Replacement for ousted San Francisco DA Boudin revokes 30 plea offers for drug cases

The San Francisco district attorney who has replaced ousted progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin has reportedly revoked 30 plea offers for drug cases made by her predecessor. 

New District Attorney Brooke Jenkins made the announcement Wednesday, according to The Hill newspaper.

Boudin, a Democrat, was removed from office in June in a voter recall election, in residents' response to his progressive policies including efforts to end cash bail and offering defendants the opportunity to enter a rehabilitation program over prison. 

Jenkins's office said one of the plea offers that she took back was for a case in which a defendant had six open cases for dealing fentanyl and was arrested with more than 100 grams of the drug, The Hill also reports.

The office also said the individual was referred to the city’s Community Justice Center, a collaborative court program that focuses on rehabilitation instead of punishment, more than five times despite not completing the center’s requirements.

The individual was offered a single misdemeanor to settle all six cases. 

The district attorney’s office will now seek a felony charge that includes jail time, also according to The Hill.

"Since 2020, nearly 1,500 people have died of drug overdose in part because dealers have been allowed to operate with impunity," said Jenkins, a more moderate public prosecutor, appointed last month by city Democrat Mayor London Breed to complete Boudin’s term last month. "We must immediately change course."

The District Attorney’s Office also said Boudin’s office did not obtain any convictions for dealing fentanyl in all of 2021 and that fentanyl reportedly killed nearly 500 people in the city last year.