Federal judge limits San Rafael’s homeless camping ordinance

Nikki Silverstein

Oct 31, 2023

Federal judge limits San Rafael’s homeless camping ordinance

Another lawsuit pitting homeless people against a city in wealthy Marin County is now in full swing. This time, San Rafael occupies the hot seat.

A recent order by a federal judge has substantially diminished the impact of San Rafael’s restrictive homeless camping ordinance. In addition, the city must perform administrative tasks that may be challenging for officials to manage with its current resources.

Homeless people and their advocates are praising the 50-page preliminary injunction, issued by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen on Oct. 19, saying that it helps to ensure safety for campers.

“We’re pleased with the order overall,” Anthony Prince, the San Rafael Homeless Union attorney who is representing some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said in an interview. “On balance, the city lost. They’re paying for their overreach and their apparent extremism.”

A group of homeless people living at Camp Integrity, an encampment on the Mahon Creek Path in San Rafael, filed the claim in August, after the city passed a controversial ordinance imposing severe limits on the size and number of campsites in an area. While homeless people maintain there is safety in numbers, city officials argue that large encampments pose health and safety risks because of increased crime, fires and garbage.

To help make their case, the homeless plaintiffs enlisted Jeffrey Schonberg, Ph.D., a researcher who focuses on the Bay Area’s homeless population. Schonberg submitted a report to the court stating that the ordinance is dangerous because it isolates homeless people.

Leaving women isolated significantly increases the risk of sexual assault, domestic violence and human trafficking, Schonberg said.

Drug overdose deaths will increase by 15% to 25% if the ordinance is enforced, because “one of the single largest risk factors of overdose is using in isolation,” Schonberg testified. And homeless people rely on one another for survival by exchanging favors and providing care for the more vulnerable campers, according to Schonberg.

Schonberg’s report appeared to sway the judge, but the homeless plaintiffs still didn’t get exactly what they wanted in the preliminary injunction. Neither did the city.

San Rafael had hoped the judge would lift—without restrictions—a previous order that prevents the city from enforcing the ordinance. The campers believed the best outcome would have completely blocked the ordinance, allowing the dozens of tents on the Mahon Creek Path to remain in place.

Instead, Chen’s preliminary injunction provides a compromise.

“The Court will lift the broad temporary restraining order and issue a narrowly tailored preliminary injunction which permits enforcement of the Ordinance under limited conditions, conditions which accommodate the competing interests of both parties while minimizing their respective hardships,” Chen wrote in the most recent order.

The city’s ordinance, passed in July but never implemented because of the court’s temporary restraining order, limited the size of a group campsite to 10 feet by 20 feet. It also required 200 feet of separation between campsites—the equivalent of two-thirds the length of a football field.

Chen’s preliminary injunction doubles the size of a group campsite to 400 square feet, with each site housing up to four people. The distance between campsites was reduced to 100 feet.

San Rafael Mayor Kate Colin believes the constraints in the original ordinance would have been more effective in “reducing violence,” citing incidents of stabbings, tent fires and drug arrests at the Mahon Creek Path encampment.

“Unfortunately, the judge’s order did not approve the ordinance as written, so I am not pleased with that,” Colin told the Pacific Sun.

The Mahon Creek Path encampment has continued to grow over the last several months. In July, there were approximately 33 tents. Currently, there are 61 tents, according to the city.

The encampment starts at the intersection of Lindaro Street and Anderson Avenue and ends at Lincoln Drive. The area measures about 540 feet in length. Even with the conditions Chen placed on the city’s ordinance, the majority of camp residents will need to relocate.

But San Rafael faces a few hurdles before the judge will lift the ban on the ordinance. First, the city must submit for the court’s review a street level map identifying permissible campsites by size and number of occupants. At each site, boundaries must be visibly designated.

The court must also review the city’s process for designating how campsites are allocated or claimed.

After the court permits San Rafael to implement the modified ordinance and oust many of the Mahon Creek Path residents, city officials will still have to jump through hoops. The city must provide moving assistance for campers required to relocate from Mahon Creek Path. Additionally, for campers whose tents and bedding won’t fit in the allotted space, the city must provide replacement gear.

Perhaps the most labor-intensive aspect of Chen’s requirements for San Rafael involves how the city must handle a homeless person’s request for reasonable accommodations based on a disability. The city can’t evict or prosecute a person making such a request, “unless and until it completes an interactive process (including administrative appeals) with that Plaintiff to address the need for reasonable accommodation,” according to the preliminary injunction.

It remains to be seen whether San Rafael has the administrative bandwidth to meet the requirements in Chen’s order.

“The city has received the judge’s lengthy order and is studying it carefully to determine next steps,” said Michael von Loewenfeldt, of Wagstaffe, von Loewenfeldt, Busch & Radwick, who is one of the attorneys representing San Rafael in the lawsuit.

It may benefit the city that the preliminary injunction applies only to residents of the Mahon Creek Path encampment who are named plaintiffs or belong to the San Rafael Homeless Union, narrowing the number of protected people. Homeless people living in other encampments throughout the city are not covered by Chen’s order.

But therein lies the rub for San Rafael. If the city begins enforcing the regulations in the original ordinance for other encampments, affected homeless residents are free to file a claim in federal court. And the Mahon Creek Path lawsuit serves as an easy blueprint to follow.

In the meantime, residents of the Mahon Creek Path encampment say the city has begun retaliating against them. Last week, Brian Nelson, one of the lawsuit’s named plaintiffs, received a notice from the city that the wood pallet foundation beneath his tent is unsafe and must be removed in 48 hours.

The pallets have been in place for eight months and prevent water from entering his tent, according to a letter that Prince, the San Rafael Homeless Union attorney, sent to von Loewenfeldt. The letter also warns that unless the city rescinds the notice, the matter will be reported to the court.

San Rafael and its homeless residents look like they’re following a playbook from a similar case in Sausalito. In February 2021, a group of homeless people sued Sausalito over an ordinance restricting homeless camping. The city responded by hiring expensive outside counsel to defend the lawsuit. The litigation dragged on for 18 months before the parties reached a settlement. All in, Sausalito spent approximately $2 million of taxpayer funds.

Surely, there must be a better way.

“It’s time for the city to deal with homelessness,” Prince said. “This lawsuit was brought by homeless people, and they now have a measure of protection from the court. These lawsuits are going to happen over and over again. I say the parties should sit down and settle by making policies that will keep homeless and housed people safe.”

Perhaps they can all discuss it in front of Chen at the status conference on Nov. 1.

Nightmare on Pine Street

Nikki Silverstein

Oct 24, 2023

The Beyers are the kind of family most people want living next door. For years, they lived harmoniously with their neighbors on a quiet block of Pine Street in Sausalito.

Now, they say some of their neighbors want them out.

To be sure, several neighbors are unhappy with the Beyers’ plans to renovate their traditional one-story cottage to a modern three-story house. Unhappy might be an understatement. It’s gotten downright ugly, replete with accusations, name calling and even a call to the police.

The saga had a joyous beginning. In 2017, Jake Beyer and Georgia Glassie Beyer were renting a Sausalito apartment. They loved the neighborhood and searched for a nearby home to buy. As luck would have it, they found 426 Pine St., a charming cottage built in the 1920s. And then they learned their first baby was on the way.

“It was serendipity,” Glassie Beyer told me in an interview. “I know this is where we’re meant to be.”

The couple checked into whether the zoning code would allow for expansion of the 1,319 square foot home. It did, so they plunked down $1.5 million and moved in.

One, two, then three children. The Beyer family quickly grew to five members, and the two-bedroom, two-bath home felt like it was bursting at the seams.

But the Beyers had a vision. Three years ago, they began designing their dream home. Little did they know that some of their neighbors would consider it a nightmare.

I stumbled upon the situation while scrolling on Nextdoor, a social media platform that often plays host to neighborhood feuds. Earlier this month, Beyer posted a plea for people to support the renovation project by sending letters to the Sausalito Planning Commission. To date, the post has garnered 270 comments, most positive, some not.

Beyer’s post provided a link to a professionally produced, 10-minute video about his family and their struggles to get their renovation approved. The Beyers also created a comprehensive website containing the proposed plans, a section on the dissenting neighbors and a timeline of project milestones.

Clearly, the Beyers are on a public relations mission, and with good cause. The city’s powerful planning commission and long-time residents have a reputation for resisting change.

From the beginning, the couple knew the approval process wouldn’t be a cake walk. They’d also have to work with the constant staff turnover in Sausalito’s planning department, which is responsible for reviewing and analyzing planning permit applications.

“We’ve been through six different city planners,” Beyer said during one of my several interviews with him. “Building in Sausalito is difficult.”

Brandon Phipps, Sausalito’s community and economic development director, confirmed that the planning department hired five new planners in the last year—100% turnover.

In addition, a design review by the five-member Sausalito Planning Commission, required for significant renovations, can take as long as several months or more, depending on factors such as the project’s complexity and opposition by neighbors. The commission’s decisions are based on both objective and subjective criteria, Phipps said.

Aware that they must receive approval from the planning commission to make their dream a reality, the Beyers developed an approach to make their journey easier. Their designer, Dave Grabham, of G Design, advised the couple to work with neighbors early in the process, prior to submitting the renovation plans to the city.

With that in mind, in May 2021—before the first set of plans were complete—the Beyers informed neighbors of the planned remodel. Eight months later, the couple presented neighbors with the renovation plans.

“Our goal was to try to make everyone happy,” Beyer said. “We wanted our neighbors excited to have a new family in the neighborhood.”

By Marin standards, the proposed design appears modest. The square footage of the house and ADU, or accessory dwelling unit, is just over 2,620 square feet. Some nearby homes are larger, others smaller.

**Architectural rendering of the Beyers’ planned renovation.** ***Photo courtesy of Jake Beyer.***

However, the more the Beyers shared their plans, the more opinions they heard. Many appreciated the modern design, which boasts large windows and three decks to maximize outdoor living. Of course, there’s also a contingent who said the home won’t fit in with Pine Street’s traditional Victorians and wood-shingled cottages. A few immediate neighbors expressed concerns that the renovated home would negatively impact their views, privacy and sunlight.

In September 2022, the Beyers began communicating frequently with several interested neighbors. I reviewed dozens of emails showing that the couple hosted Zoom meetings, where Grabham walked neighbors through the renovation plans and 3-D models. Beyer also met with neighbors in person.

When Sam Chase, who lives uphill, became concerned about his view, Beyer and Grabham climbed onto the roof of the cottage and installed plastic story poles, which represented the rear outline of the proposed structure. While the city would require a full set of wood story poles later in the process, this preview determined the additional two stories would block a small portion of Chase’s expansive water views.

“We adjusted the roofline three different times,” Grabham said. “And brought a wall in.”

After a second set of plastic story poles was erected the following month to reflect the design revisions, Chase gave his “conditional” approval to the project.

In the meantime, Beyer was also in contact with Conrad Gann, the owner of two houses adjacent to the Beyer property. The three homes are in close quarters.

Gann voiced several concerns throughout the planning process, particularly about the renovation affecting privacy and blocking sunlight to his two homes. But the Beyers and Grabham said that as soon as they addressed one of Gann’s concerns, another objection surfaced.

Not surprisingly, Gann disputed this assessment when I spoke with him. In September 2022, Gann requested that the Beyers conduct a professional sun study, which is documented in emails. More than a year later, Gann said he still hasn’t received a report, and blocked light remains a concern.

Beyer, however, told me about a shade study. The design may cast nominal shade on Gann’s homes for about 30-40 minutes a day during about two months of the year, according to Beyer.

The couple worked with Grabham to address other issues raised by Gann. For example, to maximize privacy, they changed the position of windows to avoid direct alignment with the windows in Gann’s homes. Gann isn’t convinced this resolves the privacy problem.

“The front and back third-floor decks and oversized windows lord over the neighborhood,” Gann said. “And when the wood story poles went up, and I saw the shadows cast on both stories of one of my homes, I told them the design was detrimental to the natural light. I objected to the design.”

**Conrad Gann’s two homes (left and center) and the Beyers’ cottage with story poles on the roof (right). Photo from Sausalito Planning Commission.**

The project rolled forward. In January, the Beyers submitted their plans to the city’s planning department. They continued to work with neighbors, Beyer said. Soon, they received notice that the planning commission review was scheduled for July.

However, Gann had quietly hired his own architect, Michael Rex, to review the renovation plans. Rex found a code issue—the proposed home would be too close to the property line shared with Gann. The Beyers were forced to revise their design, losing the garage. This change also delayed the planning commission review by more than three months.

On Oct. 25—after the Pacific Sun print deadline—the planning commission will finally review a new iteration of the renovation plans, sans garage. The planning department’s staff report seems generally positive, though it notes some issues. It specifically states that elements of the design will negatively impact the privacy of Gann’s homes and cause reduced access to light and air. Rejecting or approving the plan are both possibilities.

Gann, of course, opposes the project. Chase changed his mind after the wood story poles were erected, and he is now against the current design.

But five people on Pine Street and 15 others submitted letters of support. Perhaps the Beyer family will soon be living in their dream home.

Staff Report on Proposed Renovation

Criminal defendant Daisy Mazariegos gives birth, hires new defense attorney

Nikki Silverstein

Oct 10, 2023

Criminal defendant Daisy Mazariegos gives birth, hires new defense attorney

A brief hearing today resolved issues about how the criminal case against two former San Rafael police officers will move forward after the untimely death of defense attorney Christopher J. Shea last week. The case left off early last week in the middle of the preliminary hearing.

Shea represented Daisy Mazariegos, an ex-cop who is charged with assault under color of authority and making false statements in a crime report for a July 2022 use of force incident. Co-defendant Brandon Nail, also a former officer, faces the same charges and is represented by Julia Fox.

Marin County Superior Court Judge Beth S. Jordan began the hearing by congratulating defendant Mazariegos on the birth of her baby, born yesterday.

The court then turned its attention to whether Mazariegos had selected a new attorney. Alison Berry Wilkinson, an attorney practicing in San Rafael, told the court that Mazariegos had reviewed multiple options. In the end, Mazariegos chose Wilkinson, whose practice centers on representing law enforcement in criminal, civil and administrative proceedings.

“I currently serve as civil defense counsel for both Ms. Mazariegos and Brandon Nail in a federal civil rights litigation arising out of same set of facts,” Wilkinson said.

Julio Jimenez Lopez filed the civil lawsuit against the City of San Rafael, Mazariegos and Nail after suffering great bodily injury in the use of force incident last year.

Wilkinson acknowledged there is a potential for conflict of interest because she is representing both defendants in the civil case. While Nail consulted independent counsel regarding the potential for conflict, Mazariegos did not. Both ultimately signed waivers allowing Wilkinson to continue to handle the civil case and also represent Mazariegos in the criminal proceedings.

Assistant district attorney Geoff Iida stated that he had a greater concern for Nail with the potential for conflict. At this time, Mazariegos and Nail appear to have the same criminal defense strategy, however that could change. Mazariegos could decide to point the finger at Nail for the alleged offenses.

“His [Nail’s] current civil attorney is in a position to advance a defense to shift responsibility to Mr. Nail,” Iida said. “If he goes in eyes wide open, we can proceed.”

The judge verified that Nail understood he is giving up rights to later claims of inadequate representation. Nail’s criminal attorney, Fox, also stated that she had no objections.

With the conflict of interest matter resolved, it was then determined that Wilkinson will need time to review the criminal case files before the preliminary hearing resumes.

“I attended the two days of the [preliminary] hearing,” Wilkinson said. “But I was focused on monitoring testimony, not questioning witnesses.

The hearing concluded with Iida sharing a story about working with Shea, who was a Marin County prosecutor for more than a decade before becoming a defense attorney. Iida, fresh on the job, told Shea that he had just encountered a new legal issue in a case he was working on. Shea, according to Iida, told him not to worry about it. A few hours later, Shea delivered a legal brief to Iida to help him with the case.

“Chris had a big personality, was loud and very confident, Iida said. “He was also generous with his time with new attorneys.”

On Oct. 23, the court will determine the date for the preliminary hearing to resume.

Defense attorney dies, leaving uncertainty in police use of force case

Nikki Silverstein

Oct 10, 2023

Defense attorney dies, leaving uncertainty in police use of force case

The criminal case against two former San Rafael police officers took a tragic turn when one of the defense attorneys, Christopher J. Shea, died last week. He was 57.

Family, friends and colleagues expressed their distress and sorrow at the sudden loss of Shea, a seasoned criminal defense attorney who also spent more than a decade as a prosecutor in the Marin County District Attorney’s Office.

“Chris was an excellent attorney and a good, generous man,” defense attorney Douglas Horngrad wrote on the Pacific Sun’s website. “His untimely death is a terrible shock and tragedy.”

Another tribute mentioned that Shea was humble. Shea’s mother, Diane Shea, agreed, telling me in an email she didn’t think her son knew the extent of the love and respect so many people had for him.

“Chris was comfortable in his own skin, happiest in flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt,” Diane Shea said.

In addition to saddening his family and friends, Shea’s unexpected death will likely delay—or possibly restart—the police use of force case he was involved in.

Early last week, Shea appeared in Marin County criminal court for two days to represent ex-cop Daisy Mazariegos during a preliminary hearing, a proceeding which determines whether there is enough evidence for a case to go to trial.

Mazariegos and Brandon Nail, also a former officer, are charged with assault under color of authority and making false statements in a crime report for a July 2022 use of force incident. Both were terminated from the police department earlier this year.

Co-counsel Julia Fox, who is representing Nail, sat next to Shea during the proceedings. Fox told me that she noticed Shea loosened his tie while court was in session, something not usually done in that formal setting.

Courtroom spectators observed that Shea also unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and wore his sunglasses on top of his head while questioning a witness, leaving many now wondering whether the lawyer felt unwell. Still, Shea’s performance during the preliminary hearing was remarkable.

On the second day of the hearing, Shea made the surprise move of calling Mazariegos to testify. Several attorneys told me this is done only when a defense attorney believes the judge will find that their client should not be held to answer the charges. Shea had added incentive to convince the judge to send his client home—Mazariegos is pregnant and due on Oct. 19.

“It is very anomalous to have the defendants testify in a prelim,” Fox said. “Off the top of my head, I’ve only seen that happen maybe once before.”

Shea led his client through the details of the police use of force incident that began when Mazariegos contacted three men for drinking in public. Mazariegos indicated that she told the men to sit down to gain control.

“There were three of them and one of me,” Mazariegos said.

Under Shea’s questioning, Mazariegos established that one of the men, Julio Jimenez Lopez, stood to retrieve his identification. By then, Nail had arrived. The two officers instructed Jimenez Lopez to sit, but he soon stood again.

The officers grabbed Jimenez Lopez to handcuff him. Mazariegos claimed that Jimenez Lopez stiffened up and moved his arm, prompting Nail to trip the man and bring all three of them to the ground. During the encounter, Jiminez Lopez grabbed Nail’s vest, which held some of the officer’s equipment, including a baton and “OC spray,” also known as pepper spray, according to Mazariegos.

“I looked at Nail,” Mazariegos said. “His demeanor changed. He had a blank stare on his face.”

Nail then punched Jimenez Lopez in the nose with a closed fist. The use of force was consistent with her training because Jimenez Lopez was actively resisting, Mazariegos said.

The preliminary hearing ended before Assistant District Attorney Geoff Iida had the opportunity to cross examine Mazariegos.

But Iida had spent most of that day’s session, as well as the previous day, questioning prosecution witnesses, including Jimenez Lopez, DA investigator York Tsuruta and San Rafael police Cpl. Oscar O’Con, the supervising officer who approved the police reports submitted by Nail and Mazariegos.

During Iida’s examination of his own witnesses, it sometimes appeared that he was unaware of specific information that others in the courtroom knew. For example, when O’Con declared that the officers’ use of force was reasonable, the prosecutor failed to push back. Iida could have cited Police Chief David Spiller’s disciplinary letter to O’Con, who was suspended for four days due to his inadequate supervision of the incident.

The chief’s letter is one of numerous records recently released to the public from San Rafael’s independent investigation into the use of force incident and its aftermath. Other documents include the investigator’s interviews with Mazariegos and Nail, who were still officers at the time.

Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli declined to answer whether Iida has access to those interviews and other files from the independent investigation.

However, Fox, who is a former prosecutor, shed some light on the subject. While she believes that Iida may be legally able to review the records, the constitutional protection against self-incrimination would prevent him from using any information gleaned from Mazariegos’ and Nail’s statements.

“The officers were compelled to give their statements under the threat of insubordination,” Fox explained. “Those statements can’t be used against either officer because of the Fifth Amendment privilege.”

Another attorney suggested to me that it is safer for Iida to refrain from examining the investigative records altogether, to avoid inadvertently using the information and tainting the legal proceedings.

Iida’s questioning of Jimenez Lopez seemed more effective. Speaking through an interpreter, Jimenez Lopez explained that he was drinking a few beers after work with two friends when Mazariegos contacted them on Windward Way in the Canal neighborhood. Jimenez Lopez cried on the witness stand as he was forced to watch videos from the officers’ body-worn cameras of the beating.

During his testimony, he listed his numerous injuries resulting from the officers’ use of force, including a broken nose, concussion, a torn labrum in his shoulder requiring surgery and injuries to both knees. Jimenez Lopez said that he no longer plays soccer because of his injuries.

Theo Emison, Jimenez Lopez’s attorney in a civil lawsuit filed against San Rafael and the former officers, told me that his client was in fear for his life during the bloody beating.

“Both Julio and his wife were in tears after they left the hearing,” Emison said. “This has been an incredibly emotional experience for both of them. The hearing took Julio back into reality of the event, and he relived it in full.”

Unfortunately, Jimenez Lopez will likely be called on again to provide testimony—either at another preliminary hearing if the case has to start over or at trial.

The preliminary hearing is scheduled to continue on Oct. 10.

Disciplinary Letter to Cpl. O’Con

BREAKING NEWS: Christopher Shea, defense attorney for former San Rafael cop, dies at 57

Nikki Silverstein

Oct 6, 2023

BREAKING NEWS: Christopher Shea, defense attorney for former San Rafael cop, dies at 57

Christopher J. Shea, a criminal defense attorney and former Marin County prosecutor, died on Thursday. He was 57.

Earlier this week, the seasoned attorney spent two days in a Marin County courtroom representing his client, former San Rafael police officer Daisy Mazariegos, in a preliminary hearing.

Shea, who grew up in the Bay Area and received his law degree from the University of San Francisco, spent more than 10 years as a Marin County deputy district attorney. In 2007, he left the DA’s office, switched sides and began practicing as a criminal defense attorney.

Other lawyers have praised Shea as a skilled attorney with a “bare-knuckled” approach to defending his clients.

“He has an excellent reputation, and deservedly so,” said attorney Julia Fox in an interview with the Pacific Sun on Thursday, prior to learning of Shea’s death.

Fox was Shea’s co-counsel in a current Marin County case against two former San Rafael police officers who are accused of assault under color of authority and making false statements in a crime report. It is unclear at this time how the case will be handled moving forward.

“We’re all digesting this a bit,” Fox, who is representing Brandon Nail in the case, said in a text message.

The ex-cops’ preliminary hearing, which determines whether there is enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial, began on Monday and continued Tuesday. It left off with Shea making an unusual move for a preliminary hearing—calling his client, Mazariegos, who is pregnant with a due date of Oct. 19, to testify.

The hearing is scheduled to continue on Oct. 10.

Editor’s Note: This story is still developing.

Documents reveal San Rafael cop had previous credibility issues

Nikki Silverstein

Oct 2, 2023

Documents reveal San Rafael cop had previous credibility issues

The Marin County district attorney knew that San Rafael police officer Brandon Nail had credibility issues long before he beat and bloodied a local gardener during questioning about an open container of beer, according to an internal police memo.

This is just one of many disclosures in the 89 documents, audio files and videos related to the City of San Rafael’s internal investigation into a July 27, 2022 use of force incident. The files were released last week, after a Marin County judge ordered San Rafael to disclose the records in response to three lawsuits that sought to obtain the information under the California Public Records Act. All the materials are now posted on the police department’s website.

A review of the records pulls back the curtain on how the police department manages complaints about its officers. Unless police misconduct falls into certain categories, officers’ records are confidential. These investigative records became public because the use of force resulted in “great bodily injury.”

Nail, who was fired earlier this year, has been charged with two felonies—assault under color of authority and making false statements in a crime report—for his role in the incident. His co-defendant, former police officer Daisy Mazariegos, was also terminated from the department and faces the same charges.

Apparently, this is not the first time that the district attorney has accused Nail of improper reporting. In an Aug. 25, 2022 memo about the use of force incident, San Rafael police Lt. Lisa Holton documented a previous conversation with Chief Deputy District Attorney Dori Ahana.

The DA’s office was questioning Nail’s credibility in the use of force case, but they already had concerns about him stemming from a July 2020 case, according to Holt’s memo.

“DA Ahana told me that their office had a prior issue with inconsistencies in a report written by Officer Nail,” Holton stated in the memo. “In the prior case DA Frugoli decided to handle the issue by speaking to Chief Bishop about it and letting the police department handle it internally.”

Attorney Charles Dresow, who represents Julio Jimenez Lopez, the victim in the use of force incident, is deeply troubled by the information in the memo.

“It begs the question whether the policies of the DA’s office allowed an officer with credibility problems to remain on the street and a member of the public was injured because of it,” Dresow said. “This is why it’s so important for the public to have access to records of officers with credibility or misconduct issues.”

After the 2020 case, Frugoli could have placed Nail on the Brady list, the prosecutor’s list of officers with credibility issues. This would have required the DA’s office to inform the defense in all cases involving Nail as a witness of his previous conduct.

Yet, Frugoli failed to do so. She justified her decision in an email to the Pacific Sun, stating that the inconsistencies in Nail’s report of the prior case did not include false statements.

Two years later, Frugoli again had to review Nail’s conduct—his use of force against Jimenez Lopez and the discrepancies between his police report and the videos from body-worn cameras. This time, Frugoli took more definitive action.

“The Brady committee decisions are made on a case by case basis and consist of a team of experienced prosecutors,” Frugoli said. “This committee determined that Officer Nail would be put on a notification/disclosure list.”

In June 2023, the DA’s office finished its investigation of the use of force incident and filed criminal charges against Nail and Mazariegos for assaulting Jimenez Lopez and falsifying their police reports. Frugoli stated that there is evidence to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

The DA’s conclusions conflict with those of Paul Henry, the independent investigator hired by San Rafael to conduct an internal investigation. Henry’s reports, issued March 29, 2023, were part of the records released last week.

Mazariegos and Nail did not use excessive force against Jimenez Lopez, according to Henry. Additionally, Henry found there was insufficient evidence to determine whether their police reports accurately described the facts.

The use of force incident began when Mazariegos contacted Jimenez Lopez and his two friends on Windward Way in the Canal area about drinking in public. Mazariegos instructed the men to sit on the curb and asked for their identification.

Henry found that Mazariegos didn’t attempt to develop a rapport with Jimenez Lopez and that her “demeanor was stern, challenging and officious.” The situation escalated when Nail responded to “provide cover” for Mazariegos.

Jimenez Lopez stood to retrieve his ID, and Nail told him to “sit the fuck down.” Although he obeyed, Mazariegos once more requested his ID and he stood again. The officers told him again to sit down and then grabbed Jimenez Lopez’s arms to handcuff him.

“Both officers expressed a concern that Mr. Lopez may try to flee the area or assault one or both police officers,” Henry stated in his report.

Despite their concern, Mazariegos and Nail never patted down Jimenez Lopez or his two friends to search for weapons. In fact, one of the men, also a gardener, had gardening shears on his belt, which was discovered by another officer who responded to the scene after the use of force.

Holton reviewed the body-cam videos and did not agree that Jimenez posed a threat. “Jimenez [Lopez] was not being aggressive or giving any indication that he was planning to run or fight the officers,” Holton wrote in her Aug. 25, 2022 internal memo.

Henry’s and Holton’s perspectives diverged on Jimenez Lopez’s actions when the officers tried to handcuff him. While Holton indicated that Jimenez Lopez “tenses up,” Henry stated that Jimenez Lopez resisted the officers, necessitating the use of force.

That force included Nail tripping Jimenez Lopez and punching him in the face, the records and videos show. Jimenez Lopez suffered a broken nose, concussion and a torn labrum in his shoulder, which required surgery.

The officers arrested Jimenez Lopez, stating in their police reports that he attempted to put Nail in a headlock. Nail also said that Jimenez Lopez hit him in the head several times. However, the body cam footage did not show Jimenez Lopez putting Nail in a headlock or hitting him.

The DA’s office filed charges against Jimenez Lopez, but subsequently dropped them after watching the videos.

Corporal Oscar O’Con, the supervisor who responded to Windward Way after the incident, signed off on the officers’ reports prior to watching the videos. Henry also investigated O’Con.

Although O’Con kept his body-worn camera on when he interviewed Jimenez Lopez and the other two men at the scene, he turned it off when interviewing Mazariegos and Nail about the use of force. It took O’Con almost a month to write the use of force report, leaving his superiors in the dark about the incident.

Ultimately, Henry found that Mazariegos, Nail and O’Con violated some department policies.

Mazariegos and Nail failed to employ de-escalation techniques and didn’t consider alternative tactics to use of force, according to the report. Henry also stated that use of force could have been avoided, and Mazariegos and Nail handled the incident poorly. Both officers brought discredit to the police department, Henry said.

O’Con’s list of violations included negligence of duty and unsatisfactory work performance. Henry summed it up by stating that O’Con did not “adequately supervise an incident involving a use of force.”

Police Chief David Spiller terminated Mazariegos in May 2023, and Nail was fired the following month. Nail, who was with the department for five years, is appealing the decision; however, Mazariegos was let go during her probationary period, and has no right to contest.

For O’Con’s role in the incident, Spiller meted out a four-day unpaid suspension.

As Henry repeatedly indicated in his report, use of force situations evolve rapidly. Officers are forced to “make split second decisions,” he said.

During lengthy interviews with Mazariegos and Nail, Henry tried to understand the officers’ mindset during the incident. Both indicated they believed there was no alternative but to use force against Jimenez Lopez, who was stopped for a minor infraction.

We may never know what the two officers were actually thinking. However, Mazariegos did impart some interesting information to Henry during her interview.

Mazariegos and Nail were “beat partners” and had spoken at the beginning of their shift, discussing whether they were caught up on their paperwork. Both were.

“So we decided to go and try and get an active arrest,” Mazariegos said.

Indeed, they did.

Lt. Holton Memo

Paul Henry’s Interview of Daisy Mazariegos

Paul Henry’s Interview of Brandon Nail

Paul Henry’s Interview of Oscar O’Con

San Rafael releases investigative reports on police use of force

Nikki Silverstein

Sep 27, 2023

San Rafael releases investigative reports on police use of force

Reporter’s note: At the conclusion of this article, the three investigative reports into three San Rafael officers involved in the use of force incident are provided in their entirety. The videos of the incident are also unedited and contain violence and profanity.

After almost six months of delays, the City of San Rafael released the investigative reports into the police beating of a local gardener during questioning about an open container of beer.

The three reports focus on a July 27, 2022, incident, when two then-officers, Daisy Mazariegos and Brandon Nail, used physical force against a man in the Canal area. Corporal Oscar O’Con was also investigated for failing to follow department policies during his supervision of the incident.

Mazariegos, Nail and O’Con were found to have violated some department policies. However, many of the findings in the reports appear to be in direct conflict with each other.

For example, the reports state that Mazariegos and Nail did not use excessive force against Julio Jimenez Lopez, yet it is also concluded that they brought discredit to the San Rafael Police Department.

“The investigative report soft sells what happened,” said Charles Dresow, an attorney for Jimenez Lopez. “If Mazariegos and Nail didn’t use excessive force, how did they bring discredit to the police department?”

Paul Henry, a 27-year veteran of the Santa Rosa Police Department who is now a consultant, conducted the internal investigation and issued the report, despite public concern that a former officer may have biases toward law enforcement.

Mazariegos and Nail failed to consider alternative tactics to using force and failed to employ de-escalation techniques, according to the report. Henry also states that use of force could have been avoided and Mazariegos and Nail handled the incident poorly.

“Through Nail’s and Mazariegos’s own misconduct, they created the need for use of force,” Dresow said. “Henry says the use of force was not excessive, but no force should have been used in the first place.”

While Henry doesn’t believe excessive force was used, the incident left Jimenez Lopez with a broken nose, concussion and a torn labrum in his shoulder that required surgery.

The reports place the blame for the then-officers’ decision to use force squarely on Jimenez Lopez for “resisting commands” to sit down. Jimenez Lopez stood up to comply with another command to produce his identification.

Adamant that Jimenez Lopez did not resist, Dresow said one only needs to look at the videos from the police body-worn cameras that captured the incident. Dresow also maintains that the commands were not lawful orders because the police did not have cause to detain his client for the minor infraction of an open container of beer.

“The City of San Rafael, including the city attorney, Rob Epstein, should be ashamed at the report that they have commissioned to justify the abuse of my client,” Dresow said.

The reports seem to raise as many questions as they answer. Some of these issues may soon be resolved in a court of law. Mazariegos and Nail, who are no longer employed by the San Rafael Police Department, are each facing two felony charges for assault under color of authority and making false statements in a crime report. Their next court date is Oct. 2.

Investigative Report into Daisy Mazariegos

Investigative Report into Brandon Nail

Investigative Report into Oscar O’Con

Video from Daisy Mazariegos’s body-worn camera of the use of force incident on July 27, 2022. Caution: contains profanity and violence.

Video from Brandon Nail’s body-worn camera of the use of force incident on July 27, 2022. Caution: contains profanity and violence.

Love of dogs continues for iconic star of Lassie TV show

Nikki Silverstein

Sep 26, 2023

Love of dogs continues for iconic star of Lassie TV show

What does a tiny toothless senior pooch living out his golden years in Santa Rosa have in common with Lassie, the most famous Hollywood dog of all time?

Both canines captured the heart of Jon Provost, the actor who played young Timmy Martin on the Lassie television series from 1957 to 1964. Provost was already a veteran actor when, at the age of seven, he began working side-by-side with Lassie, the majestic rough collie.

Actually, Provost co-starred with three different Lassies during his seven-year tenure on the top-rated CBS program. Like all the dogs who played the role of the female Lassie, Timmy’s three faithful companions were males.

“We only had one Lassie at a time,” Provost, 73, told me during an interview earlier this month. “The last dog [Baby], I worked with for five years, so he and I bonded like crazy. I loved that dog. He loved me. But if I told him to do something, give him a command, he’d look at me and say, ‘You’re my buddy, not my trainer.’”

Today, Provost’s love affair with dogs continues. He and his wife, Laurie Jacobson, recently adopted Casper, a 12-year-old Maltese, who had been surrendered to a shelter. The family of three resides in Santa Rosa, where Casper is settling into a new routine filled with affection, lots of treats and leisurely strolls.

**RESCUED** Jon Provost and Laurie Jacobson recently adopted Casper, a 12-year-old Maltese. Photo courtesy of Jon Provost.

That’s how I had occasion to chat with Provost and Jacobson. Casper came from Muttville, the Bay Area’s senior dog rescue, where I’ve volunteered for years.

Casper’s story certainly pulls on heartstrings. But I couldn’t resist learning more about the fictional little boy, Timmy, and his dog, Lassie. Fortunately, Provost was happy to reminisce about Lassie and his days as a child actor.

His acting career began when he was two years old, while his family was living in Pasadena. Provost’s mother responded to a newspaper ad placed by Warner Brothers. The studio was seeking a two- to three-year-old boy for a film, So Big, starring Jane Wyman and Sterling Hayden.

“My parents were not show business people,” Provost said. “My mother grew up on a farm in Texas, and her idol was Jane Wyman, the actress. Mom took me to the audition because she wanted to meet Jane Wyman and get an autograph. I got the job and then a contract with RKO.”

Before landing the role of Timmy in Lassie, Provost appeared in about 10 movies. He acted alongside Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby in the 1954 film, The Country Girl, and with Rod Steiger and Anita Ekberg in the 1956 film, Back from Eternity. There were also parts in early live television programs.

Then came the role of a lifetime, Timmy Martin. Provost remembers the seven years on Lassie with great fondness, especially his TV mom, June Lockhart. It was Lockhart who instilled in him that although he was a little boy, he was still a professional actor on the same playing field as the adults.

“June is still with us,” Provost said. “She’s 98 years old. We are the only living members from the series and have kept in touch over the years. Every birthday, every Christmas.”

Lassie’s owner and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax, also played a pivotal role in Provost’s life. Weatherwax, a surrogate grandfather to Provost, wasn’t above bribing the young actor.

“Rudd sat me down when we first started shooting, and said, ‘Look, if you don’t bug Lassie—don’t pull his tail, don’t ride him, don’t sit on him—for your eighth birthday, I will give you a Lassie puppy.’ I worked very hard that first year to do everything I was supposed to do,” Provost said.

True to his word, Weatherwax presented Provost with a male rough collie puppy. Provost named him Rudd, to honor Weatherwax.

“That was the only collie I ever owned,” Provost said. “Collies are a lot of maintenance. Lassie was constantly groomed—24/7.”

Provost starred in 249 episodes of Lassie. Week after week, Timmy and Lassie embarked on adventures. Lassie pulled Timmy’s loose tooth, freed him from quicksand and helped him bring an escaped baby circus elephant out of the woods. However, Lassie never rescued Timmy from a well.

“Timmy never fell in the well,” Provost said. “My mother saved every script. Somebody fell into the well, and Timmy and Lassie saved him.”

Jacobson, who helped write her husband’s autobiography, concurs. Although most Americans have heard the “Timmy fell down the well” tale, it never happened.

“We don’t really know where it came from,” Jacobson said. “We know everybody uses it. They use it when their dogs bark. Stephen Colbert on The Late Show uses it once a month. It’s everywhere.”

While Provost still accepts the occasional acting role, he and Jacobson are currently focusing their energy on helping Casper, their senior Maltese, adjust to his new digs.

“Casper has pretty severe separation anxiety,” Jacobson said. “He went through a lot before we got him.”

Indeed, he did. The adorable little Maltese lived with the same person for most of his 12 years, until she was forced to give him up because of a change in her housing situation. After that, Casper went to two different shelters before ending up at Muttville, the senior dog rescue. Along the way, he was diagnosed with severe dental disease.

“Casper lost his original owner and all his teeth within a matter of weeks,” Jacobson said. “It’s no wonder he has separation anxiety.”

Still, Casper captivated Provost and Jacobson when they met him at Muttville, and they instantly knew he was the perfect dog for their family. Coincidentally, the couple has just launched Spray, Mix ’n Go!, a calming CBD product for dogs who suffer from separation anxiety, a condition that causes distress for canines when they’re apart from their humans.

From Lassie to Casper, Provost has provided friendship to famous dogs and dogs in need. And he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

“Dogs and Timmy are synonymous,” Provost said. “I learned a lot from Rudd [Lassie’s trainer], his philosophy. Lassie was treated like royalty. All the training was through rewards and respect. That’s what I learned from Rudd—respect. I saw the benefit of what canines can do for people. The rest is history.”

Marin County sheriff says lawmakers need to make changes to prevent profiling

Nikki Silverstein

Sep 20, 2023

Marin County sheriff says lawmakers need to make changes to prevent profiling

A local watchdog group is again raising concerns about the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, saying the law enforcement agency refuses to address its high incidence of racial profiling.

Marin County Sheriff Jamie Scardina disputed the department’s need to make policing policy changes when I interviewed him last week. While Scardina said that he didn’t have time yet to review a report by Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity & Empowerment (MVFREE), the information it contained came from data provided by the sheriff’s office.

MVFREE analyzed the data for almost 4,500 stops, including pedestrian, traffic and calls for service, from April 2021 through March 2022, which it obtained through a public records request. The results reflect the anecdotal evidence that people of color in Marin have talked about for years.

The sheriff’s office stopped Black people at almost nine times the rate of white people, according to MVFREE. Latinx people did not fare well either. They were stopped at more than twice the rate of white people.

Some might believe the stop rates by the sheriff’s office indicate that Black and Latinx people commit more crimes than white people; however, that presumption is biased and false, Tammy Edmonson, a member of MVFREE, said during an interview. The data shows that the agency releases Black, Latinx and white people—without arrest or citation—at the same rate.

“I sent the information to the sheriff months ago,” Edmonson said. “Then I submitted questions to him about it during a Marin Coalition forum on policing. He was dismissive of the data.”

The sheriff’s data collection is required under AB 953, the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA), state legislation passed in 2015. Law enforcement agencies must gather and report on 16 categories of information every time a stop is conducted. The data includes the perceived race of the individual detained, the reason for the stop, all actions taken by the officer and the outcome.

The purpose of RIPA is to eliminate racial and identity profiling in law enforcement. The RIPA advisory board reviews the data reported by agencies throughout the state. In January, the board issued a report summarizing the data collected by 58 agencies during 2021.

On average, those reporting agencies stopped Black people at 2.75 times the rate of white people, with Latinx people stopped at a rate 1.3 times higher than white people, based on MVFREE’s analysis of the RIPA board’s report.

“The Marin County Sheriff’s Office stop disparities of Latinx and Black people were among the highest of all 58 reporting agencies in the state,” Edmonson said.

Yet, Scardina, who has been with the department for 23 years, remains doubtful that the collected data provides enough information for a complete analysis.

“I don’t have too much confidence in the RIPA board,” Scardina said. “The RIPA data doesn’t paint the entire picture. It’s a little flawed. The data is not taking into consideration several important factors. So, we started keeping data on two additional categories, and I don’t think that it’s being analyzed.”

One of those categories is whether the person stopped is a Marin resident. This has long been a concern for Scardina. In fact, he mentioned it to me during a February 2021 interview about the first four months of RIPA data reported by the sheriff’s office. Three months later, the department began tracking Marin residency information for each stop.

Indeed, MVFREE analyzed the stop data for Marin residents only, and it is likely not what Scardina expected. Sixty percent of the people stopped by the sheriff’s office are residents of Marin. The racial disparity rates were even higher than when the visitor stops were included in the data, with Black residents stopped at 10.1 times the rate of white residents.

The stop rate for Latinx residents remained about the same as the rate of overall stops of Latinx people.

Also in May 2021, the sheriff’s department began collecting data on whether the officer noted the race of the person before the stop. Scardina said that 85% of the time, the officer did not know.

I pressed the sheriff on the validity of that statistic. After all, Black, Latinx and white people are all released without an arrest or citation at the same rate. What then, I asked, could account for the extremely high disparity of stop rates for people of color over white people—residents or visitors?

“I want to look at the data you’re talking about,” Scardina said. “I know she [Edmonson] sent me a bunch of it, and I would like to have an opportunity to look into that.”

Fair enough, but the data came from the sheriff’s department. I took a gander at the limited amount of RIPA information posted on the department’s website and was able to quickly confirm MVFREE’s analysis of the stop rates for Black and Latinx people over white people during the specified year. MVFREE obtained the complete raw data set.

Back in that February 2021 interview that I had with Scardina, when he still held the undersheriff position, he indicated that the sheriff’s office would analyze the RIPA data.

“We’ll use the data to identify any disparities that we may have within the sheriff’s office,” Scardina said at the time. “And we’ll use that to evaluate ourselves in the department and look at the reasons and causes for those differences. If they continue, we’ll create policies or practices to eliminate those disparities.”

Now that Scardina is the sheriff, appointed to the role in June 2022, his perspective seems to have changed. Instead, he places the responsibility on the shoulders of lawmakers, not law enforcement.

“Every single agency that I’ve heard of that [has] analyzed the RIPA data—there are disparities across the board,” Scardina said last week. “I’m in the business of enforcing the laws that are on the books. If certain acts need to be passed to keep law enforcement from doing certain types of traffic stops for low-level infractions, that needs to be passed by legislation.”

Several jurisdictions, including San Francisco, Berkeley and Los Angeles, have recently limited police stops for minor traffic infractions. These low-level violations are often used by law enforcement as a pretext stop, allowing an officer to fish for more serious crimes. Pretext stops disproportionately target people of color.

Passing legislation to restrict pretext stops may address some of the issues, but MVFREE has suggestions for policies that the Marin County Sheriff’s Office could establish. Although the department has a “bias-free policing policy,” MVFREE believes the sheriff should include “the enforceable requirements, practical guidance and accountability measures of the RIPA model.”

The group also calls on Scardina to increase the number of anti-bias training courses provided for personnel. The agency currently meets only the minimum statutory requirement of one course every five years, Edmonson said.

The human cost in not implementing new policies is great, according to MVFREE. They point to the statistics, including that Black Americans are three times more likely than white Americans to be shot and killed by police.

A 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 41% of Black people in this country reported they’ve been stopped or detained by police because of their race. And 30% of Black men said they have been the victim of police violence.

As a Black woman who is the mother of three boys, Celimene Pastor, an MVFREE member, is extremely concerned about the sheriff’s position and rejects it. The legislature, she maintains, passed the RIPA act to enable law enforcement agencies to examine their racial disparities in policing. Scardina now must do his part, according to Pastor.

“Not only does racial profiling endanger the lives of Black and Brown people, but it also creates mistrust in law enforcement,” Pastor said. “The sheriff needs to do his job by addressing the data so that he may better serve communities of color.”

San Rafael homeless campers sue city over restrictive ordinance

Nikki Silverstein

Sep 12, 2023

San Rafael homeless campers sue city over restrictive ordinance

In another David versus Goliath story, San Rafael is paying two outside law firms to defend the city against a lawsuit resulting from a restrictive homeless camping ordinance passed in July.

Residents of “Camp Integrity,” a homeless encampment on the Mahon Path in Central San Rafael, say they were compelled to file the legal action because the city’s ordinance violates their constitutional rights and places them in physical danger.

Last week, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen extended a temporary restraining order against San Rafael, prohibiting the city from enforcing the new ordinance, which limits the size and number of homeless campsites in an area.

At the conclusion of the 90-minute hearing, Chen directed both sides to provide more information to the court before the next hearing on Oct. 2. Specifically, the federal judge wants briefings on whether San Rafael’s camping ordinance interferes with freedom of association, a protected right under the First Amendment, and the applicability of the state-created danger doctrine.

Chen also ordered the city to “produce a detailed legible map showing areas where camping is permitted (legible enough to see street boundaries) with an indication of the number of campers allowed in each area pursuant to the proposed density restrictions.”

The city’s hotly contested ordinance limits the size of a group campsite to 10 feet by 20 feet. An individual campsite can’t exceed 10 feet by 10 feet. All campsites must maintain at least 200 feet of separation—two-thirds the length of a football field.

Currently, about 40 people occupy 33 tents on half of the Mahon Path, from Lindaro Street to Lincoln Drive, an area measuring about 540 feet. Under the ordinance, only three campsites would be permitted in that space.

Some of the campers have disabilities and depend on their homeless neighbors to deliver necessary supplies, according to the lawsuit. Others, who have been the victims of sexual assault or domestic violence, rely on nearby campers for safety.

Chen questioned the city’s attorneys about the constraints that they claim will keep homeless people and the rest of the community safe.

“I don’t know what that number is—but couldn’t a larger cluster be accommodated so folks at least have enough in numbers that they feel safe, or they can count on somebody to help them with food and water?” Chen asked.

San Rafael’s attorney, Mark Austin of Burke Williams & Sorensen, referenced a staff report that “set forth all of the dangers of larger encampments.” Austin also pointed to the declaration of Lynn Murphy, a licensed therapist who works for the San Rafael Police Department as the mental health outreach liaison.

“When there’s three or more tents that get together and start to grow in terms of the trash, the crime, the biohazards, the fire risk, etcetera,” Austin said.

Chen then sought evidence for Austin’s assertion that when the homeless encampment population reaches a certain threshold, problems increase.

The city’s other attorney, Michael von Loewenfeldt of Wagstaffe, von Loewenfeldt, Busch & Radwick, jumped in to clarify.

“Your Honor, this is the city’s first attempt to limit density,” von Loewenfeldt said. “There’s no social experiment that’s been run where we count tents and measure problems…It’s not that we don’t want to answer your question; it’s just it’s hard to understand what it is you’re looking for, and it seems inconsistent entirely with the city’s legislative power, and this court’s very limited role in analyzing the constitutionality of ordinances like this.”

In other words, the city doesn’t believe their ordinance is a matter for the courts.

Anthony Prince, the attorney for the California Homeless Union, disagrees, maintaining that the ordinance isolates people. That isolation is the crux of the matters that Chen wants the parties to address. Does forcing homeless people into small groups with less than three tents prevent them from freely associating with one another? Is the city placing them in danger?

Homeless people need to associate for safety, sufficient access to services and community assistance, according to Prince, who is representing one of the homeless campers in the lawsuit.

Isolation creates more vulnerability, Prince asserted. Numerous studies back him up. Homeless people are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than housed people.

“Larger encampments tend to be safer,” Prince said.

Prince also pointed to a major benefit of large encampments—case managers know where to find their homeless clients and can keep them on a path toward permanent housing.

San Rafael has first-hand experience with the advantages of a large city-sanctioned encampment. From July 2021 through August 2022, the city operated a “service support area (SSA).” A staff status report, released in December 2021, touted the SSA’s success.

“It creates a central, designated place for our partners to provide services…Service providers have remarked to staff that the SSA allows them to reach more people and make greater impacts than if encampments were spread out over many locations.”

Ultimately, 35 of the 47 campers received permanent housing, according to Chris Hess, San Rafael’s assistant director of community development, housing and homelessness.

Yet, Austin, San Rafael’s attorney, provided the court with a much different account than the city’s own assessment.

“In fact, with respect to the case managers and other third-party service providers, they actually have a more difficult time in some instances accessing the homeless individuals at the larger encampments because they get harassed by some of the members of those encampments,” Austin opined. “And so, some of them avoid the encampments entirely.”

Lynn Murphy, the city’s mental health liaison, helped run San Rafael’s SSA. However, in her declaration to the court, she provided a similar, though milder version of Austin’s statement.

“Within the large encampments, the individuals living in the encampments are welcoming to the case managers, but it can often be intimidating for case managers to enter a site that is occupied by a large group of campers,” Murphy wrote.

After years of covering homelessness, I was unfamiliar with these intimidation and harassment claims. I contacted local nonprofits that employ case managers and outreach workers to determine whether they avoid homeless encampments.

“We always go into encampments,” said Chandra Alexandre, chief executive officer of Community Action Marin. “That’s our job. That’s what we do. Our people are trained for this kind of work, and they can go in pairs.”

Alexandre said that her staff has not reported feeling intimidated or harassed at the Mahon Path. Zoë Neil, director of Downtown Streets Team, concurs.

“Our case managers are in encampments all the time,” Neil said. “We do safety and de-escalation training, but I’ve had no reports that case managers are uncomfortable going into the Mahon Path or other San Rafael encampments. If we feel uncomfortable, we use the buddy system.”

Clearly, San Rafael and the homeless plaintiffs have a lot to work out. Chen arranged for the parties to engage in settlement talks beginning on Sept. 20. A rational solution, such as establishing a city-sanctioned encampment, will hopefully surface during those negotiations.

Otherwise, the city and its homeless residents will be bound by Chen’s next ruling, likely leaving one side unhappy. But for now, the campers will stay on the Mahon Path.