Californians should expect a rise in crime spree after San Francisco Superior Court officials dismissed more than 70 misdemeanor cases - including DUIs, sexual battery and violations of restraining orders - that were not heard in court before their constitutional deadline.
The mass dismissals came a month after a panel of California appellate judges found that San Francisco's courts improperly postponed a woman's trial for years, justifying the decision with outdated pandemic-era protocols.
"They gave these 70 criminals a monopoly get out of jail free card," civil rights attorney Leo Terrell, who has practiced in California for over three decades, told Fox News Digital. "These are not people who are jaywalking – DUI, domestic violence. Where is the relief for the victim?"
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins' office announced that prosecutors had identified 74 other defendants whose trials were postponed under the same circumstances. A judge tossed all but four of those charges en masse last Thursday in light of the appellate ruling.
Jenkins conceded that the courts were required to dismiss the cases and that her office was "duty bound" to try cases ethically. However, she stressed that the court's delays failed not just the defendants who were deprived of their constitutional right to a speedy trial, but the "countless victims of crime who will not see justice done."
Among the dropped cases was a vehicle crash that killed two pedestrians near the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2022. Wayne Henderson, whose 72-year-old wife Mary Henderson and 31-year-old daughter Willa Henderson died in the crash, voiced his anger before San Francisco Superior Court Presiding Judge Anne-Christine Massullo.
"We, the victims of these crimes, are being denied our moment of accountability … to see and hear the defendant answer for his misconduct. The moment that we at the very least deserve," he said, per the San Francisco Chronicle. "How is this justice?"