Public Defender Meisels Incites Mob of Public Defenders in Court

Boudin’s former “Chief Attorney over Trial Integrity” demonstrates an absence of integrity

The Fentanyl Crisis

Approximately 70 people die in San Francisco each month from overdoses- the majority from fentanyl usage. 

SFPD’s strategy to address the fentanyl trade

To combat the Tenderloin’s fentanyl trade, SFPD employs two primary techniques: 1) undercover purchases (called “buy/busts” by cops), and 2) surveillance (called “spotting” by cops).  These initial street transactions spawn deeper investigations when, for instance, undercover SFPD officers follow the suspected dealers to their usually-in-Oakland residences.

Curiously, on November 1, 2023, Police Commissioner Jesus Yanez arrived at the conclusion that these efforts by SFPD to disrupt San Francisco’s fentanyl trade actually increases overdoses.  That is as nonsensical as saying that increased police traffic enforcement creates more fatal car crashes.  Yanez weak statistical comprehension is probably influenced by his wife who is, you-guessed-it, an SF public defender.  

Officer Tommy Smith’s spotting operation

During a spotting operation, the “spotter” secretes himself and uses binoculars to enhance his vision of street drug transactions.  Per court transcripts,^[1] on the evening of July 4^th, Tenderloin undercover officer Tommy Smith was conducting a spotting operation near the Asian Art Museum.

Smith watched as Elmer Diaz Lopez (23) made two “hand-to-hand” transactions with two separate individuals and appeared to be “flagging down passerby” (called “marketing” in the business world).  Based on his observations, Smith ordered other SFPD officers from the surveillance operation to arrest Lopez for selling drugs.

In the satchel Diaz was wearing, the SFPD arrest team found:

·      approximately 8 ounces (1/5^th of a kilo) of fentanyl with a wholesale value of approximately $1,600 and a retail street value of over $6,000.

·      approximately four ounces of methamphetamine with a street value of $500, (In the business world this is called “inventory.”) 

·      a digital scale to weigh the fentanyl for his customers (in the business world this comes under “plant & equipment”), and

·      $236 in currency (“petty cash”).

Diaz, who had been arrested previously for selling fentanyl, was also wearing an ankle monitor (called a “worthless asset” in the business world).  Ankle monitors are considered an ineffective deterrent by law enforcement and everyone to the right of Chesa Boudin, Jesus Yanez, Seth Meisels (below), and Max the Leaker Carter-Oberstone.

Seth Meisels’ tirade in Judge Chun’s courtroom

On September 5, 2023, Elmer Diaz Lopez’s prehearing was held at the Hall of Justice, in Department 9, with A. Marisa Chun as the presiding judge.

Public defender Seth Meisels represented Lopez.  Meisel’s was a San Francisco public defender for almost 17 years, until his coworker, Chesa Boudin, became the San Francisco District Attorney.  Meisel leapt at the chance to work as a public defender (not a typo) under Boudin, rising to “Chief Attorney: Intake, Investigation, and Trial Integrity” (“Integrity” is not a typo either).

Per sources, DA Jenkins fired Meisels in November 2022, and he continued his uninterrupted role as a public defender with the Public Defender’s Office.

After Smith testified in court, Judge Chun made the decision to hold Lopez in custody. Obviously, the ankle monitor was not working, and she knew human lives would be saved if Lopez served fentanyl to fewer people.

The Court transcripts show Meisels then went off on a tirade:

I don’t know whether this Court now is considering some kind of political pressure or is concerned about media attention of some kind, but certainly I’m aware that there is an organization which has publicized that the fact that it is rating judges regarding their choices on whether to release or not regarding custody, and that organization has indicated that it will make the results available for purposes of people voting in judge elections.  (Wasn’t Meisels actually arguing against transparency to voters on candidates’ records and beliefs?)

The fact is that he is a young man arrested for an economic crime.  (Per Meisels’ theory, then isn’t robbery just an economic crime too?)

Mr. Diaz Lopez is the sole caretaker of his dog.

I am disgusted with this Court.

Your honor, I am disgusted with this Court.

How dare you.  How dare you.

Judge Chun: Mr. Meisels, do you want me to remand your client immediately?

Meisels:  Are you threatening me?

I’ll give you the respect that you’re due, Your Honor.

Judge Chun: My concern is that he (Diaz Lopez) does have prior arrests.  It appears from the progress report that it hasn’t been completely clean.  And I’m just concerned that there’s really no less restrictive alternative that’s going to protect public safety.  (How many lives were saved by Judge Chun’s decision?)

There was a pack of four public defenders sitting in the court gallery that were not assigned to this case.  Sources told me at this point, “Meisel turned to those four public defenders and whipped them up into a frenzy with his theatrics.”   In what I have never seen before, in her transcripts, the court reporter actually named the public defenders in the gallery with their quotes.

Public Defender Anthony Gedeon howled: Except the things that are working.  I’m gladly not in this department, Your Honor.  What a joke.

Public Defender Kathleen Natividad howled:¹ You should go try jail. 

Meisels: What a travesty.  You should be ashamed.  You should be ashamed of yourself.

How dare you.  How dare you take away his (Lopez’s) life like this.

You want me to help you with the math judge?

Per the transcripts, because public defenders’ interruptions overwhelmed  the court reporter, she asked to go off the record, “It’s hard to take this down with everyone speaking.”

Per sources, not on the transcript:

Public defender Gedeon:  What an F-bomb joke!

Unknown public defenders:  I am going to have you removed from the bench.

Unknown public defenders:  Enjoy family court.

Unknown public defenders What an F-bomb joke (several times).

It is one thing for SF public defenders to use the law to protect their clients, it is quite another to perform like a pack of wolves and attack a judge on court case they weren’t even assigned to.  Meisels and his mob’s behavior was inappropriate even for San Francisco’s courts.

Is Meisels a typical SF public defender?

Is Meisels’ drug-dealing-is-an-economic-crime any less warped than Police Commissioner Yanez’s arresting-fentanyl-dealers-increases-fentanyl-overdoses?  These transcripts are a window into the mindset of the gang of public defenders, who frequently go on to become judges. 

It is amazing that someone of Meisels’ character and beliefs actually represented San Francisco’s prosecutions, let alone the integrity unit:

·      When one of DA Boudin’s attorneys was investigating an SFPD officer while he simultaneously was profiting from an open civil case against the same officer through his affiliation with Burris Law.

·      When a DA investigator admitted withholding exculpatory evidence from SFPD on an SFPD officer Boudin was prosecuting.

·      Boudin bribed DA attorney Jack Friedman with a raise and double promotion if he would write an arrest warrant on an SFPD officer while the original investigating officer was on a short vacation.

If you are wondering why the fentanyl trade gained scale under Boudin’s and Meisel’s concurrent terms, perhaps it’s because they achieved no felony fentanyl convictions, or maybe, based on Meisels’ words expressed in court, neither of them believed selling fentanyl is a crime. 

And maybe fentanyl also gained scale because, unlike Judge A. Marisa Chun, there are too many former SF public defenders sitting on our court benches with unbreakable allegiance to their gang of former coworkers.  San Francisco badly needs judges that represents the diverse perspectives of all our city.

Manohar Raju, an apology would be appropriate. 

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^[1] Court #: 23 00 998.  Motion to suppress

1. In a Mission Local article that includes a photograph of Jose Carver bicycling on the sidewalk, public defender Kathleen Natividad claimed SFPD did not have probable cause to stop Jose Carver despite the article’s photograph. Carver later pointed an imitation gun on SFPD. “They’re trying to do a consensual stop, right?” said Natividad, who claimed officers asked permission to speak with Corvera, instead of commanding him to stop. “Because they know they don’t have enough reasonable suspicion to detain him.”