<\/p>\n
Sheryl Davis, once San Francisco\u2019s most powerful civil rights watchdog, continued her spectacular fall on Monday when she was booked on suspicion of a raft of felony financial misconduct and ethics-related charges, the Chronicle has learned.<\/p>\n
Manuel Orbegozo\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
James Spingola surrenders to authorities Monday morning.\u00a0Spingola was being held on unspecified charges.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Fanjoy\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Sheryl Davis, who oversaw the San Francisco Human Rights Commission under former Mayor London Breed, was booked on the same morning as James Spingola, the former CEO of Collective Impact, a nonprofit Davis funded. Spingola is shown in a 2018 file photo.<\/p>\n
Santiago Mejia\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
Once San Francisco\u2019s most powerful civil rights watchdog, Sheryl Davis<\/a> continued her spectacular fall <\/a>on Monday when she surrendered to authorities to face accusations that she misappropriated funds and engaged in \u201cpervasive\u201d self-dealing<\/a> while leading a landmark initiative meant to benefit the city\u2019s Black community<\/a>.<\/p>\n District Attorney Brooke Jenkins filed a raft of felony financial misconduct charges against Davis, who oversaw the San Francisco Human Rights Commission under former Mayor London Breed, and James\u00a0Spingola, the former CEO of Collective Impact, a nonprofit Davis funded.<\/p>\n A sweeping, 57-page affidavit supporting a warrant for their arrests outlines numerous alleged conflicts of interest, the misspending of city funds and self-dealing by Davis that benefited her, her family and her allies.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cShe created a scheme that she believed no one would challenge, that no one would shed light on,\u201d Jenkins told the Chronicle. \u201cIt really is an unfortunate situation in which now the Black community has lost out on this opportunity because of this abuse of power.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Davis and\u00a0Spingola have previously denied wrongdoing, and Davis and her allies have argued they were subject to unfair and racially motivated scrutiny. Davis\u2019 attorney, Tony Brass, pushed back on the charges Monday and said Davis had not sought to enrich herself with public resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins speaks at a news conference about charges filed against Sheryl Davis, who oversaw the San Francisco Human Rights Commission under former Mayor London Breed, and James\u00a0Spingola, the former CEO of Collective Impact, a nonprofit Davis funded.<\/p>\n Michael Barba<\/p>\n The charges represent a stunning blow to Davis, a friend and ally of Breed who was held up as a local hero for her work with the city\u2019s Black community. Two years ago, the Chronicle named her one of the\u00a020 most influential people<\/a> in San Francisco.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Davis\u2019 position overseeing Breed\u2019s Dream Keeper Initiative gave her sway over city spending beyond her own department. Beyond City Hall, she led a community group,\u00a0MegaBlack SF, whose members used a call and response chant that contained the line, \u201cwe give all honor to our queen Sheryl Davis.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But her\u00a0alleged disregard<\/a> for city rules and blurring of the lines<\/a> between her public and private lives prompted investigations by journalists and four city agencies. The new charges reflect and expand upon previous reporting by the Chronicle.<\/p>\n Davis and\u00a0Spingola were booked Monday morning and each held on $50,000 bail, jail records show.<\/p>\n Davis faces 13 counts of having a financial conflict of interest in a government contract, one count of misappropriating public money, three counts of perjury, one allegation of accepting a gift from a restricted source, and one count of having a financial conflict of interest in a government decision. If convicted, she could face prison time, fines and a permanent ban from public office.<\/p>\n Spingola is charged with four felony counts of aiding and abetting a financial conflict of a government contract.<\/p>\n The criminal case is likely to draw national attention given President Donald Trump\u2019s opposition to anti-discrimination programs. The head of the Department of Justice\u2019s Civil Rights Division,\u00a0Harmeet Dhillon, reacted<\/a> on social media this month to a conservative activist\u2019s attack on the Dream Keeper Initiative, which continues at a smaller scale under Mayor Daniel Lurie. Dhillon responded to the piece, which described the program as a \u201crace-based slush fund,\u201d with one word: \u201cwhat.\u201d<\/p>\n The DOJ declined to say whether it was investigating the program, but the charges could prompt new questions about its future.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Jenkins called the impact of Davis\u2019 conduct \u201cdevastating.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone else who even thinks of granting money to Black\u00a0nonprofits will think twice and will second-guess themselves,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cThis broke the trust for the entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis, 57, was tapped by Breed in 2021 to lead Dream Keeper Initiative, the city\u2019s response to the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. The effort started with a pledge to redirect $60 million a year from law enforcement, funding programs aimed at helping San Francisco\u2019s dwindling Black population. Collective Impact, which runs a community center in the Western Addition, was among the largest beneficiaries of Dream Keeper dollars.<\/p>\n Davis previously led Collective Impact and was close with her successor,\u00a0Spingola, who is 65. The pair lived together<\/a>, traveled together and shared bank accounts and a car, prosecutors said. She signed city contracts awarding Collective Impact $1.5 million in Dream Keeper funds in 2021 and 2022. During that time, she never disclosed to the city her financial interests in Collective Impact or her close relationship with Spingola, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n Collective Impact was an organization that Davis \u201cused to lead, but never really let go of,\u201d prosecutors said. Years after leaving the nonprofit for public service, Davis retained control over its spending and used its publicly and privately funded bank account as a \u201cslush fund\u201d for her department, according to the district attorney.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIn short, Davis, as a City department head responsible for fairly distributing huge sums of public money, improperly gave millions of dollars to an organization she effectively controlled and directly profited from,\u201d prosecutors wrote.<\/p>\n Brass told the Chronicle on Monday that Davis had been \u201cvery candid\u201d with city investigators.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe had proactively disclosed that she had conflicts of interest with Collective Impact,\u201d he said. \u201cThe city hired her from Collective Impact, and then had her do business with Collective Impact, and then acts surprised there might be conflicts of interest there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s as strange to me now as it has been throughout this whole process,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Spingola\u2019s attorney, Randy Knox, said he had not yet had a chance to review the evidence against his client but that he had confidence in the judicial process.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s presumed innocent,\u201d he said. \u201cI understand the district attorney is doing a press conference later today. I\u2019m not going to try this case in this press. This should be more about public corruption, not public relations.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Davis wrote a letter disclosing her prior employment with Collective Impact, but did not document her close personal relationship with\u00a0Spingola or ongoing financial entanglements.<\/p>\n The probe found that Davis engaged in numerous acts of self-dealing. For example, prosecutors said Spingola made rent payments to Davis while she signed off on the city contracts that paid his salary. She used city funds to pay a public relations firm for work on her \u201cpersonal website and her personal \u2018brand management<\/a>,\u2019” according to the affidavit. She allegedly arranged the sale of 1,500 copies of her self-published children\u2019s book<\/a>, \u201cFree to Sing,\u201d to the San Francisco Public Library, costing taxpayers $10,000 and netting Davis about $5,000 in profit.<\/p>\n Prosecutors unearthed bank records that revealed another alleged conflict of interest with a different Dream Keeper recipient, the Homeless Children\u2019s Network. Davis signed contracts granting the nonprofit $3.5 million around the time it paid her son nearly $140,000, depositing the money in a bank account Davis jointly held with him. Prosecutors called the payments to her son \u201cquestionable\u201d and said he often got to set his own pay rate.<\/p>\n Before becoming one of the city\u2019s most powerful officials, Davis worked as a teacher and on literacy initiatives and other programming for youth in the Western Addition. She became the executive director of Collective Impact in 2011. Former Mayor Ed Lee appointed her director of the Human Rights Commission in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n Spingola began his tenure at Collective Impact in 2004, a week after he finished serving a sentence for bank robbery, and eventually became the organization\u2019s executive director. He moved in with Davis and her son in 2015 after he was diagnosed with cancer, according to depositions the duo gave in 2018 as part of a lawsuit. Davis said she rented Spingola a room for $3,000 a month because she wanted to help him.<\/p>\n Davis and\u00a0Spingola have each denied being romantically involved, though their close relationship was an open secret at City Hall. Investigators said the two lived together for more than a decade, shared multiple bank accounts, co-owned a vehicle, and traveled to Hawaii, Washington D.C. and Houston together. At least once, Davis claimed Spingola was \u201cher spouse\u201d on a credit card application.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe actual nature of their relationship \u2014 romantic or friendship \u2014 does not matter,\u201d prosecutors wrote in charging documents. \u201cAt least half the rent on the home in which Davis lived at the time she was making contracts and steering Dream Keeper money to Collective Impact was paid by\u00a0Spingola, whose paycheck came from Collective Impact.\u201d<\/p>\n The city began investigating the pair in July 2024 when an anonymous\u00a0whistleblower complained to the Controller\u2019s Office, alleging \u201cfinancial improprieties by Davis in her role at the Human Rights Commission,\u201d according to the charging documents.<\/p>\n In the months that followed, stories in the Chronicle scrutinized Davis\u2019 leadership. The newspaper revealed Davis\u2019 decision to fund Urban Ed Academy, an education nonprofit that used grant money\u00a0to place aspiring teachers in Oakland schools<\/a> despite city officials saying that Dream Keeper money should fund San Francisco initiatives. Davis responded to the story a week later asking for a full audit<\/a> of Dream Keeper spending, only to resign Sept. 13 after the Chronicle raised questions about her use of Dream Keeper funds<\/a> and the San Francisco Standard published a story revealing that Davis and Spingola lived together.<\/p>\n Amid the fallout from the scandal, Davis\u2019 second-in-command,\u00a0Saidah Leatutufu-Burch, resigned, In December 2024, two city departments canceled contracts with Collective Impact<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chronicle reporters also charted Davis\u2019 use of city dollars to\u00a0promote her personal podcast and writing career<\/a>, documented a \u201chornets\u2019 nest\u201d of conflicts of interest<\/a> involving her relatives and revealed that she had accepted a $5,500 painting from Urban Ed Academy<\/a>, which the City Controller\u2019s Office said in a 2025 report created the \u201cappearance of a bribe<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Two weeks after the controller\u2019s report, City Attorney David\u00a0Chiu moved to suspend Collective Impact\u2019s ability to contract with the city<\/a>, citing revelations that the nonprofit helped pay for marketing expenses for Davis\u2019 book and her son\u2019s tuition at UCLA<\/a>. In August, the nonprofit pushed back, saying the city\u2019s actions would force its potential closure<\/a>. (It continues to operate today.)\u00a0<\/p>\n The city attorney and controller fired another salvo at Davis in September, releasing a joint audit report of Dream Keeper spending that found Davis fostered an \u201cunethical tone at the top\u201d and that the program\u00a0misused more than $4 million<\/a> in ways that the controller called “frivolous, unethical and unjustifiable.”<\/p>\n The city\u2019s legal battle with Davis and\u00a0Spingola suffered a setback in October, when a hearing officer shot down officials\u2019 efforts to bar the nonprofit<\/a> from obtaining city contracts, saying the city had not proved that Collective Impact intended to break the rules. Collective Impact\u2019s board said the findings vindicated the organization and also announced that Spingola was stepping down.<\/p>\n The city has since said it\u00a0plans to appeal the ruling<\/a>, calling it a \u201cbizarre decision with no reasoning or analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n