Brooke Jenkins

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Brooke Jenkins
30th District Attorney of San Francisco
Incumbent
Assumed office
July 8, 2022[a]
Preceded byChesa Boudin
Personal details
Born1981 or 1982 (age 42–43)
Political partyDemocratic
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley (BA)
University of Chicago (JD)
WebsiteCampaign website

Brooke Jenkins (born 1981/1982)[1] is an American lawyer serving as the 30th District Attorney of San Francisco. On July 8, 2022, Jenkins was appointed interim district attorney by Mayor London Breed following the successful recall of Chesa Boudin, for which she actively campaigned.[2] She was elected in her own right to fill the unexpired term the following November.[3]

Early life and education

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Jenkins grew up in Union City, California.[4] She was raised by her mother because shortly after her birth, her father had to leave the country due to his student visa status.[5] Her father is from El Salvador.[5][6] She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley and a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School.[4][7]

Career

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Jenkins was admitted to the California State Bar in 2011.[8] Prior to becoming a prosecutor, she worked for two years in corporate law, defending foreign and domestic automakers and manufacturers.[4] Her firm's clients included Honda and Takata.

Jenkins worked in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office for seven years from 2014 to mid-2021,[9] where she started as an attorney handling misdemeanor cases and later served as a hate crimes prosecutor.[4] She resigned in October 2021 to support the recall campaign against San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.[10]

Mayor London Breed announced on July 7, 2022, the appointment of Jenkins to serve in the interim until an election is held on November 8, 2022, to elect a District Attorney to serve the rest of Boudin's term through 2023.[9] She was sworn into office on July 8.[10] Her first act within the office was to hold a meeting with senior staff, where she was accompanied by Andrea Bruss, the deputy chief of staff of the Mayor's Office.[11] A week later, she fired 15 attorneys, as well as top Boudin advisors like his chief of staff, director of communications and policy advisor, and director of data, research and analytics.[12]

Between her appointment and August 2022, Jenkins instituted policies such as allowing her attorneys to seek gang enhancements, allowing the conditional prosecution of minors as adults, and making drug dealers ineligible for community courts.[13][14] Under her term, convictions rose 5% from 2022 to 2023.[15] She supported Proposition E in 2022, which aimed to expand the use of police surveillance through the use of live cameras.[16] It will first be implemented in the Mission.[17] Proposition E was criticized by organizations like the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, among others for privacy concerns and potential for the suppression of dissent.[16]

Jenkins ran in the November 2022 special election to serve the remainder of Boudin's term through 2023.[18] She won with 53.7% of the vote.

On October 13, 2022, retired Superior Court Judge Martha Goldin filed a State Bar complaint against Jenkins, outlining multiple misconduct allegations.[19][20] Jenkins was paid a six-figure consulting fee by the nonprofit Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, which shares a name and an office with the Chesa Boudin recall campaign. Jenkins had not previously disclosed these payments was registered as a volunteer.[21][22] In October 2022, an anonymous complaint was filed with San Francisco's Ethics Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission accusing Jenkins of failing to register as a campaign consultant.[22] The complaint alleged that the $153,000 salary Jenkins received from the nonprofit was intended for partisan purposes.[22]

In October 2022, reporter Joe Eskenazi revealed that just before leaving the District Attorney's Office, Jenkins had sent sensitive files, including a rap sheet, from the District Attorney's office to Assistant District Attorney Don DuBain's personal email and used those materials in the campaign to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin.[23] In California, disseminating a rap sheet to a person who is unauthorized to receive it is a misdemeanor.[23] Jenkins claimed that she accidentally sent the email to DuBain's personal email.[24]

In August 2023, the California Court of Appeal, First District, found that Brooke Jenkins committed prosecutorial misconduct in a homicide case she prosecuted in 2021 by making improper arguments about the defense attorney in violation of ethical rules. This is the second time a court has found that Jenkins committed misconduct.[25] In 2016, the California Court of Appeal overturned a conviction after finding that Jenkins committed prosecutorial misconduct by improperly commenting on a defendant's exercise of his right to remain silent and thereby interfering with a defendant's constitutional rights.[26]

In July of 2024, reporter Jonah Owen Lamb uncovered that Brooke Jenkins hired a UCSF nursing professor and longtime friend from high school, Monifa Willis, with no legal experience to run the San Francisco District Attorney's Office as Chief of Staff, receiving an annual compensation of nearly $300,000 while maintaining outside employment. According to city ethics, close relationships must be disclosed.[27] The San Francisco Chronicle also reported that this is the first time in history that the Chief of Staff of the San Francisco District Attorney's Office is not a licensed attorney.[28]

Personal life

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Jenkins lives in Mission Bay with her husband, two children, and her stepdaughter.[7]

Notes

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  1. ^ Jenkins served as the Acting District Attorney from July 8, 2022 until December 1, 2022.

References

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  1. ^ Karlamangla, Soumya (July 8, 2022). "An Interview with San Francisco's New District Attorney". The New York Times. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
  2. ^ Moench, Mallory; Cassidy, Megan (July 7, 2022). "S.F.'s new D.A. is Brooke Jenkins, the prosecutor who left Chesa Boudin's office and joined the recall". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  3. ^ "Brooke Jenkins". Ballotpedia. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d Moench, Mallory; Cassidy, Megan (July 7, 2022). "S.F.'s new D.A. is Brooke Jenkins, the prosecutor who left Chesa Boudin's office and joined the recall". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  5. ^ a b Rommelmann, Nancy (July 8, 2022). "Brooke Jenkins In As San Francisco DA". Nancy Rommelmann. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  6. ^ Lin, Da (July 10, 2022). "Web Extra: Interview with San Francisco's new district attorney". KPIX-TV CBS Bay Area. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
  7. ^ a b "Critics call S.F.'s new D.A. corrupt. Supporters say she's a savior. Who is the real Brooke Jenkins?". San Francisco Chronicle. August 26, 2022. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
  8. ^ "Brooke Ashley Jenkins # 276290 - Attorney Licensee Search". apps.calbar.ca.gov. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  9. ^ a b Romine, Taylor (July 7, 2022). "Boudin opponent named to replace him as San Francisco district attorney". CNN. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  10. ^ a b Karlamangla, Soumya (July 8, 2022). "An Interview With San Francisco's New District Attorney". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  11. ^ Ting, Eric (July 8, 2022). "Inside 'horrible,' 'icy' first meeting held by new San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins". SF Gate. Retrieved January 18, 2023.
  12. ^ Ting, Eric (July 15, 2022). "New San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins makes wave of firings. Progressives call it 'terrifying.'". SF Gate. Retrieved January 18, 2023.
  13. ^ "DA Brooke Jenkins Threatens Drug Dealers with More Jail Time as Fentanyl Crackdown Expands". August 3, 2022.
  14. ^ Michaels, Samantha. "San Francisco's new DA plans to reverse key criminal justice reforms". Mother Jones. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
  15. ^ Balakrishnan, Eleni (September 20, 2023). "DA Brooke Jenkins reverses 8-year decline in convictions". Mission Local. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  16. ^ a b "Brooke Jenkins backs police plan to expand live surveillance in San Francisco: 'Our tone and approach matter'". The San Francisco Standard. July 11, 2022. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  17. ^ Balakrishnan, Eleni (May 30, 2024). "SFPD's first surveillance cameras are coming to the Mission". Mission Local. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  18. ^ "Brooke Jenkins files to run for remainder of term as San Francisco DA". August 8, 2022.
  19. ^ "State Bar complaint filed against SF interim D.A. Jenkins by retired judge". KTVU FOX 2. October 13, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  20. ^ Wiley, Hannah (November 2, 2022). "Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins gets a crash course in San Francisco politics". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  21. ^ Barba, Michael (August 9, 2022). "DA Jenkins Pocketed Six Figures as Consultant for Nonprofit Linked to Boudin Recall Backers". The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  22. ^ a b c "DA Brooke Jenkins Got Paid Big Bucks by Group Linked to Chesa Boudin Recall. Ethics Complaint Accuses Her of Breaking Law". The San Francisco Standard. October 7, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  23. ^ a b Eskenazi, Joe (November 2, 2022). "Brooke Jenkins sent police reports, rap sheet to colleague's personal email". Mission Local. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  24. ^ Eskenazi, Joe (November 3, 2022). "Brooke Jenkins: Legal experts dismiss DA's excuses for sharing restricted files". Mission Local. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  25. ^ "San Francisco DA Committed Misconduct in Murder Trial, Appeals Court Says". The San Francisco Standard. August 30, 2023. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  26. ^ Tleimat, Lana (August 29, 2023). "DA Jenkins committed prosecutorial misconduct, Court of Appeal finds". Mission Local. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  27. ^ "DA's new chief of staff is friend, has no law license, teaches at UCSF and ran pot shop". The San Francisco Standard. July 26, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  28. ^ Cassidy, Megan (July 26, 2024). "S.F. DA's chief of staff isn't a lawyer for the first time in the office's history. Does it matter?". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 29, 2024.


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