William Monroe Palmer II, a member of the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board in San Francisco, was arrested on Thursday on a bevy of sexual assault charges, including forcible sodomy, assault and sexual battery.
Palmer, 53, was booked in San Francisco county jail on Thursday morning on five felony charges: 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.
San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Officer Robert Rueca said that Palmer’s arrest stemmed from an alleged assault first reported on Aug. 30.
Palmer was previously incarcerated for 31 years for trying to rob an off-duty police officer at gunpoint when Palmer was 17. But he advocated for his own release, and was released from prison in 2019; he is currently on parole. Booking logs show he was also arrested in May for a parole violation.
As an advocate for reforming the criminal justice system who had experienced incarceration first-hand, he was a popular choice for the nascent sheriff’s oversight board in 2021. He was recently reappointed to the board this summer.
“I’ve been supportive of William Palmer. I was aware of that first arrest, and it was from a former girlfriend — and her story was fabricated,” said Julie Soo, Palmer’s colleague on the sheriff’s oversight board.
Though Palmer was booked in county jail in May, he has no apparent open criminal cases. He has not yet been charged since his arrest on Thursday.
“I’m hoping that none of this is true,” Soo said.
Since its launch, the oversight board has been mired in conflict among its members, and Palmer has often been seen as a voice of reason. His colleagues designated him as the board’s liaison to the public and the media.
He is the executive director at Life After Next, a re-entry program for the formerly incarcerated, and served as a member of the city’s Reentry Council on the Sentencing Commission. He has also worked with the Jail Justice Coalition.
This is a breaking story and will be updated as possible.
Is “experienced incarceration” similar to “experienced homelessness”? Where’s the human agency?
“I’ve been supportive of William Palmer, I was aware of that first arrest and it was from a former girlfriend and her story was fabricated,” said Palmer’s colleague on the sheriff’s oversight board, Julie Soo.
What is Julie talking about here? The only other arrest mentioned in this article stemmed from an attempted robbery when Palmer was 17. What is this other arrest that Soo mentioned? Sounds like there’s a lot more to this story.
The math here isn’t quite adding up 🤨 The article says he was incarcerated for 31 years at age 17, but then was released in 2019 after advocating for his own release, suggesting he was released earlier than his initial sentence called for. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. If he’s 53 now, he would have been 49 at his release in 2019. But 17-49 is MORE than the 31 years he was supposed to have been incarcerated. What am I missing here?
Also, I don’t want to comment on this article while failing to mention that the U.S. incarcerates far more people than any other democracy. And there is racial bias that enters the picture at every step of the process, which results in folks who have already been marginalized and oppressed being overly represented in the criminal justice system.
People who commit crimes are perfectly represented in the criminal justice system and yes, many of them are very marginal people.
You say:
“I don’t want to comment on this article while failing to mention that the U.S. incarcerates far more people than any other democracy. And there is racial bias that enters the picture at every step of the process, which results in folks who have already been marginalized and oppressed being overly represented in the criminal justice system.”
What proof do you have of this being the case here? Are you denying that he committed any crime?
Vouched for by Shamann Walton, curious
What happened to being innocent, before being proven innocent?
Crime beat fans,
His lawyer is the most capable Deputy Public Defender Sylvia Cediel.
h.
See also: Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.
Progressives hate law-abiding citizens but they love men like this. This is who they wanted overseeing law-enforcement officials.
I wonder when the details come out if the victim is someone who let her politics get in the way of her instincts. Let’s all hope she is OK and that this man never gets another chance to do this again. Women are always the ones who pay the price when progressive “carceral philosophy” — i.e., let them all out — fails.
Candace, there is really no way to characterize how ridiculous and false your comment is regarding this story. Progressive hate law abiding citizens? What? And why would you speculate about the victim with no information at all? What makes someone like you tick? Where do you get your information and ideas? Please write a reasonable comment next time or don’t comment at all.
Sorry, but what “instinct” are you referencing here? He had no documented history of any sort of abuse like this. What would make you assume that he was at risk of this?
I mean, 31 years in prison for an attempted robbery while a juvenile is hardly a light sentence. But I’m curious where that translates to risk of sexual offender for you.
Jeffrey Malone: Would you let your wife and daughter live in the same building as this man?