Husband of police commissioner Cindy Elias worked on S.F. cases after her appointment
Lateef Gray made big bucks from civil rights law firm while also employed by San Francisco District Attorney's Office
During a June 5, 2018, meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, District 8 supervisor Jeff Sheehy had concerns about one of two nominees up for appointments to the Police Commission. Shockingly, it wasn’t John Hamasaki. Known for his off-the-rails Twitter rants and a haphazard run for district attorney, the controversial private criminal defense lawyer left his post last April knowing he wouldn’t be reappointed. At that 2018 meeting, Sheehy told his colleagues that he supported Hamasaki’s nomination, while he had concerns about the second nominee, labor attorney and former public defender Cindy Elias.
“This was an LGBT seat, and I know many in the community had an expectation that someone from the LGBT community could be put forward,” Sheehy said. “We did have a candidate, but that candidate… it was decided, they did have a conflict of interest, and now we have another issue around a conflict of interest. I am not saying I would not support this candidate, but I have not had an opportunity to meet with this individual … I would be grateful if we could just put this off for a week.”
Sheehy was referring to a San Francisco Chronicle article the prior day which pointed to Elias’s marriage to Lateef Gray, a former public defender under the late Jeff Adachi and an attorney with the John Burris Law Firm.
Burris, a civil rights law legend, is best known for representing families in cases involving police misconduct such as officer-involved shootings. At the time of the Elias nomination, Burris was representing the families of Mario Woods and Luis Gongora Pat, two men killed by San Francisco police in separate high-profile cases. I am familiar with those cases, having written about the alarming number of police shootings in two separate columns, published one year apart, for the Marina Times. In both columns, I called for Chief Greg Suhr’s resignation. (Two weeks after my second column, where I detailed the circumstances involving the deaths of Woods and Pat, there was yet another fatal police shooting and Suhr stepped down.)
Why was Sheehy concerned about Elias’s marriage to Gray? The Police Commission sets policy for the Police Department and conducts disciplinary hearings on charges of police misconduct, imposing discipline as needed and hearing officer appeals from discipline imposed by current police chief William Scott. That means Elias would be open to conflicts of interest should the Commission be tasked with decisions involving an officer also being sued by her husband.
Burris responded that he and Gray would set up “firewalls” to squash any potential conflicts before they arose and promised that Gray “wouldn’t work on San Francisco cases, period, nor will he be consulted on San Francisco cases.” Still, Sheehy felt the questions raised in the article were enough to warrant a one-week continuance, and the board’s president — then District 5 supervisor and now mayor London Breed — said not only was she amenable to that suggestion, but she would also second the motion.
Malia Cohen, supervisor of District 10 at the time, vehemently opposed putting off the Elias appointment. “Both candidates were highly vetted, and both passed the mustard. I can’t speak for other supervisors’ inability to do their due diligence on their own,” she said condescendingly while gazing at Sheehy, “but I just want to recognize and affirm that we have — ‘we,’ meaning myself and the rules committee — have dedicated several hours of our time and our energy, and many of your aides who were not on the committee were paying attention and watching the hearing.”
Recently sworn in as California State Controller, Cohen did some swearing of her own that day. “Thoughtful questions were raised; thoughtful questions were answered — quite frankly I think the questions raised in the Chronicle were a TINGE bit sexist. You have a woman coming before you to be appointed on the police commission and you’re asking if there is a conflict of what her husband is making? Give me a FUCK — give me a break. It’s absolutely ridiculous and it’s insulting.”
The usual cadre of progressive-left supervisors, including histrionic District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen, spoke in support of Elias, as did perpetual waffler Ahsha Safaí of District 11. Aaron Peskin, representing District 3, said the conflicts Elias would encounter would be “no different than those any supervisor might face regarding a spouse’s income.”
But it turns out Sheehy — the only supervisor among Elias’s outspoken proponents who is no longer in office — was correct.
ELIAS REPORTS OVER $300,000 SPOUSAL INCOME FROM BURRIS FIRM
Since her confirmation, Elias — now president of the Police Commission — has indeed faced serious conflicts regarding her husband’s line of work. That hasn’t deterred staunch supporter Peskin, who led a sneaky attempt to reappoint Elias to the commission this past December despite the fact her term isn’t up until April.
Peskin was likely trying to wrap up the Elias reappointment prior to the swearing in of newly elected District 4 supervisor Joel Engardio, a pragmatic, respected community leader and executive director of Stop Crime SF, a grassroots organization “working to create a safe city for all.” Engardio replaces Gordon Mar, a reliable progressive-left vote for Peskin. Perhaps even more problematic is that Peskin’s move would also prevent anyone else from running for Elias’s seat when it officially opens up this spring. (Since Peskin’s plan was exposed, several other candidates have applied.)
While Burris promised Gray would be “totally walled off” from cases involving the San Francisco Police Department after his wife’s appointment to the Police Commission, court documents say otherwise. According to SEAN MOORE, Plaintiff, v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, et al., as of February 27, 2019, Gray was still representing Moore in a civil lawsuit for Burris’s firm, and that wasn’t his only Moore related conflict.
Every elected official and public employee who makes or participates in making governmental decisions is required to submit a Statement of Economic Interests, also known as the Form 700, meant to provide transparency and ensure accountability in governmental decisions. According to the forms submitted by Elias and Gray, income from the Burris Firm continued to roll in throughout Elias’s current term, and even once Gray was hired as a city employee. How much Gray made and when he made it differs based on whose forms you look at.
In 2019, when court records show he represented Moore, Gray claimed no income from Burris, while Elias claimed he made in excess of $100,000. From June of 2020 through July of 2022, Gray worked for then District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s Independent Investigations Bureau (IIB) on police abuse and brutality cases, yet in 2020 Gray also claimed between $10,000 and $100,000 from Burris, while Elias claimed $100,000 or more. Gray doesn’t have a 2021 form on file, but Elias again claimed her husband pulled in over $100,000 working with Burris at the same time he was employed by the City of San Francisco.
PANDEMIC PILLOW TALK?
On April 5, 2022, Jeffrey Pailet, a former lieutenant district attorney investigator with the IIB, filed an ethics complaint against Elias and Gray. The complaint states that the couple obtained information about Pailet and an underlying investigation in which Gray had a financial interest. That case? Sean Moore.
In November of 2021, Pailet filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court claiming he was fired in 2020 by Boudin and his then chief of staff, David Campos, in retaliation for exposing alleged wrongdoing during an investigation of the shooting of Sean Moore by San Francisco Police officer Kenneth Cha. During the 2017 incident, which was caught on police body camera, Cha and his partner Colin Patino encounter an aggressive Moore at his home after receiving a call regarding Moore violating a restraining order. In the footage, Moore repeatedly uses profanities and, at one point, spits on Officer Cha, saying, “Bitch, get the fuck off my stairs!” After Moore kicks Patino, a struggle ensues and Moore punches Cha in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him down a flight of stairs. Moore then attacks Patino again, and when pepper spray doesn’t stop Moore’s attacks, Cha shoots him with a service revolver.
The City agreed to a $3.25 million settlement for the family after Moore died three years later, while serving time in prison for an unrelated crime. The autopsy listed “acute intestinal obstruction” and “severe abdominal adhesions” due to “remote gunshot wound to abdomen” from the 2017 shooting as the cause of death for the 46-year-old Moore, along with other “significant conditions” including “hypertensive cardiovascular disease; obesity; slight coronary atherosclerosis; diabetes mellitus; schizophrenia; and chronic substance abuse.”
The officers were initially cleared of criminal wrongdoing in the shooting, and the case was closed under progressive former D.A. George Gascón. In keeping with his campaign promise to hold police accountable, Boudin reopened the case. Pailet’s job was ensuring investigations and prosecutions were done in compliance with state and federal law. Pailet claimed D.A. investigators withheld key details when writing search warrants for the personal cell phone records of Cha and several other officers during the investigation. Paleit attempted to “halt this improper and potentially illegal activity” as a whistleblower, upon which he was threatened by two assistant district attorneys that if he continued to object to their actions there would be “repercussions that would negatively impact his employment.” On November 6, 2020, Paleit was notified he had been terminated. His wrongful termination lawsuit named Boudin, his then chief of staff David Campos, and the two assistant district attorneys, Dana Drusinsky and Stephanie Lacambra.
In his ethics complaint, Pailet points to a February 9, 2022, public meeting where Elias, “in her capacity as Vice President of the Police Commission” said that he was merely a disgruntled employee rather than a protected whistleblower in relation to his termination. “It is my opinion that Cindy Elias is intentionally and maliciously making these false statements about my status as a ‘disgruntled employee’ to malign my character and reputation,” Paleit said in the complaint. “Cindy Elias is married to Lateef Gray … It is my belief that she must have been told of this matter by her husband...”
When Brooke Jenkins took over as district attorney, she wisely fired the majority of Boudin’s unqualified team, made up of former public defenders and defense lawyers. Gray was one of them, and, in another twist, Jenkins also accused him of improperly transferring records from his office laptop to an external storage device on the day she fired him. The case involves Andre Dow, a San Francisco rapper known as Mac Minister, who is seeking to overturn his 2005 conviction for a double murder in Las Vegas said to be revenge for the 2004 slaying in Missouri of his friend, Vallejo rapper Andre “Mac Dre” Hicks.
Adding to the financial conflicts, Gray, who knew Dow from childhood, got involved in the case with the IIB unit, where he was making $261,000 as a city employee and, at the same time, raking in over $100,000 as a private attorney for Burris.
Gray currently manages civil rights cases for Pointer & Buelna, a law firm run by his former Burris co-counsels Adanté Pointer and Patrick Buelna. According to one source, Elias even sat in on a briefing regarding the landmark $3.25 million Moore settlement, which Pointer and Buelna list as one of their most notable cases on the law firm’s website.
Replacing Elias could be the start of creating a more balanced police commission. Surely the Board of Supervisors can find a nominee whose partner isn’t representing clients against the San Francisco Police Department, while also collecting a paycheck from the very city he’s suing. In fact, I’d wager Peskin dinner at the French Laundry they can find numerous competent candidates who haven’t made a dime in spousal income from such conflicts of interest anywhere, ever.