XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.democrats, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: sac.politics, alt.war.civil.usa   
   From: vacancy@kamala.harris   
      
   A judge today dismissed a sexual assault case against city commissioner   
   William Monroe Palmer II, citing a “lack of evidence.”   
      
   The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office asked to have the case   
   dismissed because the alleged victim was involved in an unspecified   
   out-of-state incident, and said it would seek to refile the case against   
   Palmer at a later date.   
      
   Palmer, 53, who serves on both the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department   
   Oversight Board and the DA’s Sentencing Commission, was accused of sexually   
   assaulting a woman on Aug. 30, 2023, and was charged with five counts,   
   including sodomy, false    
   imprisonment and sexual battery by restraint.   
      
   Previously, Palmer he was imprisoned for 31 years for trying to rob an   
   off-duty police officer at gunpoint; he was released in 2019. Palmer was often   
   described as a voice of reason on the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board,   
   which has been mired in    
   conflict among its members. Palmer’s colleagues designated him as the   
   board’s liaison to the public and the media.   
      
   In an afternoon hearing at the Hall of Justice, prosecutor Katherine Wells   
   asked San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Robert Gordon to dismiss   
   the case, citing a recent incident in which the alleged victim in Palmer’s   
   case was involved.   
      
   “We are not able to proceed at this time, because we’re lacking evidence   
   related to a very recent incident related to the victim that occurred out of   
   state on March 16 of this year,” said Wells, who did not detail the incident   
   and said she only    
   learned of it on March 22. “This incident has the potential to bear   
   significantly on the victim’s credibility at trial.”   
      
   “We will refile charges against Mr. Palmer, but at this time, we are not   
   able to proceed and sustain our burden of proof at trial,” Wells concluded.   
      
   Judge Gordon granted the motion to dismiss.   
      
   “I think we would all agree that there are critical pieces that would help   
   us understand the information that we have, that we don’t have, that we’re   
   missing,” she said. “We’re all wondering what the rest of the evidence   
   might show.”   
      
   Deputy public defender Sylvia Cediel, who represented Palmer, said she did not   
   learn about the possibility of a dismissal until this morning. When Palmer,   
   who has been incarcerated since Nov. 9, entered the courtroom this afternoon   
   in an orange jumpsuit,    
   he acted relaxed, waving and greeting his friends who were seated in the   
   audience area.   
      
   “You are a free person,” Judge Gordon told Palmer. Four of Palmer’s   
   supporters in the audience clapped.   
      
   Cediel asked the court to allow Palmer to walk out of the courtroom with her,   
   instead of going through an hours-long process before he could be released.   
   “There are no charges pending. There’s nothing holding him,” she said.   
      
   “We have a dinner date,” cut in archbishop Alonzo King from the audience,   
   seemingly hoping to sway the judge.   
      
   Gordon approved Cediel’s request initially, but then changed her mind after   
   an objection from the sheriff’s department. “He will be discharged today.   
   I understand that it might not be a time that you would like, and I understand   
   that he’s not    
   going to walk out my courtroom door right now. And I apologize for suggesting   
   that you could do that,” the judge said.   
      
   “We are relieved and happy that he’s finally going home,” said Cediel in   
   an interview after the hearing. “He has been vindicated. He has denied the   
   allegations and has maintained his innocence from the very beginning.”   
      
   She cited the lack of credibility of the alleged victim as the main reason for   
   the dismissal. “We also uncovered some information that we shared with the   
   DA, which just contradicted some of her story and just things that she just   
   flat out, just lied    
   about,” said Cediel. “Her credibility was really at stake. And she is the   
   only witness in this case. There is very little corroborating evidence, if   
   any.”   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)