A San Francisco city commissioner is on track to go to trial for sexual assault and sodomy charges, after a preliminary hearing in his case concluded this week, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office.
William Monroe Palmer II, a member of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board and the DA’s Sentencing Commission, has been accused of assaulting a woman after meeting her on the street the night of Aug. 30 and offering her a ride.
According to police witnesses who interviewed the woman after the incident, Palmer brought the woman to his Lower Haight apartment, where he allegedly raped, strangled, and punched her before ultimately deciding to drive her back to a BART station. At that point, the woman told officers that she escaped from his car and ran away.
Public defender Sylvia Cediel, who is representing Palmer, said that “not all facts were presented” during the preliminary hearing, which only included witnesses for the prosecution — and requires a lower burden of proof than a trial.
“While the judge ruled that the case can proceed to trial, I am confident that Mr. Palmer will be fully exonerated when all facts come to light,” Cediel said.
During the preliminary hearing, it was revealed that Palmer’s DNA was not found on the woman’s body or clothes, or under her fingernails.
Though she had not initially reported that she was sexually assaulted when officers responded to her 911 call, she did so the next day, and was then screened for sexual assault on Sept. 1.
Palmer and the woman did not know each other prior to the alleged assault, according to statements made on the scene. She was unfamiliar with San Francisco, and is a Spanish speaker.
Police who responded to the emergency call said they found the woman on Palmer’s block of Scott Street, disheveled and crying. Photos taken by those officers showed a cut and blood on her lip, as well as a cut on her finger.
Earlier this month, Palmer pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include sodomy by use of force, assault with intent to commit a felony, false imprisonment, assault with force likely to commit great bodily injury, and sexual battery by restraint.
Palmer, who remains in jail, will be held to answer on all five charges after the preliminary hearing. He will be arraigned on Dec. 13.
Great picture,
Big too.
Took up half my screen.
You gonna run one same size if he’s innocent ?
So far all I’ve read is the Prosecution’s case here.
The prosecution’s case is generally all that’s presented at a preliminary hearing. I suppose reporting “just the facts” can appear biased under those circumstances, but it’s still just the facts.
Mitch,
I was playing my comment off of the Jacobo case where ML was first out of gate with loud denunciations of the ‘rapist’.
In this case, I thought I knew the definition of ‘sodomy’ but the cops cleared it up by adding a ‘rape’ charge.
Well, this is San Francisco where you can’t trust the cops or the labs or the DA or most media outlets.
Lenin said it best:
“I read all of the Capitalist press and try to ferret out the truth by comparing the lies.”
Hmmmm, ‘Corporate Sponsorship’.
The extra capital should help get a the truth, right ?