San Francisco DA investigator sues former boss Chesa Boudin for retaliation, defamation

SAN FRANCISCO - An investigator in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office -- who previously testified she was told to remove exculpatory evidence in a police abuse case – is suing her former boss Chesa Boudin and other attorneys, claiming she was told to commit misconduct in another case.

The investigator, Magen Hayashi, filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court on September 29, saying she was the victim of retaliation, and accusing her former colleagues of "a pattern and practice of prosecutorial misconduct" and "likely illegal activities" related to the prosecution of two San Francisco police officers. 

"Investigator Hayashi looks forward to litigating this case in the courtroom not in the media," her attorney, Christopher Shea, told KTVU. 

The city attorney’s office said it could not comment on the specifics of the case beyond a brief statement.

"The city is committed to a workplace free of retaliation. We will review the claims closely and respond in court," said Jen Kwart, a spokeswoman for the city attorney’s office. 

The lawsuit is the latest turn and a contentious legal and political saga involving former district attorney Boudin -- who was recalled in June -- his former staff members, his successor, and police.

Boudin was elected to the city’s post of top prosecutor on a platform of being tougher on police. He charged numerous officers during his two years in office. Boudin, though, failed to secure any significant convictions against officers, and several cases he brought proved to have major flaws or were hamstrung by his own staff. 

Mayor London Breed tapped former prosecutor Brooke Jenkins as the city’s new district attorney in July. Jenkins quit the office under Boudin and worked for the recall campaign against him. She has sought to work more closely with the San Francisco Police Department and fired 15 employees, including many of the defendants named in Hayashi’s lawsuit.

Neither Boudin nor Jenkins could immediately be reached for comment. 

Hayashi worked in the unit – known as the Independent Investigations Bureau -- which investigates police misconduct and shootings. She gained major attention in January when she took the witness stand in a pre-trial hearing in a criminal case against San Francisco police Officer Terrance Stangel. He was accused of assault in the beating of Dacari Spiers in 2019.

Hayashi testified that she was directed by Assistant District Attorney Hans Moore, the lead prosecutor, to remove parts of the arrest warrant affidavit that described Spiers abusing his girlfriend by a 911 caller.

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The judge found that her testimony didn’t corrupt the case and allowed it to proceed to trial. Stangel was found not guilty on all charges by a jury earlier this year.

Hayashi, who is currently on leave but still employed by the district attorney’s office, later filed one of several whistleblower complaints against the office.

She claimed that Boudin later publicly slandered her in the news media by suggesting she was part of an "internal sabotage" after Stangel was acquitted. 

Hayashi's courtroom accusation prompted a major rift between Boudin’s office and San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott, who sought to terminate an agreement that gave the district attorney's office lead authority to investigate police use-of-force incidents and in-custody deaths.

Hayashi expanded on the accusations against her former boss in her lawsuit, which mirrors accusations leveled by her former direct supervisor Jeff Pailet, who was fired by Boudin in 2020.

That case involves the police shooting of Sean Moore in Jan 2017. Moore was shot by Office Kenny Cha during a struggle with officers outside his home. 

Moore survived the shooting but died three years later while incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison due in part to the injuries from the police shooting, the coroner ruled. 

Boudin in 2020 charged Cha with voluntary manslaughter, assault and other charges. The case is still pending and Jenkins has not signaled how she will proceed.

San Francisco awarded Moore’s family a $3.25 million civil settlement in the case. 

In her lawsuit, Hayashi said she was ordered by two Assistant District Attorneys in the case to draft a search warrant for the cell phones and computers of the officers in the case. Hayashi said she was concerned about "the lack of probable cause to support the search." 

She added that the attorneys, two former public defenders who were hired by Boudin, revised her warrant and "deleted almost all of the exculpatory information including germane facts of the events at issue, including the suspect’s attacks on the involved officers prior to the shooting."

Hayashi said she brought up the issue with her supervisor, Jeff Pailet, whom she said raised questions about the case and was fired by Boudin’s former Chief of Staff David Campos. 

Pailet later filed his own lawsuit against the district attorney’s office last year. 

Hayashi claimed she was later taken off the case in retaliation. 

Evan Sernoffsky is an investigative reporter for KTVU. Email Evan at evan.sernoffsky@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @EvanSernoffsky