FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 10, 2025
MEDIA CONTACT: PDR-MediaRelations@sfgov.org
**PRESS RELEASE**
Multiple S.F. Criminal Trial Acquittals Demonstrate
DA’s Office Waste and Abuse
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office has obtained several trial acquittals for its clients recently, with San Francisco juries rejecting the prosecution’s charges. These trial results demonstrate that the S.F. District Attorney’s office is clogging the court with cases and keeping people in jail—at enormous public expense—based on evidence that does not hold up under scrutiny. These acquittals also show that S.F. prosecutors are increasingly charging individuals—often people of color, who are impoverished, unhoused, have mental health conditions or substance use disorder—instead of allowing them access to services that would put them on a better path for the long term. Meanwhile, San Francisco Public Defenders are carrying the highest caseload of their peers in the Bay Area, well above the American Bar Association’s recommended standards.
“These three Black men should not be in the criminal system, taking up courtrooms and jurors’ time,” said elected San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju. “These are people who should be offered support, not criminalized. It would be a lot more effective—not to mention less costly for taxpayers—to allow them access to stable housing, treatment, and job opportunities. I am grateful to our tireless, determined defender teams, and to the juries who thoughtfully delivered not-guilty verdicts in these cases.”
Having a Mental Health Condition is Not a Crime
In August 2024, Marcell Collins, 52, was accused of making a criminal threat and committing second-degree robbery—both felonies—after a miscommunication with a restaurant worker over some free mints. Collins, who is unhoused, had entered a Chinatown restaurant to take a few mints from a jar on a counter, as he had done before without incident. This time, however, a worker took the jar from him. The worker was wearing a mask. Collins thought she had asked him what was in his pocket, so he showed her the knife he had been carrying. When that startled the worker, Collins said, “I’m not going to kill you,” and left. The worker thought he had threatened her, and restaurant staff called the police. At trial, Collins and the worker both testified, and it became clear that they had misunderstood each other, likely due to a language barrier. On May 20, the jury acquitted him of both felony charges.
“Marcell was incarcerated for eight months and a jury found he had committed no crime,” said Deputy Public Defender Jared Rudolph, who represented Collins. “Prosecutors fought us tooth and nail when we proposed mental health diversion, which would have been the more appropriate solution. Unfortunately, it’s a typical occurrence for the District Attorney to oppose mental health diversion.”
In June 2024, Hermon Tamrat, 39—who is unhoused and suffers from serious mental conditions—was jailed after security guards attacked him. The guards had asked him to leave the Embarcadero Center mall, and during a scuffle, Tamrat cut one of the guard’s hands with a knife he had for self-protection. Prosecutors charged Tamrat with felony assault, but a judge later dismissed that case entirely, as evidence showed that Tamrat was acting in self-defense. However, in January 2025—before that case had been dismissed and while Tamrat was still in jail—prosecutors charged him with felony aggravated assault for throwing a milk carton of feces at a Sheriff’s deputy. This charge, known as “gassing,” is an unfortunate occurrence that is not unusual for mental health facilities. Even though his initial case was dismissed in April 2025, and Tamrat had been hospitalized twice for psychiatric emergencies while in jail, prosecutors pushed to keep him in custody to face trial on the gassing charge. In May, a jury fully acquitted Tamrat, and he was released from custody after nearly a year in jail.
“The tragedy here is that Hermon was in jail for 300 days on false allegations, and while in jail he had a psychotic breakdown that the DAs wanted to squeeze a felony out of,” said Tamrat’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Max Eberitzsch. “Mental health diversion was never offered. Thankfully, the jury understood that a person who clearly has a mental health condition should not be subjected to criminal law and criminal sanctions. I’ll note that this acquittal happened when the DA’s office was posting on Twitter about mental health awareness month.”
Jailed While Innocent: Pretrial Detention Disrupts Lives & Hurts Families
On Jan. 31, 2025, 57-year-old Timothy Watkins got into an argument with a woman on a Muni bus, and was charged with two felonies: assault with a likelihood of causing great bodily injury and battery. Watkins said that the woman got upset with him for talking loudly and then stood over him, yelling into his face. Watkins pushed the woman back in self-defense, but she claimed he punched and stomped her, unprovoked. The woman declined medical help, and police handcuffed Watkins within seconds of arriving. Watkins pleaded to officers to obtain video of the altercation from Muni because it would exonerate him. When investigators eventually went to retrieve the video, Muni officials said a server error had deleted the footage. At trial, the woman, the bus driver, and other witnesses all gave accounts that were inconsistent or contradictory, and on June 16, a jury acquitted him of all charges.
“This is another case involving a Black man that never should have been charged, since it was clear that witness accounts were completely inconsistent,” said Deputy Public Defender Tatiana Howard, Watkins’ attorney. “Instead, Mr. Watkins had to be in jail for nearly half a year, was almost evicted, and lost his health insurance while waiting for the chance to tell the jury what really happened.”
These three cases reveal a troubling pattern: vulnerable San Franciscans are being jailed and prosecuted based on weak or misunderstood evidence, rather than offered help. Juries saw through the flaws in the prosecutions and acquitted individuals who should never have been charged. The S.F. Public Defender’s Office opposes the criminalization of poverty, mental illness, and homelessness—and encourages investments in mental health treatment, housing, and other services that truly promote safety and justice.
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