potrero view

January 2012

Crime & Safety Report: Potrero Hill Resident Works Cases at District Attorney’s Office

Sasha Lekach

Assistant District Attorney Michael Maffei, who goes by “Mike” and lives on Vermont Street, likened his job working in San Francisco’s courts to being a restaurant server.  “It’s like being a waiter, you have to multitask,” he said, as he mimed holding two trays filled with plates, and cups, while not letting anything drop. Except Maffei’s days are spent juggling cases; lots of them.

As an assistant DA Maffei, 32, represents “the people,” prosecuting cases on behalf of Californians.  He’s one of about 250 employees who work at the DA’s office. Maffei is currently assigned to the preliminary hearing unit, where he handles as many as 45 cases a day.  His commute to his Hall of Justice office from his apartment near Highway 101 will soon shift somewhat; he and his girlfriend Phoebe Eustis, who also works at the Hall as the charging assistant DA for the misdemeanor department, are moving to Pennsylvania Street.

On an early November day at the Hall, located at 850 Bryant Street, Maffei was in the third floor office he shares with two other assistant DAs.  It was a “light” day, with just 23 cases on his calendar.  The office was filled with boxes of files; it didn’t appear to be a light day. Blue files were scattered around, which Maffei explained meant the case involving a gun. One of his morning preliminary hearing files was blue.  He’s typically in court from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. He arrives at his office at 7 a.m., staying until 6 p.m. working cases and arranging for the next day. He has a midday lunch break, which he said is usually spent reading through files; he doesn’t see it as much of a respite.

Maffei spends much of his days in Department 12, a courtroom on the Hall’s first floor to which he’s assigned every three days. “Part of the job is to move cases along,” he said. “We don’t want victims to have to wait.” In the preliminary hearing unit, cases proceed quickly; everyone has a right to a hearing within 10 days once a case has entered the justice system.

Maffei is almost ready to head to court before a 9 a.m. start time, but he continued to prep for the day and even week ahead. He took a few minutes to remind an officer to appear in court next week.  Maffei then grabbed a metal cart on wheels that appeared to have been magically organized by paralegals, interns and other staff,  and filled with case backgrounds, legal forms and a legal dictionary.  Maffei expressed great gratitude for the preparatory work done by the office support staff, which make his chaotic days much easier. As he dragged his cart through the office hallways to the elevators he said, “It’s a race against time,” referring to his relentless caseload, not the journey to court only a few floors away.

At his assigned courtroom, Judge Lucy McCabe – who is retired but frequently visits San Francisco courts – was rifling through papers and chatting with court staff, bailiffs and stenographers.  Maffei has been working at this particular court department for six months; he knows how things proceed.   As soon as he entered the courtroom he pulled out a pen and organized his prosecutor’s desk – which faces the judge – with the piles of necessary paperwork. He chatted with the public defender assigned to his department for the day. They’ll both spend the next several hours in court, and, having worked together before, are friendly, discussing cases that are on deck for the day. While their conversation seemed casual, they’ve decided to settle a case; it won’t be prosecuted.  The defendant will plead guilty and take a deal Maffei and the public defender have negotiated.

The first official case of the day began with a man clad in orange sweats issued by the county jail. The defendant was involved in a health and safety code violation; some sort of drug charge. Maffei and the public defender had settled the case; the judge explained to the man the condition of his probation. The judge repeatedly asked if the defendant understood that if he violated his probation he’d go to prison for five years.  The defendant confirmed that he understood that he’d given up his right to a preliminary hearing. Maffei’s request for a stay-away order from where the man had been arrested was granted.  It was on to the next case.

A slew of people and paperwork cycled through the courtroom over the next half hour, with Maffei constantly moving, reading, signing documents or talking to someone. Finally it was time for a preliminary hearing for a gun case that made headlines last fall. A San Francisco Examiner article described police responding to a 4 a.m. call about an armed man, later identified as Roderick Turner, 49, at Ellis and Taylor streets, and tackling him to disarm him.  Turner’s attorney, Ryan King, took the place where a public defender had been standing at the podium facing the judge. Maffei called police officers involved in the incident to testify. Officer Jeff told the court that he’d been with the San Francisco police department for five years, posted to the Tenderloin station. Maffei asked McHale a series of questions about how he’d arrived at the scene, his exact movements when he got there and saw Turner with a gun, and how he came to tackle and bring him into custody. Maffei also displayed photographs of the gun Turner was found carrying.

The defense asked the officer a number of detailed questions, focusing on the gun’s angle and the timing of when officers arrived.  “Did he [Turner] make threatening statements to you?” asked the attorney.  When the officer responded “No,” it became clear that the attorney had demonstrated that the officer had not been directly targeted with the gun. The judge confirmed the mini-victory for the defense when it was decided that a brandishing charge Maffei had added to the case after Turner’s arrest would be dropped. Turner was still charged with three other gun charges and for resisting arrest, but the lawyer and his client seemed pleased nonetheless.

The morning continued with some drug cases, many of which were settled quickly, until a public defender balked at the settlement terms for a man found with crack on him.  Maffei argued for certain probation terms; the defense shuttled back and forth with her client in the back of court to see what he’d be willing to accept.  The defense pushed to release the defendant, while Maffei was inclined to enforce tougher probation terms.  “It’s a constant struggle with what to do in each case,” Maffei said.  According to Maffei, his “boss,” newly elected DA George Gascon, is tough on drug offenses.

The DA’s office consists of many departments, which are broken down into divisions, which are then comprised of units, such as Maffei’s preliminary hearings, which is part of the criminal division. Other units in this division include homicide, misdemeanor, felonies, gangs, and assaults.  Each has its own chain of command.  Maffei’s direct boss is Dave Merin, the head of the preliminary hearing unit. Merin reports to the head of the criminal division, Braden Woods.  Woods reports to the chief of operations, Sharon Woo.  She reports to Gascon.  Maffei and Gascon don’t directly discuss cases, but cross paths in the office hallways.

Maffei ended his week with a weekend trip to San Diego, where he serves as a lawyer for the Navy; he’s a reservist.  Maffei attended the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.  After graduating in 2005 he served as a Naval attorney in Southern California and Washington, D.C.  He joined the DA’s office in 2010, starting in the misdemeanor unit. He’ll soon move on to the felony unit, where he’ll be responsible for prosecuting assault, battery, murder, robbery and kidnapping cases.

Maffei also serves as the neighborhood assistant DA for Potrero Hill, which entails attending community meetings – such as the Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association – on behalf of the DA’s office.  “One of the purposes of this program is to make one assistant district attorney directly available to each neighborhood in San Francisco,” Maffei said.  “Should folks in the neighborhood have any questions or concerns about crime or the criminal justice system, they can then contact the neighborhood [assistant district attorney] with those questions.”

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