THE MAYOR’S HANDPICKED DISTRICT ATTORNEY HAS MADE PUBLIC SAFETY A BATTLEGROUND FOR POLITICAL GAIN – RYAN KOJASTEH
Former San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Ryan Kojasteh, summarily fired by Mayor London Breed’s handpicked DA Brooke Jenkins, kicked off his quest to oust the woman who fired him. He opened his campaign headquarters in the City’s Richmond District Sunday afternoon.
In his brief remarks Kojasteh, currently an Assistant District Attorney in Alameda County, called himself an “Insider” who works as a Prosecutor. He knows how Prosecutors work and think. He is one of them. He knows Brooke Jenkins well, having worked in the office when both of them were under the employ of Chesa Boudin.
The difference between the two is stark. Brooke Jenkins turned her back on Chesa and earned over 150K as a main political functionary in the political coup d’etat of June 7, 2022.
Former San Francisco Supervisor Sandy Fewer talks to the crowd as DA candidate Kojasteh looks on
Ryan Kojatesh paid a price for staying true to his principles about what an ethical prosecutor and public servant should be. It cost him his job in San Francisco.
RYAN KHOJASTEH (fired by Brooke Jenkins) ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY
Surrounded by supporters and close knit family members candidate Kojasteh touted his experience as an Assistant DA in Chesa Boudin’s administration. Following Chesa’s recall two years ago, Kojasteh was summarily fired by Brooke Jenkins. The firing occurred as Kojasteh was en route to a wedding. Jenkins called and fired him with no explanation.
Ryan and San Francisco Berniecrats co-chair Zoe Kelman
Jenkins cleaned house and Kojasteh was on the Boudin staff swept away in the post Recall purge.
In his own words Kojasteh has spent his career, “prosecuting violent crimes, supporting victims and getting justice-involved youth back on track as a prosecutor … to combat anti-AAPI hate crimes as a longtime San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commissioner.”
Participating in the campaign kickoff were commissioners from the Board of Education and Community College Board; former State Senator and Supervisor Mark Leno; along with former Richmond District (D1) Supervisors Sandy Fewer and Jake McGoldrick.Also there to support Ryan’s candidacy was David Heller, longtime President of the Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants and Property Owners Association.
Liz and Lee enjoy the camaraderie with Ryan
TOP PHOTO: Ryan Kojasteh submitting papers for his District Attorney candidacy at City Hall
On a sunny day in late May I took a walk from Macy’s down Powell Street past the cable car turn around. Continuing up car free Market Street to Civic Center and San Francisco City Hall.
A photographic view of the walk follows.
Women’s fashions at Macy’s
Iconic cable cars lined up on Powell Street
A man and his dog on Market Street
San Francisco Sister Cities at the cable car turn around on Market Street
Construction crew at work Three guys enjoying the sun at Hallidie Plaza on Market StreetCycling up Market StreetWaiting to cross at 6th Street and Market
Street life on Market Street
Pedestrian friendly car free Market Street
An artistic trash can
Public transit and cyclists co-exist on Market Street
The people on car free Market StreetA walk in the shade.
Classic Odd Fellows Temple at Seventh and Market streets
Neighborhood residents on Market Street.
WORLD PEACE CANNOT BE THE WORK OF ONE MAN, OR ONE PARTY, OR ONE NATION. PEACE WHICH RESTS ON THE COOPERATIVE EFFORT OF THE WHOLE WORLD – President Franklin Delano Roosevelt – 1945
Hanging out in the sun at UN Plaza
50 United Nations Plaza
Heart of the City – Farmer’s MarketShoppers at the always busy popular Farmer’s MarketThe view at The Farmer’s Market.
San Francisco City Hall
Market near Seventh StreetThe bird gives the photographer the Eye.
My head is spinning as I read the story in today’s Wall Street Journal, ‘How a Mysterious Tip Led to Trump’s Conviction’ after reading the editorial excoriating his conviction by a New York Jury.
The Wall Street Journal began running this story of Trump’s “Hush Money” payoff to porn actress Stormy Daniels even before the 2016 election.
How the WSJ can condemn Trump’s conviction when its reporters are responsible for this case going to trial is mind numbing.
The WSJ should be taking a victory lap and the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism,
Trump sits as defendant in New York criminal court as Michael Cohen testifies – May 2024
FRONTLINE: Trump’s Showdown 10.19.2021 – segment on Michael Cohen
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 5.31.2024
In October 2018, during an interview with the Journal, Donald Trump was holding forth on everything from the Federal Reserve to the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia. When he got a question about Michael Cohen, he clammed up.
“I’ve discussed that (The “Hush Money”) so much,” he snapped. “Nobody cares about that.” He sidestepped a question about whether he had ever discussed hush-money payments with Cohen during the campaign.
Weeks later, the Journal reported that Trump had not only discussed the payments with Cohen, but had directly intervened on multiple occasions to suppress stories about his alleged sexual encounters with women. Both the White House and his outside lawyers had declined to comment or to substantively weigh in on the Journal’s reporting.
The reporters braced themselves for the Trump playbook: decrying a story as “fake news” on Twitter, then following up with intense—and often personal—attacks on the journalists who wrote it.
But the tweet never came. Instead, Trump spent the afternoon attacking the former mayor of Tallahassee, badgering the president of France over military spending and threatening to withhold federal funds from forest management in California.
His aides, privately, were less bullish. One described the story at the time as an “absolute killer.”
That December, a federal judge sentenced Cohen to three years in prison. Prosecutors in court filings provided new details alleging that Trump—identified as “Individual-1”—had directed and coordinated both hush payments, indicating they had evidence corroborating Cohen’s implication of the president.
Trump, a day after the sentencing, said in a tweet: “I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law.”
By July of that year, it seemed like Trump might be off the hook. The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office said it had completed its investigation into Cohen’s campaign-finance violations without indicting others in Trump’s orbit. A longstanding opinion by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said sitting presidents couldn’t be prosecuted. Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, said that day: “We are pleased that the investigation surrounding these ridiculous campaign finance allegations is now closed. We have maintained from the outset that the President never engaged in any campaign finance violation.”
The headlines after Trump “Hush Money” Indictment – April 2023
But the matter was far from closed. The following month, Cohen received some visitors in Otisville—prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, according to “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account,” a book by Mark Pomerantz, who worked in the office on a special assignment.
It’s disconcerting to read the post conviction reports and realize that too many Americans are buying in to Trump’s incendiary and dangerous rhetoric. Rupert Murdoch’s MAGA tabloid rag The New York Post says it all with the screaming headline INJUSTICE.
Susan Glasser says it all in The New Yorker. “The Revisionist History of the Trump Trial has already begun.”
The people I consider intelligent are ecstatic.
Donald Trump has been found Guilty of committing 34 felonies.
In his attempt to hide damaging information which could have cost him the 2016 election.
Voters in most countries would recognize Trump’s long overdue comeuppance as justified.
Sufficient reason to preclude this lying now convicted felon from being considered for any elected office.
Not in America, I fear.
Excerpted from The New York Times – Frank Bruni – 5.30.2024
The first former American president to be put on trial is now the first former American president to be convicted of a felony. Those milestones should be tombstones. A normal mortal doesn’t rise from that political grave.
But Donald Trump? I could see him skipping out of the cemetery, all the way back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I could see “guilty” being a mere bump in the road. I could even see it being an accelerant, as his indictment arguably was.
That’s because he has spent much of his lifetime and all of his political career preparing for a chapter like the current one — carefully constructing and ceaselessly repeating a narrative in which there are forces out to get him, they’ll use whatever trickery they must and their accusations are never, ever to be trusted.
Convicted felon Trump during Michael Cohen’s testimony
I long ago lost count of the times that “witch hunt” tumbled from his lips or his keyboard. Same for “rigged.” He wasn’t just venting. He was girding, an amoral storyteller insisting on a story and a moral different from the ones that those nefarious establishment types were pushing. Trump came to understand that commanding people’s attention could get him only so far, while commanding their realities might enable him to get away with anything.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg meets the press after the Guilty verdict against Trump
The trial and its conclusion slot neatly into the Trump-against-the-world worldview that he has promoted so assertively, so continuously and, as his sustained perch atop the Republican Party demonstrates, so successfully. Indeed, the whole point of promoting it was inoculation against potentially ruinous circumstances like Thursday’s verdict.
In the eyes of many voters, his prosecution proves his persecution. It’s as much affirmation as condemnation. And it’s all the more reason for him — and for them — to press on.
Trump behind bars
The day after – San Francisco Chronicle Page One – 5.31.2024
RUPERT MURDOCH’S NEW YORK POST GOES FULL MAGA – 5.31.2024
The assault on Academia in the Bay Area continues.
The right to speak out against the ongoing Israeli criminality against the children, women and men of Gaza which has seen the deaths of over 35K since October 7 is being pushed under the proverbial rug. In a paroxysm of censorship and unwavering support by academia leadership for the State of Israel.
Last week the President of Sonoma State University was forced out.
Now a distinguished professor at San Jose State University has been unceremoniously sacked for supporting the Palestinian people.
This assault on free speech is blatant Red Baiting which is akin to people being labeled Communist and having their careers and lives destroyed in the 1950’s.
Unpacking History with Professor Sang Hea Kil
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 5.26.2024
San Jose State University has temporarily suspended a justice studies professor who served as a liaison between administrators and pro-Palestinian demonstrators, the Chronicle has learned.
A statement by the CSU Student Divestment Coalition, a group of students advocating for schools to end financial support for companies doing business with Israel for its attacks on Gaza during its war with Hamas militants, slammed the university’s decision to suspend Sang Hea Kil, which it attributed to her support for pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Sang Hea Kil, a renowned professor at the university, received notice of her suspension Friday, according to a document reviewed by the Chronicle. The suspension letter says Kil is being suspended for violating Article 17 of the collective bargaining agreement between California State University and California Faculty Association.
The university didn’t specifically state what Kil did to warrant suspension, but alluded to certain actions in the suspension letter.
The letter states that Kil violated university policies due to “unprofessional and exploitative” conduct toward students, directing them to violate university policies and “engaging in harassing and offensive conduct and comments directed towards colleagues individually and as a group.”
Kil also posted the letter on her personal social media page, saying “SJSU has suspended me for my Palestine work. The fight for academic freedom continues.” She could not be reached for further comment.
Asked about Kil’s suspension Saturday, a spokesperson said the university does not comment on personnel matters.
Wednesday night Liz and I went to Davies Symphony Hall to see the film Gladiator accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and chorus. We had marvelous Box seats. It was our first trip to the building since 2018. We were scheduled to attend the Symphony on April 12, 2018. We never made it. That was the day Liz was subjected to the first of two brutal false citizen’s arrests. Liz was handcuffed and transported to Jail. Only to be released after I posted 20K cash bail.
The crowd at sold out Davies Hall cheered and applauded Gladiator throughout the performance of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Choir.Particularly when Russell Crowe (Maximus) turned to confront a visibly shocked Joaquin Phoenix (Commodus) in the Roman Colosseumand uttered the classic line, “I will have my vengeance in this Life or the Next.”
“I will have my vengeance in this Life or the Next.”
This false citizen’s arrest devastated Liz and changed both our lives forever. This false arrest was dismissed by San Francisco Superior Court two weeks later “In the Interest of Justice (PC section 1385)”.The devastation continued when Liz was, again, the subject of a second false citizen’s arrest on February 8, 2020. A false citizen’s arrest which was “Discharged” by the District Attorney days later. Nonetheless, the damage was done and long lasting.
Liz property bag, receipts and unused April 12, 2018 San Francisco Symphony ticket.
It was a momentous evening filled with bitter memories to return to Davies Hall. Particularly being able to watch, again, one of our favorite movies of all time. A story of a wronged man, whose life has been destroyed, fighting for Justice.
The San Francisco Symphony and choir perform Gladiator
The San Francisco Symphony and choir made Gladiator all the more exciting. Accentuating the riveting dialogue and action scenes during the two hour 35 minute opus.
Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall lit up in Gay Pride colors.
May 22nd is Harvey Milk’s birthday. The San Francisco Supervisor who was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone across the street from Davies Hall in City Hall in November 1978. Wednesday was nearly 45 years to the day of the May 21, 1979 White Night Riots. San Franciscans marched on the seat of San Francisco government and engaged authorities in a ferocious riot. Following the light sentence handed down by the jury in the trial of the assassin. Former Supervisor Dan White.
San Francisco City Hall ablaze in Gay Pride colors to commemorate slain Supervisor Harvey Milk’s birthday – May 22, 2024
Liz and Lee at Davies Symphony Hall – May 22, 2024
Dressed in fashion of the times. Attendees draped themselves around Gladiator clad man taking selfies
Even by WSJ editorial page standards for vicious name calling and “Red Baiting” this editorial with its off the hook unfounded condemnation of the Climate Justice Alliance and, by inference, the Biden Administration wins the prize.
Should Trump and his “Reich” gain power in 2025 we can expect more of this dangerous rhetoric and, more insidiously, dangerous assaults on all those groups and individuals who oppose the entrenched power structure in America.
Excerpted from Wall Street Journal Editorial – 5.24.2024
The Radicals Getting Your Tax Money
The EPA awards $50 million to a group that says Palestine is a ‘climate justice issue.’
In other words, banishing fossil fuels won’t be enough to arrest rising temperatures and sea levels. Israel, the military, the police, immigration enforcement, prisons, and capitalism all will have to go, too. The EPA is funding radicals whose aim is to sow division and dismantle U.S. institutions.
President Biden in the sights of the “Red Baiting” WSJ editorial page – “The Biden Administration, in its rush to hand out taxpayers dollars, isn’t scrutinizing the recipients. More worrisome is the idea that federal officials might agree with them.”
What does Climate Justice Alliance do? Last November it helped to coordinate a “March on Washington,” where protesters waved the banner “Free Palestine Is a Climate Justice Issue.” Other slogans included “Our Government Funds Palestinian Genocide” and “Only Socialist Revolution Can Stop World War III.”
The group’s website includes a “Free Palestine” section, with a video that uses “an anti-colonial framework to show how Climate Justice and the liberation of Palestine are connected.” It doesn’t disappoint. “Climate change did not begin with the burning of fossil fuels,” the narrator says. “It began with settler colonialism, imperialism and extractivism.” He asks viewers “to demand that we cut military funding to Israel and begin the process of demilitarization, so that we can all be free.
Climate Justice Alliance the latest pinata for the WSJ editorial page
Donald Trump is coming to San Francisco. It’s not because he loves The City which despises him. It’s so he can sit down with the wealthiest of the wealthiest in Pacific Heights at 2845 Broadway Street (between Broderick and Baker).
Perhaps the most expensive home in San Francisco, according to readily available public records.
At $50K to 500K!!!! per head in the home of David Sacks. Super wealthy politico who was instrumental in the 2022 Recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Artwork by @simbagirrl
The San Francisco Chronicle 5.22.2024
Former President Donald Trump will attend a campaign fundraiser where attendance will cost as much as $500,000 per couple in San Francisco on June 6.
The fundraiser, first reported by Puck News, will be hosted by investor David Sacks; his wife, clothing brand Saint Haven CEO Jacqueline Sacks; and investor Chamath Palihapitiya, according to an invitation obtained by Reuters. The event will reportedly be held at the Sacks’ Pacific Heights mansion — which, at the time of its sale in 2012, was San Francisco’s most expensive house on the market.
Donors will need to spend at least $50,000 to enter the fundraiser.
Donald Trump in New York City criminal court. Will he be a convicted felon on June 6th?
David Sacks and Palihapitiya, along with two other investors, host a business and investment podcast. Sacks has supported several other presidential campaigns this cycle. He co-hosted the launch of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential bid with X CEO Elon Musk on the platform and he and Palihapitiya co-hosted a $10,000-per-ticket fundraiser last year on behalf of a political action committee supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign.
Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife, made a recent appearance at the California Republican Party convention in Burlingame last weekend.
Eric Trump, the former president’s second-eldest son, will be the guest of honor at a fundraiser in Temecula (Riverside County) Wednesday evening to raise money for the Inland Empire Family political action committee. The IE Family PAC works to elect “conservative school board members who hold to a Judeo-Christian set of principles.”
The only reason Julian Assange is still locked up in the Belmarsh British prison is the obscene behavior of the Biden administration.
Assange has been confined in London since 2012. Initially for five years in the Ecuadorian Embassy and since then in British prisons. The American so called Justice Department seeks to try him for making public American wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan through his Wikileaks site.
Assange is a journalist and whistleblower who made public information which every citizen has a right to know.
A court in London today decided that Assange has legal grounds to appeal his extradition to America. This sordid saga will continue while Assange continues to wither in an English prison.
Chip Gibbons, policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent, covering the extradition hearing for Jacobin magazine. His recent piece for The Nation is headlined “End the Persecution of Julian Assange.”
“Assange remains confined in Belmarsh, one of the harshest prisons. We know his health is deteriorating. That’s why he was not allowed in court today. We also know they have forbidden remote access to journalists who are not based in England and Wales, because they can’t be prosecuted for taking a screenshot of the hearing. That’s why I’m in London and not in my house in D.C. watching this. I suspect the reason why they won’t grant these transmissions is they’re afraid, if Julian Assange does show up, someone will take a screenshot of him, because we know they don’t want people filming or taking pictures of Julian Assange, revealing the terrible shape that he’s in.
So, this is a victory for Julian Assange in that he lives on to fight another day, his case lives to fight another day, but he’s not out of Belmarsh yet, and he’s not in the clear yet. This could still end in him being sent to the U.S.
And the person who can stop this is Joe Biden and Merrick Garland. They could drop these charges today. They keep claiming, “Oh, this is the Justice Department. We don’t want to politicize the Justice Department.” But this is a political prosecution. The choice to bring charges against a journalist for exposing U.S. war crimes is the choice to bring a political prosecution. It was a political decision when Barack Obama refused to bring the case, and it was a political decision when Trump and Sessions and Barr chose to bring it. And, you know, Biden can sit there and say he’s not like Trump, he believes in democracy, journalism is not a crime, all of those sorts of things, but those words are extremely hollow so long as Biden continues to make the political decision to continue this Trump-era persecution of a journalist whose only crime is exposing war crimes, abuses of power and state criminality.”
SAN FRANCISCO – GOLDEN GATE PARK EQUESTRIAN STABLES
Lee Heidhues 5.17.2024
It’s unfathomable that years of animal cruelty has been taking place less than a 10 minute bike ride from my home in the outer Richmond District of San Francisco.
A group contracted with by the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department has engaged in years of ongoing mistreatment and cruelty toward horses. The abuse came to light because of angry employees, the public and a whistleblower.
The San Francisco Standard just released its findings after a three month investigation.
The top echelons of San Francisco government beginning with the Mayor’s officer and the Recreation and Parks Department have a lot of explaining to do.
The San Francisco Standard 5.17.2024
A horse named Beamer exhibited declining health during its time at Chaparral, according to employees. | Source:Courtesy Rori Greene
In July 2020, a woman named Carole Holt emailed Animal Care and Control with pictures of a horse she saw in Golden Gate Park with an open wound.
“Please help these poor horses,” she wrote. “It breaks my heart.”
Nestled within the greenery of Golden Gate Park and just a short trot to the Pacific Ocean lies a bucolic portal to the past. At Bercut Equitation Field, horses are the primary form of transport and the smell of manure overpowers the park’s usual eucalyptus scent.
But the idyllic setting masks an uglier reality, as revealed by a three-month investigation into Chaparral Corporation, the horseback riding company based out of San Francisco’s most beloved park.
After the Standard uncovered long-standing evidence of mistreatment of animals and workers and injuries that, in one instance, resulted in an ongoing lawsuit, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department said this week it had revoked Chaparral’s permits to operate in Golden Gate Park and Camp Mather, the family summer camp near Yosemite run by the department.
Chaparral will cease operations at Camp Mather following The Standard’s inquiries about injuries and horse care. | Source:San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images
In interviews with The Standard, employees and volunteers described inadequate care and a grueling work environment for horses that may have endangered both the animals and riders at the sites run by Chaparral.
Workers and concerned members of the public said they tried to alert city agencies about problems with Chaparral and were baffled that the company was allowed to continue operating, even after employees submitted a 41-page whistleblower report to the city describing unsuitable conditions at the site and claims surfaced that the company could be putting children at risk.
Complaints about the company did not stop Recreation and Parks from renewing Chaparral’s permit multiple times over about five years until The Standard reached out in May to the city with questions about the company’s track record.
In response to The Standard’s inquiries about Chaparral, the parks department said this week it revoked the company’s permit. On Friday, the company informed its customers in an email that it will vacate the property within 10 days.
Chaparral will also be kicked out of Camp Mather and will no longer be considered for plans to bring horseback riding to McLaren Park, the department said. The city says it will try to find a new horseback-riding company starting in June.
Chaparral, which offered camps, lessons and trail rides at Bercut Equitation Field, was accused of providing inadequate care for its horses and running an unsafe operation. | Source:Morgan Ellis/The Standard
“While an investigation determined Chaparral met the minimum standards for horse care under the law, we no longer believe they meet the high standards we expect from our park operators,” parks department spokesperson Tamara Aparton wrote in a statement.
Patricia Hontalas, who grew up riding horses with her sisters in Golden Gate Park, took a job helping run Chaparral’s camp in April 2020, early on in the pandemic, when her day job as a real estate agent became difficult.
Chaparral, which began operating in the city in 2019, was the first horseback riding company to enter the park in years.
Soon after starting the job, however, Hontalas observed filthy stalls, high employee turnover and punishing work schedules for the horses. In addition to long days carrying riders, many of whom were children, the horses were often taken out during the evenings and for private lessons, Hontalas said.
“Honestly, the horses never got a day off,” she said. “And these are the end-of-life kind of horses, the ones that should be turned out and not ridden, you know, six days a week.”
In September 2020, Hontalas was riding a horse named Beamer when a tree branch fell on a nearby car, spooking the horse and causing it to rear up. The animal fell on top of Hontalas, landing her in the hospital for three days with an injured ACL and leaving her with a $6,400 bill and pain that lingered for months.
Animal Care and Control said it inspected Chaparral’s Golden Gate Park location following complaints about the site. | Source:Morgan Ellis/The Standard
Adding insult to injury, Hontalas said Chaparral stiffed her on her final paycheck—a claim echoed in a class-action lawsuit filed in 2022 by former employees who accused the company of wage violations. (That lawsuit was settled in March for about $151,000. Chaparral denied the claims in the filing and told The Standard it had settled to avoid expensive legal fees.)
Hontalas is one of 11 current and former Chaparral employees and volunteers—many with years of experience in the equestrian industry—who spoke with The Standard and painted a disturbing picture of a company that prioritized the bottom line above the care of its horses, staff or riders.
Some of the employees’ claims were documented in an anonymous whistleblower report that was shared with the Recreation and Park Department and Animal Care and Control in 2021.
The 41-page report, which includes photographic evidence and screenshots of emails, raised concerns that included a lack of shelter, equipment, hoof care and health care at the Golden Gate Park site. Among other issues, the document said that the horses were sleep-deprived and physically exhausted, sometimes falling asleep in the middle of riding lessons.
Pictures included in the document show horses with fungal infections on their foreheads and hindquarters, sores on their bodies from ill-fitting saddles and hooves that were chipping away.
“They were cheap,” said Sunny Hibbits, who worked for Chaparral for about a year starting in July 2020, in an interview. “They didn’t care.”
Chaparral CEO Shawn Mott denied the allegations of inadequate horse care at its San Francisco sites. | Source:Paul Chinn/SF Chronicle/Getty Images
Some of the former employees and volunteers who spoke with The Standard said they resigned because of what they saw as neglect of the horses’ well-being.
“The animals were there to make money,” said Sara Esquivel, who worked at one of Chaparral’s South Bay locations for about five months in 2021 after about two decades of experience managing private barns, “and that’s it.”
Employees who resigned from Chaparral as recently as last month said conditions haven’t improved.
Sierra Healy, who joined the company in April 2023 as an instructor and said she has been working with horses her entire life, called Chaparral’s practices “really unethical.”
“They were forcing us to use these horses four to five hours straight very regularly,” Healy said. “And when I say working, I mean lessons with kids and rides on Ocean Beach. Intense work.
“Because of that, the horses weren’t able to keep any weight on. You can see their ribs. They have no muscle mass,” Healy continued. “We had a couple of horses that would lie down and start rolling with a kid on their back. It’s mind-boggling that they’ve continued to operate like this for so long.”
Chaparral’s owners, Susan Pennell and Shawn Mott, maintained that they tried their best to operate in a park that can sometimes present chaotic or difficult situations for an equestrian company.
“I don’t feel like fighting for it anymore,” said Mott about his business dealings with the city. “I’ve been doing it for 50 years. I know what I’m doing. All the professionals, veterinarians, doctors, animal control people, government agencies, entities, they asked us to be at these places.”
After its permit was revoked, Chaparral told customers that it will vacate the San Francisco property within 10 days. | Source:Morgan Ellis/The Standard
In a roughly hour-and-a-half-long interview, Pennell and Mott pushed back against the allegations levied against them, asserting that they have offered their horses adequate medical treatment and a caring environment with enough food, water and shelter.
Longtime employee Jenny Bryant backed Chaparral’s owners, saying the company gives the utmost attention to its animals.
“We treat these horses like the employees that they are,” she said. “They deserve care. They deserve food. They love being ridden.”
‘The video, honestly, was quite disturbing’
Chaparral was co-founded by Mott and Pennell in 2009. Both of them said they have been around horses since their childhoods: Pennell’s father got her a horse when she was just 5 years old, while Mott has been in the business since he was 10.
The company oversees a variety of riding experiences, including trail and pony rides, lessons and children’s camps. Aside from its soon-to-be-closed operations at Golden Gate Park and Camp Mather, Chaparral has three locations in the South Bay and one near Monterey Bay.
In San Francisco, the company operated out of the circular field just off Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and housed its animals inside stalls just a quick walk to the west. Rides and lessons can cost up to $125, depending on length and type. Camps cost up to $750 for the week. In San Francisco, the city collected 5% of the company’s revenue under the terms of the permit.
Not long after Chaparral began operating in Golden Gate Park in 2019, problems arose. Emails unearthed through a public records request show that multiple members of the public reached out to the city with concerns about the operation in 2020.
Sue Pennell, co-founder of Chaparral Ranch, started the company with Shawn Mott in 2009. | Source:Jungho Kim for The Standard
By 2021, a veteran animal cruelty investigator named Jennifer Hack was in touch with the city about Chaparral’s track record after the whistleblower complaint came to light and a video surfaced involving a horse named Jack.
In the video, which was obtained by The Standard, Jack is seen repeatedly struggling to get up after lying down and defecating on himself. The videos and a two-page memo from a volunteer were sent to the city’s Animal Care and Control department.
“The video, honestly, was quite disturbing,” said Hack, who has been involved in animal cruelty investigations for over 40 years. She noted that Jack’s elevated respirations, which are apparent in the video, indicate a horse in pain.
“I mean, there are some things—and I go back to Jack again—that definitely, in my opinion, fall within the animal cruelty laws,” she said.
Health issues documented by Chaparral employees in 2023 included a wound on the leg of a horse named Rex, left, and a saddle sore on a horse named Stetson, right. | Source:Courtesy Sierra Healy
Documents show that Chaparral kept Jack working despite concerns about his health.
On Aug. 5, 2021, an unnamed animal control officer visited Chaparral and reported finding Jack wearing a saddle, indicating that he was working. They instructed an employee on-site to remove the horse from any duties. After the officer ordered Jack to receive veterinarian care, they inquired with Chaparral’s Pennell about any of the other animals needing care.
“[Pennell] said, ‘I don’t know!’ and told me how busy she is doing payroll,” the animal control officer wrote in their report.
On Aug. 8, 2021, emails show animal control officer Rebecca Fenson writing to Hack, “I am in touch with San Jose Animal Services and Peninsula Humane Society about Chaparral’s Milpitas and Woodside facilities. My first concern is ensuring that Jack is not working anywhere.”’
Emails show that both Fenson and Brian DeWitt, a property manager at the Recreation and Park Department, expressed concerns about Chaparral after discovering Jack’s condition.
On Aug. 13, 2021, Fenson wrote that she was “alarmed” to hear that Chaparral was trying to get permits to run a horse-drawn carriage operation in Golden Gate Park. A couple weeks later, Fenson emailed DeWitt saying she had unsuccessfully tried to get Jack’s veterinarian records from Chaparral, describing the situation as “suspicious” and “absurd.”
Sue Pennell said that Chaparral tried its best to operate in a park that sometimes presented difficult situations. | Source:Jungho Kim for The Standard
The city eventually received veterinarian records about Jack in September. The parks department also implemented a reporting system in which Chaparral was required to submit monthly health assessments.
Those assessments, which were reviewed by The Standard, included checklists for each of Chaparral’s horses that were completed by the company’s own staff.
When asked whether the self-evaluation system posed any conflict of interest, a spokesperson for Animal Care and Control said the department had provided the company with the University of California Davis Center for Equine Health’s horse care guide.
“It is entirely appropriate for facilities to use for self-evaluation,” wrote Animal Care and Control spokesperson Deb Campbell. “[The agency] refers to this document, for example, when scoring body condition. As a reminder, these guidelines are not laws, so we cannot enforce them.”
When asked by The Standard about Jack, Chaparral’s management said they did not recall putting the horse to work after the video of him on the ground was taken.
“What happened with Jack is this sand [at Golden Gate Park] is very deep,” said Bryant, the longtime Chaparral employee. “So when he lays in it, sometimes it was hard for him to find footing to get up. All you have to do is kind of give him an extra pull. He was born in ’87. So he was older than me.”
Both Fenson and DeWitt deferred questions to their department spokespersons.
Animal Care and Control spokesperson Campbell said her department had visited Chaparral a total of 14 times between 2019 and 2023, most of the inspections unannounced. She said the department never found evidence that would result in a referral for an animal cruelty case to the District Attorney’s Office.
Recreation and Parks spokesperson Tamara Aparton said her agency “immediately” got in touch with Animal Care and Control after the 41-page whistleblower complaint emerged and implemented the monthly health reporting system.
“We were aware they had some issues, but our understanding was deepened by the documents you sent and some of your reporting,” Aparton told the Standard.
A horse stands by the fence of an enclosure at Bercut Equitation Field operated by Chaparral Ranch in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Wednesday. | Source:Jungho Kim for The Standard
‘It could have been so much worse’
It wasn’t just employees raising concerns about the condition of horses in Golden Gate Park.
Since at least 2020, records show that members of the public lodged additional complaints about Chaparral after observing animals seemingly in distress and alarming incidents involving children riders.
In February 2020, an email with pictures attached from a resident claiming to be a former horse owner told Animal Care and Control they saw “inches of feces and urine” at Chaparral’s Golden Gate Park stables and animals’ food covered in their own waste.
Top photo: Chaparral employees alleged that the company’s horses were being overworked and underfed. | Source:Jungho Kim for The Standard
Lee's Perspective 