Jeffrey Pailet, the former investigator fired by once-District Attorney Chesa Boudin in November 2020, is on track to receive $835,000 from the city for wrongful termination concerning his involvement in a police-shooting case.
A Board of Supervisors committee will vote whether to approve Pailet’s settlement on Tuesday, but generally these are approved.
Pailet sued Boudin in November 2021 for retaliatory termination, which he said came after he attempted to expose alleged prosecutorial misconduct in the investigation into the police shooting of Sean Moore. Moore was shot in 2017 by a San Francisco police officer who was subsequently charged by Boudin with homicide; Moore died years after the shooting as a result of his injuries.
In his lawsuit, Pailet named Boudin, then-chief of staff David Campos, and attorneys Dana Drusinsky and Stephanie Lacambra, saying they used misleading information to draft a search warrant for officers’ cell phones in the Moore case. Pailet, who worked at the DA’s office from 2017 to 2020 was, at the time, managing a team of investigators who drafted search warrants.
When Boudin took over the DA’s office in 2020, criminal charges had not yet been filed against Officer Kenneth Cha, the police officer who shot Moore on the front steps of his home in 2017 when responding to a noise complaint. Moore died from complications related to the shooting in January 2020, the same month Boudin took office. Current District Attorney Brooke Jenkins dropped the case against Cha in July 2023.
The lawsuit alleged that Lacambra and Drusinsky edited a search warrant for police cell phone data, to leave out potentially exculpatory information and misrepresent the facts — and that, when he raised concerns, Pailet was blocked off from the investigation.
When Pailet pushed back, the two prosecutors threatened to report him to Boudin, he said in the lawsuit. Soon after, he was fired without explanation in November 2020.
In his lawsuit, Pailet accused Boudin of coming into the DA’s office with a “political objective to target officers with criminal investigations.” He demanded compensation for lost wages, damages for emotional distress, and punitive damages.
During his short tenure, Boudin filed the first-ever homicide cases against on-duty police officers in modern San Francisco history — one for Moore’s killing, and another for the 2017 killing of Keita O’Neil by rookie officer Christopher Samayoa. Both cases were ultimately dismissed last year by District Attorney Brooke Jenkins after Boudin was recalled.
Boudin declined to comment on the case. Pailet could not be immediately reached.
“The City is committed to providing a workplace free from retaliation,” said Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for the City Attorney’s Office, which does not usually comment on the nature of its lawsuits. “We believe the proposed settlement is an appropriate resolution, given the inherent cost of continued litigation.”
This is the first successful lawsuit against Boudin regarding his treatment of his employees. In June, a judge dismissed another lawsuit brought in 2021 by former employee Thomas Ostly, a prosecutor Boudin fired during his first week in office. The presiding judge found that the case lacked evidence.
And in September 2022, after Boudin was recalled, investigator Magen Hayashi sued Boudin and other attorneys for defamation and violating the labor code. Hayashi’s allegations became the premise for a dramatic public fallout between the District Attorney’s Office and the police department, but her case was also dismissed in July.
Other district attorneys have also been sued by former employees: Jack Friedman, another investigator who claimed Jenkins used him as a scapegoat to dismiss the Samayoa prosecution case, filed a lawsuit against Jenkins in October. That case has yet to be resolved.
In an earlier case, the city paid out $400,000 in 2020 to Henry McKenzie, an investigator who claimed he was fired by former DA George Gascón for raising concerns about the DA carrying a gun on an airplane.
Wow…i never imagined! So much backstabbing and throwing under the buses within the S.F. DA office.
Chesa was a disaster and so condescending. The epitome of white savior complex.
And, now that I think of it,
Who is/are ‘missionlocal.org’ who calls me such vile names ?
Anonymously.
At least Gary Tan signed his name.
Go Niners !!
h.
Chesa’s policy was to crack down on police violence. He put that in front of voters and won, despite the cop union spending heavily to beat him. Pailet had a different agenda — one that was never legitimized by voters — so it made perfect sense for Chesa to choose not to employ him.
Eleni,
Again, on the Gascon payout.
George demanded his day in court.
Which he was denied.
Why don’t you phone him and ask him about it Eleni ?
Just to be thorough and fair.
h.
I beg to differ,
You ‘neglected’ to mention that Boudin demanded this case come to court.
Let me repeat that …
You published this without talking to Boudin and I’ll bet he will now after reading this.
It’s the Breed personally appointed long time shyster, David Chiu, who refused to allow him to present his defense in court.
Instead, David made the call instead of letting a jury do it.
They’re giving this guy almost a million dollars for lying.
Just to make the Reform DA look bad and Progressives with him.
I’m not surprised.
Breed made Jenkins DA after she stole records illegally on way out door and took a half million or so unreported income the Billionaire Recall people gave her for bringing the records to them (again, illegally).
And, the records proved Boudin was right !!
Will await your coverage of Chesa’s response.
You’re carrying water for the Devil.
This piece is a combo campaign contribution for Breed, Chiu and Jenkins.
h.
H. —
Calm down, dude. Chesa declined to comment. Maybe you should write to him.
JE
Joe,
Cool.
I just sent him a note and info’d you.
It wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong but I doubt it.
Did your reporter talk to Gascon about the gun on the plane case ?
In both cases at the time the lawsuits were filed, George and Chesa both denied the accusations and demanded trials to clear their names.
Perhaps both changed their minds and your reporter talked to them and confirmed it.
We’ll see what Chesa says.
thanks,
h.
Joe and SF Voters,
Here’s request I sent to Chesa.
1 of 15,027
Chesa, did you decline to comment on settlement of Jeffrey Pailet case ?
Inbox
h brown
10:49 AM (17 minutes ago)
to Chesa, David, Bulldog, matt, Rich, h, Joe, Lydia, Tim
Guy,
Mission Local is running a headline with your picture saying you lost the Wrongful Termination case filed by Jeffrey Pailet and declined comment.
Is this true ?
I recall at the time that you denied any guilt and demanded a trial.
Did I miss something ?
Matt, do you have any comment on this ?
h.
(415) 527-9993
sfbulldogblog.com
I am so glad that we have a DA now who is committed to prosecuting criminals, not police officers.
This whistleblower gave us a good view into Boudin’s office. If his story helped Boudin get recalled, that’s well worth $835K. Boudin is still like a bad hangover for this city, but we’re trying to heal.
Shizuka,
I am sorry that you are an angry person but don’t blame Boudin.
I have 40 years of work in Criminal Justice and Boudin is best I’ve seen.
What you are missing here is basic proven fact that Reform works and Revenge fails.
I recommend offering every person arrested $10,000 to get sterilized.
Only ones who’d take it are junkies and the Poor.
We don’t need any more of either.
Harsh ?
Inside of a year you’d see the results in DPH records.
Go Niners !!
h.
Horrible fascist eugenicist nonsense. You should be ashamed of yourself.
MissionLocal.org,
Is that like, ‘Manchester United’ and whomever insulted me get’s to do it anonymously ?
I am not “Horrible”.
In fact, I am probably the best person you’ve ever met.
I am no “fascist” which would imply some kind of business connection?
The “eugenicist” I’ll give you if I understand it correctly as one who studies humanity in all of its variety.
Are you opposed to the distribution of condoms to the poor too ?
As I said in another comment you spiked …
Are the next billion going to live at your house ?
You sound like one of these Right-Wing anti-abortionists who want nothing to do with unwanted babies after they’re born.
I’ve lived the things I write about for my entire life and and studied and care about making a continuing positive contribution.
You’re an ivory tower character assassin.
h.
Naw,
I got clipped after my second child and never looked back.
May way of thinking is that in the long run a smaller population with less stress upon the resources would result in fewer wars and less crime and starvation.
Genghis Khan conquered the lands we call Crimea and Ukraine as did Napoleon and Hitler and the Czars and I’m guessing Monsanto next.
Nothing wrong with population planning.
Or, can the next billion live at your house ?
Go Niners !
h.