Inmate Advocates Slam Santa Clara County DA’s New Hires

When Chesa Boudin took office earlier this year as San Francisco’s new DA, he immediately went about firing a slew of prosecutors whom he felt didn’t quite align with his progressive, anti-incarceration agenda.

Among them: gang unit managing attorney Ana Gonzalez and her counterpart in general felonies, Linda Allen. The latter was reportedly axed in part because the California Court of Appeals overturned her 2007 conviction of Jamal Truelove for murder after finding fault with some of her assertions in the case.

In 2019, the city of San Francisco paid $13.1 million to Trulove after a jury found that a couple of cops fabricated evidence and failed to disclose exculpatory material.

Allen and Gonzalez landed on their feet, though, when Santa Clara County DA Jeff Rosen took them under his wing.

The new hires didn’t sit well with inmate advocates at Silicon Valley De-Bug, a social justice nonprofit that sees more eye-to-eye with Boudin than the local DA. “It’s a horrible disservice to justice and our community that Santa Clara County becomes a repository for disgraced prosecutors,” De-Bug founder Raj Jayadev told Fly, echoing criticism expressed by a number of criminal defense attorneys as well.

Truelove’s story illustrates the “horrors of a prosecutor obsessed with conviction rather than justice,” he said. Plus, San Francisco literally paid a fortune for the wrongful prosecution. “Santa Clara County can’t afford to pay a prosecutor millions of dollars to cage innocent people,” Jayadev said.

Rosen spokesman Sean Webby defended the integrity of the two S.F. hires.

“We carefully looked at this [Truelove] case,” he said. “It concerned us. We spoke with judges and prosecutors who have closely worked with Ms. Allen. The DA spoke directly with DA Chesa Boudin. We decided to hire her because we feel confident that Ms. Allen will bring her depth of experience and excellence to our team and will protect the people using the highest ethical values. And we believe in second chances.”

Eric Fleming, a San Francisco Superior Court judge who worked for years with Allen in felony court, affirmed the sentiment, saying Allen’s firing probably had more to do with Boudin’s own vision than her professional record.

“I don’t know if these prosecutors weren’t as progressive as he wanted,” he said. “But I do know all of the prosecutors that they fired and all of them are excellent.”

In a phone call from home, where she’s recovering from an ankle surgery, Sharon Woo—the chief assistant DA to Boundin’s predecessor, George Gascon—had nothing but praise for Gonazalez and Allen.

“I think it was a loss, really, for San Francisco to have that quality of individuals leave the office with that much experience,” she said. “And they are, they really carry excellent judgment and discretion and they have handled the most serious cases.”

If she did anything wrong, Woo quipped, she would not want either of those two to prosecute her. “Because,” she said, “I know they will be thorough and they will be tough.”

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14 Comments

  1. How interesting, I wonder how Mr. Boudin would view the resent witch trial, impeachment, and acquittal of President Trump. It’s time to hold the liar Adam Schitt , Jerry the Toad Nadler, and Bumbler of the House Nasty Pelosi accountable and scores of other traders in the injustice department for 3 years of malpractice.

    Don’t you agree Mr. Fly?

  2. There is one thing all in Santa Clara County can agree on. Jeff Rosen is the top criminal in Santa Clara County. But justice does not mean plain and general decriminalizing of illegal acts. Justice means that all criminals be treated equal before, during, and after sentence. This is hardly the case. Jeff Rosen typically gives passes to criminal represented by private attorneys while giving harsh sentences to those with public representation. This is particularly the case for D.V. Perpetrators who are part of our local law enforcement and other privileged status. This is a well known pattern of Jeff Rosen’s applied justice, and county supervisors are well aware of this. The same happens with sexual offenders . This is why our county has a pandemic is child sexual abuse, exploitation, and D.V. cases. Maladaptive behavior without serious consequences is likely to increase in rate and severity. Perpetrators are rewarded to continue their criminal acts. People like Jayadev have to focus on all criminals receiving the same treatment under the law not advocating for criminals receiving a pass. They and Jeff Rosen are the same type of sh!t. Rosen preferential treatment for privilege perpetrators denies low socio economic criminals equal process under the law and also denies victims’ access to justice. Debug like groups denie victim’s access to justice. All criminals have to be accountable for their criminal acts and mandated to rehabilitation process. A good proportion of incarcerated individuals present significant sociopathic traits. Science has shown other high proportion of sociopaths are in the clergy, public service. And law enforcement field. You also typically see males advocating for males. Their mind is not wise enough to be emphatic of women, children, and victims’ pain and suffering and general public that had been victimized again, and again by these criminals with a high urgency for rehabilitation. Behavior is learned, so it can be unlearned. It can also be discouraged or rewarded by our legal and social systems. Criminal justice systems must be victim centered and with specific goals on prevention of crimes, treatment for victims and perpetrators, and postvention. DEBUG THE MALE PRIVILEDGE IN OUR SOCIETY!

  3. District Attorney Jeffrey Francis “Frozen” Rosen is at it again….. Can we say “Poor Leadership” folks?

    I am sure these new “Illness Spreading Germ Attorneys” that have been hired at our DA’s office will continue the rampage of prosecuting innocent people.

    Tonia McCash, Ted Scarlett, Victorius Alexander, Simple Rose, myself and countless others have been maliciously prosecuted by this man just over speaking up for our community.

    I am positive that after this comment is posted ole “Frozen Rosen” will retaliate in some form or fashion like he has in the past.

    What’s it gonna be this time Jeff?

    Bench Warrant?
    New Charges for Protesting? (1st Amendment Right)
    Make up more stories and lies about me?
    Refuse to enforce my Visitation Orders to see my KID (Court Ordered) it’s called contempt JEFF!!!! And my Ex committed this for almost two years…. 166 Penal Code

    Maybe….. Just maybe after this is posted one of these new “Dirty Dogs” will be assigned to my upcoming trial in regards to my “First Amendment Rights” yet again.

    Soooooooo SAD the amount of money that TAX Payers have to forked out to prosecute innocent people in Santa Clara County that call out their local government.

    It’s just a Megaphone Jeff…. Not a Weapon of Mass Destruction….

    What happened to my “Second Chance” Jeff?? I guess this only applies to wealth, power, and influence in Santa Clara County.

    Body Cams below for my upcoming malicious prosecution brought to you in part by District Attorney Jefferey Francis “Frozen” Rosen. ?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT5mT5ch9Vs&t=315s

  4. > “It’s a horrible disservice to justice and our community that Santa Clara County becomes a repository for disgraced prosecutors,” De-Bug founder Raj Jayadev told Fly, echoing criticism expressed by a number of criminal defense attorneys as well.

    And who the hell is Raj Jayadev, and why the hell should anyone believe anything he, she, or it says?

    Jeff Rosen may be a lizard. But, there’s no reason to jump to the conclusion that he’s a worse lizard than Chesa Boudin, Raj Jayadev or George Soros.

    And by the way, my understanding is that Boudin is kind of an accidental District Attorney, actually finishing third in the voting in the election. Only the miraculous shenanigans of “ranked choice voting” resulted in this truly malicious and malignant cretin being put in office.

    A total lock down of San Francisco would probably be a tremendous benefit to civilization.

  5. > The new hires didn’t sit well with inmate advocates at Silicon Valley De-Bug,

    What “inmate advocates”?

    You only mention ONE such advocate — Raj Jayadev.

    And you represent that his “organization” — Silicon Valley De-Bug, a social justice nonprofit — is something “real” rather than just an SJW web page.

    > In 2019, the city of San Francisco paid $13.1 million to Trulove after a jury found that a couple of cops fabricated evidence and failed to disclose exculpatory material.

    Chesa Boudin probably told the jury that the last SF DA crew was GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! and the jury should give Trulove $50 million. The judge was probably embarrassed by the stupidity and knock the award down to $13.1 million.

  6. Unsurprising to see the extremists from DeBug oppose hiring prosecutors, since they, and Chavista Chesa Boudin, don’t seem interested in enforcing laws against actual criminals.

  7. “‘It’s a horrible disservice to justice and our community that Santa Clara County becomes a repository for disgraced prosecutors,’De-Bug founder Raj Jayadev told Fly, echoing criticism expressed by a number of criminal defense attorneys as well.”

    Disgraced? Not particularly fair to Ms. Gonzalez who had nothing to with the Trulove case. By the way, it’s spelled Trulove, not Truelove.

    It is not clear to me why unnamed defense attorneys, or Raj Jayadev for that matter, are being quoted or given a forum on these hiring decisions. Did those attorneys, or Mr. Jaydev read the Trulove opinion to know what the the reversal was about? Have they heard from Ms. Allen? Mr. Jayadev and those defense lawyers would insist on a vigorous defense and the ability to present a defense, have they allowed that before rendering their own, anonymous and possibly misinformed, opinions? Do they have all the relevant facts?

    By all means write as many articles about DA personnel and their work performance. That’s fair game. But simply echoing the opinions of others, who may be woefully misinformed or simply uninformed, without fully addressing the facts, amplifies knee jerk reactionism over informed opinion. A good example is the smear of Ms. Gonzalez in this article by association when the real accusation was over the Trulove case. Keep in mind, according to the linked articles, Trulove got his financial settlement when he sued the police for misconduct, not Allen or the SF DA’s Office. So all that leaves is her closing argument in the Trulove case and Lara Bazelon’s unsupported vindictive smear in the linked article.

    I read the Trulove opinion. To Mr. Jaydev and the anonymous defense attorneys, have you? If so, when?

  8. 413.1 million dollars is a lot of money to pay for a prosecutor’s incompetence. She was responsible to do the due diligence with the cops. DA s should not be rubber stamps. How many others with less sensational cases have been wrongly convicted?

    • According to the article and the links, the $13.1 million was for accusations of illegal POLICE behavior. Not the prosecutor.

  9. DA Jeffrey Francis Rosen, must face criminal charges. I asked the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to put on a future agenda a Vote of no confidence for DA Rosen, because he prosecutes people he knows are innocent. He is abusing his office and wasting tax payer dollars on his personnel vendettas. He is using his office against me to interfere with the outcome of civil litigation and in retaliation for my suing judge Socrates Peter Manoukian in Federal court. (USDC). DA Rosen had his deputy da Amir Alam present me “their offer” in writing, that I must agree to not ever sue for my home of 32 years, not ever sue the guy they are helping steal my home, and drop the civil law suit for my home. The have caused me two heart attacks, the second one in the court room at a hearing they forced me to go to, against my doctors orders. When the heart attack started in the court room no one gave me aid, I begged for aspirin. The judge was told and she came out of her office took the bench and continued to help the DA prosecute me. The judge left the court room only when she was alerted the paramedics were in the elevator on their way up. My experience tells me they are psychopaths and sociopaths, they are unfit to hold office.

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