Da Jenkins prosecutors challenge the new SF judge

The hearings have been arrested in a Chamber of the San Francisco Hall of Justice this week, after prosecutors at the Brooke Jenkins District Office launched a general challenge against a new judge who presided over there.

Judge Michelle Tong has not been allowed to hear a single case since the 12th of the Hall of Justice was transferred on Monday, which sees preliminary hearings in criminal cases before going to trial, confirmed the defense lawyers present.

“Every case in department 12 yesterday had a challenge,” said Rose Mishaan, a private defense lawyer who He presented an objection To practice on Monday and estimated that no 20 or 30 cases were heard. Another 35 cases were scheduled in that department today.

The prosecutor’s action could allow prosecutors to force a change of judge without providing prejudice evidence.

Tong, a former public defender chosen in 2020, had previously worked on the traffic of civil hearings, small claims and cases of civil harassment. The president judge reassigned it this week. The defense lawyers said that all prosecutors in the Court Chamber on Monday and Tuesday issued challenges against Tong.

The prosecutor did not return the requests for comments, and the defense lawyers could not agree why the prosecutors were making a concerted effort of a day to avoid having any case against Tong.

The purchase of judge is a legal practice but frown in the way that litigants are looking for judges who believe they will govern their cases favorably. The practice has drawn in recent years at the federal level and the Judicial Conference in March 2024 He issued a policy that “deter the purchase of judge” in state and federal civil cases.

In it Objection presented in the Court Yesterday, Mishaan wrote that Judge Tong’s rejection violated the separation of judicial and fiscal powers, as well as the right of his client to due process. He asked Jenkins to withdraw from the case “due to its incorrect and unconstitutional use of the disqualification statute.”

A general challenge “effectively expels a judge of a criminal court,” added Mishaan, who said he has seen the same in Jenkins’ office during the past year with other judges in San Francisco, although those who had heard cases before. “What judge will be assigned to which department is not in the power of the day, that is the decision of the president.”

Jenkins’ movement seems to be the last attack against the judges of San Francisco for the DA, who has been a vowel in it accusations that the judges are too indulgent with suspected criminals, taking social networks In some cases to exploit them by name.

It is not Jenkins’ first challenge. Prosecutors in August questioned Judge Carolyn Gold in two different criminal courts before they transfer it from the criminal court, Mishaan said, small claims. At the end of 2022, Jenkins’s office also challenged retired young people now Judge Anthony Klinesaying without evidence that it was partial.

Mishaan said that on Monday, Tong ended up being replaced by a different judge, before whom prosecutors proceeded with their hearings. The sources say the same thing happened again today: after the cases of the morning were blocked similarly, Tong was replaced again. Despite “some quite strenuous objections” made in the Court by defense lawyers, Mishaan said that Tong accepted the challenges by step.

Tong declined to comment on the challenges. The Superior Court of San Francisco did not immediately respond to the requests for comments.