Attorneys for a former San Francisco police officer charged with manslaughter are arguing the case should be tossed because the prosecution was the product of “misconduct” by ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Their challenge stems from new discovery materials that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ office turned over within days of conducting interviews with two investigators who said Boudin and his lieutenants pushed through a case that others in his office found unprosecutable.
A judge will be asked Friday to determine whether the internal disagreements over Samayoa’s case — and the specific ways in which Boudin allegedly dealt with them — are enough to get the case dismissed.
Christopher Samayoa had been an officer for five days when he shot and killed Keita O’Neil, who was unarmed and fleeing from police on Dec. 1, 2017, in Bayview-Hunters Point, after allegedly carjacking a California State Lottery minivan.
Camera footage shows that O’Neil jumped out of the van and appeared to be running past the officers’ car when Samayoa fired a single, fatal shot through his own window.
More than five years later, Samayoa’s attorneys contend that Boudin, who took office in January 2020, committed “egregious prosecutorial misconduct” by directing that the initial arrest warrant be filed while the main District Attorney’s Office investigator on the case was on vacation.
In a court filing obtained Wednesday by The Chronicle, Samayoa’s attorneys allege that Boudin went around the investigator because he, as well as others who’d reviewed the case, didn’t believe the case could be successfully prosecuted.
Boudin, who couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, has called O’Neil’s death a clear case of criminal police conduct. In filing charges in late 2020, he embarked on a historic prosecution that has become a flash point of contention after Boudin’s recall and the election of Jenkins, his critic and rival.
Samayoa, who was fired, was the first San Francisco police officer accused of homicide charges in an on-duty killing. He shot O’Neil when George Gascón was district attorney, but the case remained open when Boudin took office.
The District Attorney’s Office declined to immediately comment on the filings.
O’Neil’s family has expressed worry about how Jenkins’ more moderate administration will handle the case, which represents one of the first tests of Jenkins’ commitment to police accountability.
Since she took office, Jenkins has made changes in the unit tasked with investigating police misconduct, including installing a head who clashed with O’Neil’s family.
Brian Ford, who represents O’Neil’s aunt, April Green, said the family was anxious to hear a response from the current administration on the filings, after growing concerned about previous delays.
“We’re very concerned about what the motion alleges, what it could do to the case and any prospect of delay,” Ford said Wednesday night. “Her primary concern in this case is that justice be done for her nephew, her family and that the officer is held accountable.”
Samayoa faces five charges: voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, assault by an executive officer, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and negligent discharge of a firearm. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Friday morning, in which a judge would hear evidence and decide whether to send the case to a jury trial. But the new court motion threatens to push back the case yet again.
In the filings, Samayoa’s attorney, Michael Rains, asks the court to dismiss the charges. Rains said Samayoa had good reason, including his recent police academy training, to believe that O’Neil could have been armed.
The filings were the result of interview transcripts and summaries the D.A.’s office turned over to Rains within days of the interviews being conducted with one current and one former inspector in the office. The inspectors claimed to have witnessed a PowerPoint presentation explaining why the case could not successfully be prosecuted, a presentation Rains is now seeking.
After a meeting with Jenkins and the prosecutor on the case, family attorney Ford said he didn’t think the information revealed in discovery ever should have been. “At the end of the day, the opinions of an investigator are irrelevant,” he said.
It made him fear the state is tanking it’s own case, he added.
“This reeks of collusion,” he said.
Joshua Sharpe is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: joshua.sharpe@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joshuawsharpe