After promoting her former pot-selling nurse pal to a six-figure gig, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is under fire for “erod[ing] public trust.”
“Nepotism in government is a form of corruption.”
For Bay Area residents who thought the 2022 recall of then-DA Chesa Boudin would bring positive change, recent allegations made against Jenkins’ office likely dispelled any such lingering hope. New concerns arose as a quiet appointment became public knowledge when a former high school teammate with questionable qualifications was named chief of staff with a nearly $300,000 salary.
“She was given the position because she knew the DA,” a former Victim Services employee told the San Francisco Standard concerning the March 2024 appointment of Monifa Willis who previously headed that division. “Stuff fell through the cracks all the time because she was too busy doing two jobs. I’ve seen her [teaching online] classes during work hours.”
After Jenkins was appointed to replace Boudin by San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D) in July 2022, the new DA selected Willis for the position in the Victim Services Division. Meanwhile, the part-time UCSF nursing professor, who was previously CEO of a marijuana company, continued to pull in $100,000 for her teaching gig despite rules prohibiting outside interference.
“No employee may engage in outside activity (regardless of whether the activity is compensated) that would cause the employee to be absent from his or her assignments on a regular basis, or otherwise require a time commitment that is demonstrated to interfere with the employee’s performance of his or her City duties,” the DA’s Office policy states.
Reacting to reports of Jenkins naming her friend to the position, whom public Venmo accounts revealed she had spent social time with dating back to at least 2021, attorney and candidate for San Francisco DA Ryan Khojasteh, who’d previously worked in Boudin’s office told the Standard, “Nepotism erodes public trust. As San Franciscans, we deserve better from our District Attorney’s Office.”
“My administration will not tolerate such abuses of office — assignments will be based on merit, experience, and competence,” he said.
Khojasteh also released a statement that read in part, “Nepotism in government is a form of corruption. It is unacceptable to engage in nepotism at the highest levels in the District Attorney’s Office. I am calling on Ms. Willis to immediately resign from her position as the Chief of Staff and for the District Attorney to publicly apologize to the people of San Francisco for this abuse of office.”
A stunning revelation that @BrookeJenkinsSF hired her personal friend with no legal experience to be Chief of Staff @SFDAOffice, while also having another job.
This is mismanagement at its finest. Monifa Willis must resign immediately. My full statement below: pic.twitter.com/Q6O0cdHzD9
— Ryan Khojasteh (@ryankhoj) July 26, 2024
His statement included a description of the role as a challenge to Willis’ qualifications that read in part, the chief of staff “oversees, develops and delegates responsibilities for essential processes of the city’s preeminent law enforcement agency including areas of policy and legislation, staffing, communications, data and research, victim services, community engagement, front office operations and all large scale projects/changes and implementations that impact the Office.”
“You have to have some basic understanding of the criminal justice system, and you don’t get that as a victim services advocate,” a former senior district attorney administrator told the Standard.
In her own statement on the appointment, Jenkins defended selecting her former track-and-field teammate and said, “I am proud to have Monifa Willis serve as my chief of staff. I have had the honor and privilege of knowing Monifa for years and am excited to work with her in this capacity.”
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail highlighted another scandal connected to the Victims Services Division after former employee Jovan Thomas filed a wrongful termination suit following an email that had gone out to all employees which read, “What color panties you have on.”
He has since claimed the message was meant for a grieving friend as a means to cheer him up, but he was accused of directing the question at Jenkins whom Thomas alleged made “false, fraudulent, malicious and humiliating statements” about him to the press.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
- Bill Maher explains Trump’s appeal to young males who have only ever seen ‘white men bad!’ - January 14, 2026
- Murkowski, Dem team up on bill to block Trump from seizing Greenland - January 14, 2026
- Joe Rogan joins Dems, likens ICE to ‘the Gestapo’ - January 14, 2026
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.