SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – A now-former San Francisco assistant district attorney blasted SF DA Brooke Jenkins in a resignation letter Wednesday, saying the newly-appointed top prosecutor has skewed priorities.
“I question our new leader’s priorities when adverse employment decisions are rendered, without explanation, to cement political power prior to an election in disregard to the needs of our cases,” wrote Alexandra Grayner, who had been an assistant district attorney in the white collar crime division.
These employment decisions included Grayner’s move from that division to the misdemeanor division, she told KRON4, just days after Jenkins fired 15 people.
“I was taken off my cases before several trials. I was also a supporter of Chesa Boudin.”
-Alexandra Grayner
“I was taken off my cases before several trials,” Grayner said. “I was also a supporter of [former DA] Chesa Boudin.”
Grayner conceded that it is usual practice for people in top roles at the office to depart or begin with the coming of a new administration (Boudin made a similar move in 2020), but said that she was not a member of the high-level staff, and that Jenkins’ “political purge” of the office is hurting the office’s ability to deliver results in cases.
“When you get down to line attorneys — I had no management authority and didn’t work closely with Chesa or Brooke,” Grayner said. “When you get to that level, political loyalty is interfering with good work and causes problems with the workflow of the office.”
Grayner accused Jenkins of putting political considerations above the work of the DA’s office; Jenkins pulled papers Monday to run for the rest of the term vacated by Boudin after his recall.
“We’ve seen her prioritize the campaign over the people of San Francisco. We see that with the news this week she misled San Franciscans to think she was a volunteer with the recall,” Grayner said. “Was this ever about public safety, or was it about political opportunism?”
News broke Tuesday that Jenkins received $115,000 for consulting on the recall of her predecessor. Like Grayner, Jenkins had been an assistant district attorney who quit, questioning the DA’s priorities.
The District Attorney’s office declined to comment to KRON4 on Grayner’s letter and allegations, calling it a “personnel matter.”
The spokesperson for Jenkins’ opponent for DA in the November election, former police and fire commissioner Joe Alioto Veronese, did not respond to a request for comment.