged bribes can be admitted as evidence. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In one of the recorded phone calls filed in federal court, dated April 2019, Thao appears to give Andy Duong information about a closed session discussion related to a legal dispute between the city of Oakland and California Waste Solutions. Oakland had sued the company in 2017, accusing it of overcharging ratepayers. California Waste Solutions then filed its own claims against the city, alleging breach of contract and seeking $5 million.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In one of the recorded phone calls filed in federal court, dated April 2019, Thao appears to give Andy Duong information about a closed session discussion related to a legal dispute between the city of Oakland and California Waste Solutions. Oakland had sued the company in 2017, accusing it of overcharging ratepayers. California Waste Solutions then filed its own claims against the city, alleging breach of contract and seeking $5 million.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the recording, Thao can be heard appearing to reference then-Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan and advising Andy Duong on how to prepare for a meeting the following day. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the recording, Thao can be heard appearing to reference then-Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan and advising Andy Duong on how to prepare for a meeting the following day. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“So in the meeting, this is what you guys need to do, OK? You guys need to prepare and talk today amongst yourselves and how to figure out how to do this because … in the meeting tomorrow, that’s what Rebecca’s going to ask for, because she doesn’t know what the answer is for that part.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“So in the meeting, this is what you guys need to do, OK? You guys need to prepare and talk today amongst yourselves and how to figure out how to do this because … in the meeting tomorrow, that’s what Rebecca’s going to ask for, because she doesn’t know what the answer is for that part.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao holds a press conference at Oakland City Hall on June 24, 2024.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098346\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao holds a press conference at Oakland City Hall on June 24, 2024.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We just need to be further away from people,” Thao can be heard saying. “We don’t want people hearing us talk about this stuff, you know? But if it’s a private room, I prefer a private room, because we don’t really want to be seen with you guys.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Kaplan, who is no longer a councilmember but is still working for the city, did not respond to KQED’s questions about the recording. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Four years later, in 2023, Thao was mayor. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a call that September, she vented to Andy Duong about Councilmembers Treva Reid and Janani Ramachandran. In the call, Thao appears to express frustration that they were invited to an event. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Thao had recently returned from the trade delegation to Vietnam when the country’s \u003ca href=\"https://en.vietnamplus.vn/pm-pham-minh-chinh-receives-politicians-of-san-francisco-post268198.vnp\">prime minister\u003c/a> visited the Bay Area and met with local elected officials. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This is stupid. I’m not going to stand around with these two bitches who constantly talk shit about me and make a big issue to their constituents. They’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah, the mayor is gone, she’s in Vietnam.’ You know, it’s like fuck you. Then why are you coming to see the prime minister?” Thao can be heard saying on the call. “Treva’s not a friend of mine. She should never be invited by you guys to do anything that sounds even cool.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“This is stupid. I’m not going to stand around with these two bitches who constantly talk shit about me and make a big issue to their constituents. They’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah, the mayor is gone, she’s in Vietnam.’ You know, it’s like fuck you. Then why are you coming to see the prime minister?” Thao can be heard saying on the call. “Treva’s not a friend of mine. She should never be invited by you guys to do anything that sounds even cool.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Thao’s attorneys did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment on the calls. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The files also include a recorded call between Andy Duong and Oakland City Councilmember Kevin Jenkins, and another with Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, who was president of the Oakland City Council at the time. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The files also include a recorded call between Andy Duong and Oakland City Councilmember Kevin Jenkins, and another with Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, who was president of the Oakland City Council at the time. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the January 2024 call with Jenkins, Andy Duong follows up on an invitation to party on a yacht. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the January 2024 call with Jenkins, Andy Duong follows up on an invitation to party on a yacht. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Duong and Jenkins can be heard joking with each other at the start of the call, referring to women as bitches. They then discuss the campaigns to recall Thao and then Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and Evolutionary Homes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Duong and Jenkins can be heard joking with each other at the start of the call, referring to women as bitches. They then discuss the campaigns to recall Thao and then Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and Evolutionary Homes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Reached by phone, Jenkins told KQED that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the recording given that he is a government witness in the trial. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the call with Bas, recorded in March that same year, she and Andy Duong can be heard discussing donations to her then-campaign for supervisor. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the call with Bas, recorded in March that same year, she and Andy Duong can be heard discussing donations to her then-campaign for supervisor. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Duong then tells Bas that he spoke to Thao and asks if she can put an item on an upcoming agenda to extend California Waste Solutions’ agreement with the city to acquire and develop property at the former Oakland Army Base for a new recycling facility. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Duong then tells Bas that he spoke to Thao and asks if she can put an item on an upcoming agenda to extend California Waste Solutions’ agreement with the city to acquire and develop property at the former Oakland Army Base for a new recycling facility. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Yup. OK. I’ll follow up on this right now,” she says. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Yup. OK. I’ll follow up on this right now,” she says. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In an email, Bas told KQED the city council never voted on or addressed Duong’s request. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In an email, Bas told KQED the city council never voted on or addressed Duong’s request. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“As I do with all constituent matters, I forwarded this inquiry to city staff for their independent review,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A batch of video and audio recordings in the federal corruption case of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao reveals taped phone calls with East Bay elected officials and a video of an FBI informant appearing to describe cash bribes. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>A video recording filed in the federal corruption case of former Oakland Mayor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sheng-thao\">Sheng Thao\u003c/a> shows a key FBI informant describing the owners of a major recycling contractor paying people after they won a lucrative contract with the city of Oakland. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The video is part of a batch of files released this month that also includes taped phone calls with current and former elected officials. The calls, which appear to have been recorded without the politicians’ knowledge, seem to reveal close working relationships, and at times coordination, between Oakland city officials and the recycling company. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors argue the video shows a critical moment in the alleged corruption scheme between their star witness, a co-conspirator turned informant, and the Duong family, owners of California Waste Solutions, the city’s curbside recycling provider. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The company’s CEO, David Duong, and his son, Andy Duong, are facing bribery, conspiracy and mail and wire fraud charges alongside Thao and her longtime partner, Andre Jones. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The four are accused of engaging in a corrupt relationship in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election and in the months following. Prosecutors allege Thao promised she would use her authority as mayor to take actions to benefit the Duongs’ companies in exchange for financing negative political mailers and paying money to Jones through a no-show job. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>All four defendants have pleaded not guilty. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/SQfb9Mw6Qsc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/SQfb9Mw6Qsc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://youtube.com/shorts/D3w672owIBs?si=t5qlWwMQGSXrJs7B\">In the video from October 2022\u003c/a>, Mario Juarez, who has pleaded guilty to participating in the alleged bribery scheme, stands in front of a conference table and makes a toast, professing his loyalty to the Duongs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The day after you won the city of Oakland contract, you were there, paying everybody,” Juarez can be heard saying in the video while holding a bottle of what appears to be champagne. “Everybody was like fucking piranhas after you. I remember because I was there. I was in your office. And — $50,000, $100,000 — whatever it was. And you said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I just want to do business with you.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The toast appears to celebrate Evolutionary Homes, a housing company the Duongs and Juarez co-founded around that time that is at the center of the bribery prosecution. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the video, members of the Duong family do not correct Juarez when he mentions payments. At one point, when Juarez describes “piranhas,” Kristina Duong, California Waste Solutions’ chief financial officer, shakes her head yes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a July court filing, prosecutors described the video, saying that Juarez is expected to testify at trial that his comments were in reference to bribes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The government expects Juarez to testify that this statement refers to the Duongs giving cash to multiple public officials in exchange for their assistance in helping CWS [California Waste Solutions] secure the Oakland recycling contract in 2014,” the filing reads. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Juarez’s toast to the partnership between the Duongs and Juarez took place when the alleged conspiracy was forming, prosecutors say. By professing his past and future loyalty, prosecutors say Juarez was indicating to the Duongs that he could be trusted to keep their secrets and conduct business in their interest. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I defended your family, I defend CWS, I defend them physically,” Juarez can be heard saying in the video. “If anyone fucks with CWS, I step up to the plate, and I think I’ve proven that time and time again.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That very same day, prosecutors say Juarez reached out to Thao to set up a meeting to discuss the negative campaign mailers and the city’s commitment to purchase housing units from Evolutionary Homes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>An attorney for David Duong declined to comment on the video and other allegations Juarez has made. Lawyers representing Andy Duong did not immediately respond. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys for months have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12071314/fbi-informant-tested-corruption-case-against-oaklands-former-mayor\">raised questions about Juarez’s credibility as a witness\u003c/a>, pointing to what they’ve described as his “decades-long history of fraud,” and instances where they say Juarez falsely accused business partners of illegal activity in an effort to escape liability for his own actions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098344\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-06-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">US Postal Inspectors check documents at a home tied to David Duong, one of the multiple properties searched by law enforcement that included residences of members of a politically connected family who run the city’s contracted recycling company, California Waste Solutions, in Oakland, California, on June 20, 2024. (Ray Chavez/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>A second video, taken shortly after the first, shows Juarez making another speech. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Minus the profanity,” someone off-camera can be heard saying, followed by another person saying, “Keep it PG, please.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The videos were retrieved from Andy Duong’s phone and are among multiple audio and video files FBI agents seized. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One such file, described as a video depicting Andy Duong, former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo and others, remains under seal. The video was recorded in August 2023, during a trade delegation to Vietnam that Thao, the Duongs and other East Bay officials attended. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Azevedo, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073176/former-san-leandro-city-councilmember-pleads-guilty-in-federal-bribery-case\">pleaded guilty to accepting bribes\u003c/a> in a related case in February, is a cooperating government witness in the case involving Thao, Jones and the Duongs. Juarez is expected to testify that Andy Duong told him he often recorded politicians in case he needed to use it for leverage later on. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098354\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-16-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Andy Duong exits the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, on Jan. 17, 2025. Sheng Thao, the former mayor of Oakland, was criminally indicted by a federal grand jury after an FBI corruption investigation that centered on City Hall and the powerful Duong family that operates the city’s curbside recycling program, a source familiar with the matter told the Chronicle. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Court records show prosecutors are now planning to use many of those recordings as evidence in the trial against the Duongs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Andy Duong, who previously worked for his family’s business, is no longer actively employed by California Waste Solutions, an attorney for the company confirmed via phone on Thursday. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The attorney said Andy Duong is “on a leave of absence” but would not say when the leave began or why. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I don’t remember when it started. Quite some time ago,” said Doug Straus, an attorney with the Buchalter law firm. “It’s been, at least, many, many, many months.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">‘We got the contract, here is your money’ \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The video of Juarez talking about payments is not the only time allegations of wider public corruption have surfaced in the case. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a motion filed last month, attorneys for David Duong described allegations Juarez made to the FBI about the Duongs, including that the family has given millions of dollars in cash to elected officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Juarez knew the Duongs had paid bribes to public officials in the past. It was just how they did business,” the document reads. “Influence with politicians is part of the Duongs’ business plan. Influence came from the money they doled out and from the video evidence they kept.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098817\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/090826_ShengThao-Trial-File_GH_011_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The California Waste Solutions headquarters at 1211 Embarcadero, in Oakland, on Sept. 8, 2026. The company provides curbside recycling service in Oakland. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the motion, Juarez described seeing a line of people at California Waste Solutions’ headquarters waiting to be paid in cash by David Duong. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“[Individual 1] was paid $300,000 in cash in a black gym bag. Juarez knew the amount of cash because Juarez helped count the money,” the filing reads. “The cash to [Individual 1] was definitely for his help in obtaining the CWS contract; D. Duong told [Individual 1] something to the effect of ‘Congratulations, we got the contract, here is your money.’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Juarez claimed he saw another individual — identified in the filing as Individual 2 — receive $50,000, also in a black gym bag. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“[Individual 2] was angry he only got $50,000; [Individual 2] wanted more money,” it reads. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the document, Juarez told federal agents he was involved in bribing a political opponent of a city official. Juarez gave the individual $20,000 in front of a Starbucks. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Duongs paid two individuals $100,000 each for being lobbyists for California Waste Solutions, but those payments were not reported, Juarez alleged. He also claimed to have seen the Duongs delete footage from a security system. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Duong had blackmail on a lot of people. A. Duong used blackmail often,” the filing says Juarez alleged. “The Duongs and CWS started using vague consultant contracts to launder money to various individuals. Juarez knew money had been paid to [Individual 1], [Individual 8], and Brian Azevedo.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a motion filed Aug. 27, defense attorneys for David Duong pushed to have the video of Juarez and other allegations he has made kept out of the trial. They argued the allegations are unrelated to the charged conspiracy involving Thao, and could make the jury jump to the conclusion that the defendants have a propensity to commit bribery or have poor moral character. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Allowing Juarez to levy unsubstantiated accusations of obstruction, blackmail, and money laundering will only confuse the issues and encourage the jury to conclude that the Duongs are bad people and therefore likely guilty,” they wrote in the motion. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>U.S. Chief District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on Sept. 21 denied it, ruling that Juarez’s statements about other alleged bribes can be admitted as evidence. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The jury will ultimately decide whether Juarez’s statements reveal truth or not,” her order reads. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">‘I’m not f—ing with those bitches’ \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In one of the recorded phone calls filed in federal court, dated April 2019, Thao appears to give Andy Duong information about a closed session discussion related to a legal dispute between the city of Oakland and California Waste Solutions. Oakland had sued the company in 2017, accusing it of overcharging ratepayers. California Waste Solutions then filed its own claims against the city, alleging breach of contract and seeking $5 million.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the recording, Thao can be heard appearing to reference then-Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan and advising Andy Duong on how to prepare for a meeting the following day. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“So in the meeting, this is what you guys need to do, OK? You guys need to prepare and talk today amongst yourselves and how to figure out how to do this because … in the meeting tomorrow, that’s what Rebecca’s going to ask for, because she doesn’t know what the answer is for that part.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12098346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260903-ShengThaoTrial-08-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao holds a press conference at Oakland City Hall on June 24, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Thao can also be heard requesting to meet somewhere more private. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We just need to be further away from people,” Thao can be heard saying. “We don’t want people hearing us talk about this stuff, you know? But if it’s a private room, I prefer a private room, because we don’t really want to be seen with you guys.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kaplan, who is no longer a councilmember but is still working for the city, did not respond to KQED’s questions about the recording. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Four years later, in 2023, Thao was mayor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a call that September, she vented to Andy Duong about Councilmembers Treva Reid and Janani Ramachandran. In the call, Thao appears to express frustration that they were invited to an event. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You’re going to have to fucking pick and choose. Because I’m not fucking with those bitches,” she says on the call. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thao had recently returned from the trade delegation to Vietnam when the country’s \u003ca href=\"https://en.vietnamplus.vn/pm-pham-minh-chinh-receives-politicians-of-san-francisco-post268198.vnp\">prime minister\u003c/a> visited the Bay Area and met with local elected officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is stupid. I’m not going to stand around with these two bitches who constantly talk shit about me and make a big issue to their constituents. They’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah, the mayor is gone, she’s in Vietnam.’ You know, it’s like fuck you. Then why are you coming to see the prime minister?” Thao can be heard saying on the call. “Treva’s not a friend of mine. She should never be invited by you guys to do anything that sounds even cool.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thao’s attorneys did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment on the calls. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The files also include a recorded call between Andy Duong and Oakland City Councilmember Kevin Jenkins, and another with Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, who was president of the Oakland City Council at the time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the January 2024 call with Jenkins, Andy Duong follows up on an invitation to party on a yacht. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Duong and Jenkins can be heard joking with each other at the start of the call, referring to women as bitches. They then discuss the campaigns to recall Thao and then Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and Evolutionary Homes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Reached by phone, Jenkins told KQED that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the recording given that he is a government witness in the trial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the call with Bas, recorded in March that same year, she and Andy Duong can be heard discussing donations to her then-campaign for supervisor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Duong then tells Bas that he spoke to Thao and asks if she can put an item on an upcoming agenda to extend California Waste Solutions’ agreement with the city to acquire and develop property at the former Oakland Army Base for a new recycling facility. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Yup. OK. I’ll follow up on this right now,” she says. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In an email, Bas told KQED the city council never voted on or addressed Duong’s request. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“As I do with all constituent matters, I forwarded this inquiry to city staff for their independent review,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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},
"rightnowish": {
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"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
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