How Many of the Corpses on SF Sidewalks Last Month Were Attributable to Judge Frankel?

Another Governor Newsom appointee incentivizing criminal enterprises

A little over a month ago, I wrote an article titled, “Are Progressive Judges the Last Barrier to a Safer SF?”

 In my article I discussed the progress San Francisco has made in reducing crime that can be attributed to:

·  the recall of DA Chesa Boudin,

·  the common sense of Boudin’s replacement, Brooke Jenkins,

·  voters in March 2024 messaging former SFPD Chief Will Scott to have the political spine to implement drones, and

·  the removal of anti-law enforcement police commissioners Max Carter Oberstone and Jesus Yanez. 

With these improvements, I premised that the last impediment to our vision of —Crime Zero™^[1]— was that some San Francisco judges are still in denial that there should be consequences for criminal acts.

 My article then introduced the contrasting intersection of Judge Simon J. Frankel and professional fentanyl dealer, Jexcer Martinez-Torres.

 Judge Frankel’s Pac Heights résumé 

Judge Frankel was raised in Pacific Heights and graduated from San Francisco University High School, located in the same neighborhood.  Frankel was a history major at Harvard University, legacy on his mother’s side, which was followed by a master’s degree in history and philosophy from the University of Cambridge University.  Then off to Yale Law, as a double legacy from both his parents.    

 He's married to author Courtney Weaver (Unzipped, published 1999) who was also raised in Pac Heights and attended University High School before attending an Ivy League college (Brown).   Their wedding was covered by the New York Times.  

 Before Governor Newsom appointed Frankel to the bench, he was a partner at Covington & Burling, where he practiced general commercial litigation; copyright and trademark matters; technology, privacy, and licensing disputes; and legal issues related to visual art.

 There’s nothing wrong with Frankel and Newsom growing up in an environment of privilege.  And I congratulate Judge Frankel for clearly achieving both academic and career successes. However, it’s questionable how often Frankel was ever forced to dodge street opportunists, like Jexcer, on his way to manual labor jobs in high school and college.  While the secluded theorize that criminals regret their actions, those of us closer to the mix know that the arrestees’ mindset is only focused on improving their enterprise by reevaluating how to not to get caught again.  A city kid’s real-world exposure would have provided Frankel with life experiences outside of the classroom and served as a foundation to be an effective arbitrator.

 Jexcer’s street résumé 

Jexcer is a non-citizen who grew up in Honduras.  He has no quantifiable skillset other than commuting from Oakland to San Francisco to provide poison to the vulnerable in the Tenderloin.  Overdoses are just collateral damage in his business model.

From my last article, a review of Jexcer’s SF résumé:

SFPD arrested Jexcer four times for selling fentanyl under DA Boudin:

·  March 2020 McAllister and Leavenworth Streets

·  January 2021 Hyde and Turk Streets

·  February 2021 433 Turk Street

·  March 2022 7^th and Natoma Streets

And DA Boudin never held Jexcer accountable.

Jexcer was arrested again in June 2023, but there was a new DA in town. Brooke Jenkins took Jexcer through a preliminary hearing and now has him set for a pending trail.  However, Jexcer was allowed to be out of custody while awaiting his trial, which allowed him to continue selling fentanyl, which means more people died from overdoses.

Jexcer’s lands in Judge Frankel’s courtroom

Covered in my last article, while out of custody pending his trial, on April 25, 2025, Jexcer sold fentanyl to an undercover SFPD officer (Incident # 250 229 937). The officer had asked for methamphetamine, but Jexcer sold him much-more toxic fenty.^[2]

To avoid arrest, Jexcer ran from officers, then fought them, which injured one officer’s shoulder.  He also had in his possession a ghost gun—an untraceable gun without a serial number.  Judge Frankel, that’s one violent fentanyl dealer!

Despite the pending trial; and the new April 25^th sale of fentanyl to a police officer while carrying a ghost gun; and the fact that the arrest occurred off 6^th Street, which is the focus of Mayor Lurie’s drug enforcement, on May 14, 2025, Judge Frankel let Jexcer back on the streets--- without even an ankle monitor.  Completely absent from the judge’s decision was Jexcer’s threat to the safety of the public.  No, Jexcer was perceived as the victim.

Frankel’s 57-Day pass was another opportunity for Jexcer to kill more people

Charlie Brown from Charles M. Schulz

On July 10, 2025, undercover Officer Leyva was on Fell Street, a stone’s throw from Mayor Lurie’s office, when he contacted Jexcer and purchased meth. During the transaction, a knife was seen on Jexcer’s person.  When SFPD tried to arrest Jexcer, he ran (again) and then put up a tough fight against officers (again), who were extremely concerned about him using the knife (Incident# 250 382 933).

After Jexcer was handcuffed, officers searched him and found an ounce of fentanyl, an ounce of methamphetamine, a digital scale (because he’s a pro), and $649 in currency.

If Jexcer is moving an ounce of fentanyl per day, the odds favor several people overdosed and died from his transactions during the 57 days of freedom that Judge Frankel granted him. On the other hand, if Judge Frankel had kept Jexcer in custody, no one would have died from his sales of fentanyl.  If all the judges kept the fentanyl dealers in custody, eventually the dealers immigrating to SF from Honduras would get the message and fentanyl selling would taper off.

This was not a one-off for Judge Frankel.  In January 2024, the SF Chronicle exposed how, after a jury convicted a Honduran fentanyl dealer, Frankel let the dealer back on the streets by crediting him for the time he already spent in county jail waiting for the trial. 

The problem is that while Judge Frankel is a very smart person, it appears he was raised in an environment, like the governor, too removed from the human nature of urban streets.  Judge Frankel’s legal skills are better suited for a civil courtroom.

 Epilogue

Per the July arrest, Jexcer appeared in uber-liberal Judge Geraldo Sandoval’s court.  Sandoval is a former SF public defender and board of supervisor.  Sandoval resided in Sonoma for much of his  judicial term, married to Amy Harrington (now divorced)  who was elected mayor of Sonoma in 2019.   In a televised interview,  he once famously answered the question how the US should defend itself with, “The United States should not have a military. Well, you got cops. It's called the Coast Guard.”   

While Frankel didn’t recognize the danger Jexcer posed to the community, Sandoval found that “there is clear and convincing evidence that releasing Jexcer wouldn’t reasonably protect the public.” 

When Frankel, and by extension, presidential candidate Newsom, are positioned to the left of Sandoval, the city and potentially the country have a problem.  

 

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^[1] Using the impossible-to-achieve Vision Zero format, I am in the process of forming three nonprofit organizations: Crime Zero™, Common Cold Zero™, and Mortality Zero™.  I’ll soon be hitting the city up for grants to fund my nonprofits.

^[2] Per my conversations with SFPD, many people, like college kids, die from overdoses in the Tenderloin after dealers sell them fentanyl though they asked for cocaine.