The newly installed San Francisco district attorney is the focus of an ethics complaint stemming from her work to oust controversial predecessor Chesa Boudin.
Brooke Jenkins resigned from her job as an assistant district attorney to lead a successful recall campaign against Boudin this year after victims and prosecutors revolted over lax charging and sentencing decisions for defendants.
She has been the appointed district attorney for three months, and now, an anonymous complaint has been filed with the San Francisco Ethics Commission and the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, according to media reports.
The accuser says Jenkins claimed to be a volunteer seeking to unseat Boudin but actually made a six-figure salary from three nonprofit groups and did not register as a campaign consultant.
“I did nothing wrong or illegal,” she told the San Francisco Standard last month. “And so, I think that this is all being used, quite frankly, as a distraction from the actual work that’s being done to keep San Francisco safer.”
She said her work with the organizations was not tied to her efforts to unseat Boudin.
One of the nonprofit groups, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, is registered as a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) and paid Jenkins $153,000 to analyze property crime, she said. The research was then used by the recall campaign in a “major role,” the complaint said.
NEW SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY SWORN IN TO REPLACE BOUDIN
The accuser is seeking records detailing Jenkins’s work there, which so far have not been provided.
“Ms. Jenkins certainly should have known that her work would be used to support the recall effort — especially given how involved she was with the same individuals on that recall effort,” the complaint said.
The recall campaign is defending Jenkins’s role in ousting Boudin.
“Boudin’s loyalists and the District Attorney’s opponents are grasping at straws and will do anything to try and take her down,” said recall organizer Mary Jung. “The District Attorney was a volunteer for the recall campaign — end of story.”
Jenkins has taken a high-profile stance of reversing decisions by Boudin not to charge drug, use of a gun, and other violations that led to an upswing in crime, opponents say. San Francisco is more dangerous than 98% of the nation, according to the Hoover Institution.
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The appointment of Jenkins is a short-lived position, as voters will decide who to elect for district attorney on Nov. 8. Jenkins is running and has two main opponents, including one whose campaign is run by Boudin’s former campaign manager.
