The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Monday called on police leadership and the police commission to act on a findings report that states officers used excessive force during a wrongful arrest in 2024.<\/p>\n
The incident took place July 4, 2024, after an officer made a mistake entering a license plate number and believed he had identified a stolen vehicle, the Public Defender’s Office said. San Francisco police officers would then proceed to smash the driver’s window, drag the driver out and pepper-spray him \u2014 actions that a San Francisco Department of Police Accountability (DPA) report states were excessive.<\/p>\n
In the driver’s seat of the suspected stolen vehicle was Matthew Ludwig. Ludwig was charged with reckless driving and resisting arrest. The Public Defender’s Office said the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office refused to drop the case even after the mistake came to light.<\/p>\n
The Public Defender’s Office\u00a0filed a complaint<\/a> to the DPA in May 2025 regarding the stop and use of force, and the\u00a0DPA issued its findings<\/a> in March of this year.<\/p>\n “The DPA investigated and sustained multiple police abuses that Mr. Ludwig suffered. I call on SFPD leadership and the city’s Police Commission to act on these findings and implement every available measure to prevent future misconduct,” said San Francisco Public Defender<\/a> Mano Raju.<\/p>\n The DA’s office ultimately dropped the case, the Public Defender’s Office said, after Ludwig died in September of 2025.<\/p>\n “Stopped without justification”<\/p>\n Around 11:30 p.m., officer Vinesh Govindbhai and officer Jonathan Zepeda were near Larkin and Grove streets when they began following a Honda Accord they believed was stolen after Zepeda mistakenly entered the wrong license plate number, a complaint to the DPA states.<\/p>\n The officers followed the vehicle onto O’Farrell Street, saying they had observed the driver run several red lights, the Public Defender’s Office said, and parked behind it at a red light.<\/p>\n “Ofc. Govindbhai stopped his car directly behind the Honda so that, practically, it was pinned in from the front and back,” the complaint says.<\/p>\n The Public Defender’s Office said Govindbhai, without double-checking the plate numbers, walked to the driver’s side door and struck the window with his baton four times, smashing the glass.<\/p>\n \u00a0“When Ofc. Govindbhai approached the car, he made no realistic attempts to talk to Ludwig\u2014or even order him out of the car\u2014to investigate the moving violation as is ordinary when a person has run a red light,” the complaint states.<\/p>\n