{"id":243686,"date":"2026-03-30T18:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/243686\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T18:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:22:07","slug":"disgraced-ex-sf-human-rights-commission-head-arrested-along-with-nonprofit-exec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/243686\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgraced ex-SF Human Rights Commission head arrested, along with nonprofit exec"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former head of San Francisco\u2019s Human Rights Commission, Sheryl Davis<\/a>, and former nonprofit executive James Spingola were booked into county jail Monday morning, records show.<\/p>\n

Davis is in custody pending arraignment on 19 counts, including felony misappropriation of public funds and felony perjury by certification.<\/p>\n

Spingola, the former head of nonprofit Collective Impact, is also in custody. His attorney, Randy Knox, said he is being charged with four counts of felony aiding and abetting a conflict of interest in a government contract.<\/p>\n

The district attorney did not respond to a request for comment, but more information is expected at a news conference Monday. <\/p>\n

Davis\u2019 attorney, Tony Brass, said she surrendered herself to law enforcement at the Hall of Justice after being contacted by authorities about an arrest warrant. Davis is being held on $50,000 bail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019m going to have the right of discovery. I have a lot of questions about the processes within the mayor\u2019s office and the city attorney\u2019s office,\u201d Brass said. \u201cThis is a person who was asking for more transparency. She asked to be audited. She actively wanted to give up her power. And she has proactively announced her conflicts of interest. I\u2019m very curious how they have a criminal case based on her conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Human Rights Commission declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Davis joined the Human Rights Commission in 2016 and quickly became an important figure in the city\u2019s efforts to economically bolster Black communities. <\/p>\n

Her role became more prominent in 2021, when Mayor London Breed launched the Dream Keeper Initiative in response to George Floyd\u2019s murder, as a program that dedicated city funds to Black-focused nonprofits and programs. The Dream Keeper Initiative was placed under the management of the Human Rights Commission.<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019 tenure there ended in 2024, when The Standard was the first to report<\/a> that she had signed off on city contracts worth at least $1.5 million to Spingola while the two were living together. The revelations created major scandal for Breed, who was in the middle of a reelection bid, saying she was aware of the \u201cvery close\u201d relationship<\/a> between Davis and Spingola. <\/p>\n

The scandal sparked multiple investigations, including a probe by the city attorney\u2019s office that revealed Davis had allegedly used Dream Keeper Initiative funds for personal use<\/a>, including helping pay for her son\u2019s UCLA tuition. In August, The Standard reported<\/a> that Davis was under criminal investigation by the district attorney.<\/p>\n

Investigators also focused on Spingola, who they claimed had assisted Davis in misusing public funds. The city attorney\u2019s office tried prohibiting Spingola\u2019s nonprofit, Collective Impact, from receiving public funds, but hearing officer ruled against this effort in October<\/a>. The city sued in San Francisco Superior Court to challenge the ruling.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former head of San Francisco\u2019s Human Rights Commission, Sheryl Davis, and former nonprofit executive James Spingola were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[4752,21980,734,5466,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-243686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-city-hall","9":"tag-corruption","10":"tag-law-enforcement","11":"tag-nonprofits","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","14":"tag-san-francisco-news","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-headlines","17":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}