SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A new lawsuit seeks to force the San Francisco County Superior Court to reduce a backlog of criminal cases that has caused more than 400 defendants to remain jailed or subject to court oversight after the deadline for a speedy trial has passed.
The lawsuit filed by San Francisco Public Defender Manohar Raju and four city taxpayers claims the court is systematically violating defendants’ rights by failing to take common sense steps to alleviate a bottleneck brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is a humanitarian crisis that we have over 100 people waiting in jail for months, some over a year, often in their cells for 23 hours a day,” Raju said during a press conference on the steps of the San Francisco Hall of Justice Tuesday. “This kind of isolation and deprivation can cause irreversible, long-term psychological damage to individuals and their families and their children.”
As of Aug. 30, at least 429 people’s cases had dragged on longer than the 60-day limit for trials to occur after a plea is entered. Among those, 178 defendants were being held in jail while awaiting trial. The Public Defender's Office says most pretrial detainees are forced to stay in cramped cells for 23 hours a day with no access to classes, counseling services or library books, due to stringent rules put in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
One of those defendants is Sarina Borg, a 44-year-old mother accused of murder. Borg’s aunt, Elaine Portillo, shared her niece’s story at the press conference Tuesday and in an interview afterwards. Portillo said her niece was with her boyfriend when he fatally shot someone. According to Portillo, a witness and video of the shooting confirm that her niece did not commit the crime. Nevertheless, she’s been stuck in jail since approximately May 2020.
“She used to be very happy, and she’s very sad,” Portillo said. “She’s depressed. She’s afraid. She doesn’t know what to think about the court because she feels the court could care less about her.”
While Borg was in jail, her 12-year-old daughter, who had been staying with family, ran away. Portillo said the young girl "just kept saying 'I want my mom.'" Portillo said she continues to look for her niece’s daughter, who is now 13, every day.
According to the lawsuit, the court has failed to prioritize criminal cases as it continues to hold jury trials “in a variety of non-urgent” civil disputes at a separate courthouse in San Francisco's Civic Center. In July, Raju penned a letter asking Presiding Judge Samuel Feng to allow more criminal proceedings to take place in those civil case courtrooms.
Feng responded that the court “continues to make criminal trials assigned to the Civic Center Courthouse a priority” and suggested that the sheriff’s office shares some blame for failing to provide adequate security for criminal trials.
No additional courtrooms at the Civic Center location were reassigned for criminal hearings, according to the suit.
"The San Francisco Superior Court continues to give criminal trials the highest priority. We will respond to the complaint in court," the court's spokesman Ken Garcia said in an emailed statement.
A spokeswoman for San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said his office acknowledges the extraordinary challenges the court faces in balancing safety and the rights of defendants. Boudin has long been urging the court to address the backlog and make more courtrooms available, DA’s office spokeswoman Rachel Marshall said in an emailed statement.
“The trial backlog not only impacts those who are accused of crimes but has also delayed justice for crime survivors who seek closure,” Marshall said. “The DA’s Office remains ready and eager to bring as many cases to trial as possible and secure justice for crime victims, families, and the accused.”
On Tuesday, Raju said the backlog takes a particularly hard toll on the city’s minority communities, which make up a disproportionately large segment of San Francisco’s pretrial jail population. About 5.6% of San Francisco residents are Black, but more than half of jailed defendants whose speedy trial deadlines have passed are Black, according to the lawsuit.
“We’re not going to stand by while members of our community — poor Black and brown brothers and sisters — are told to wait in the back of the line while the court takes care of civil matters,” Raju said.
Raju noted that much of the city has opened back up — including dance clubs, shopping malls and movie theatres — as the rate of new Covid-19 cases has declined in the Bay Area. But the court has yet to take steps that would open more courtrooms for criminal trials, he said.
Deputy Public Defender Landon Davis likened the conditions many of his jailed clients endure to torture, noting that they must stay in a “dirty, smelly cell” 23 hours a day with no ventilation or access to sunshine.
“Now is the time to end torture, and now is the time to open up this courtroom," Davis said.
The lawsuit seeks a writ of mandate requiring the court to prioritize criminal cases over civil matters, expedite criminal proceedings and make all non-specialized courtrooms at the Civic Center Courthouse available for criminal trials. It also requests an order that would force the court to adopt a plan for eliminating the backlog of criminal cases.
Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include San Francisco business owner Elisa Baier, San Francisco resident Rose Marie Sims and San Francisco homeowners Donna Doyle and John Dunbar.
The plaintiffs are represented by Monique Oliver of Oliver Schreiber & Chao in San Francisco and James Miller of Miller Shah in San Diego.
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