Ex-Mission District leader Jon Jacobo appeared in court this afternoon following his arrest yesterday on sexual assault charges.
Wearing an orange sweatsuit, Jacobo entered Hall of Justice Department 10 at around 2 p.m. He quietly sat next to his lawyer, Martina Avalos, while she made the case for his innocence and his immediate release.
Multipe women have accused Jacobo of sexual and physical violence. The first victim to come forward, Sasha Perigo, accused Jacobo of raping her in 2021 when he was a director at the housing nonprofit TODCO and was an appointed commissioner overseeing the city’s Department of Building Inspection.
Three years later, three other women came forward, accusing him of similar misdeeds in an article published in the San Francisco Standard.
The official charges, however, appear to all stem from Perigo’s 2021 accusation; Jacobo was officially charged yesterday by the district attorney on one count of rape by force, one count of oral copulation by force and one count of sexual battery by restraint.
Jacobo pleaded not guilty to all charges today.
“This case is old, and he should be released immediately,” said Avalos, who listened with disappointment at San Francisco Superior Court Judge Kenneth Wine’s decision to deny bond to Jacobo.
Behind Jacobo, dozens of supporters accompanied his partner, former Board of Education member Gabriela Lopez, who waved at Jacobo as he entered the room. The packed courtroom was evenly split between supporters of Jacobo/Lopez and supporters of Jacobo’s alleged victims; the former sat to the judge’s left, while the latter sat to the judge’s right.
Representing the alleged victims were individuals and groups including the Domestic Violence Consortium, WOMAN, Inc., Asian Women’s Shelter, La Casa , Survivor Restoration Program and the Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic.
Jacobo, an erstwhile political rising star, was booked into a San Francisco jail yesterday afternoon at 3:47 p.m., just minutes after the DA announced his arrest and charging.
“It’s already been three years since the first accusations were made, and my client here does not pose any danger to the community,” argued Avalos. “He’s got a two-month-old daughter, who he adores. He’s committed to his family.”
Prosecutors Melissa Demetral and Katherine Wells pushed back, telling Wine that Jacobo’s release should not be allowed, given the severity of the charges against him.
“Women have been sounding the alarm about his danger for years,” said Wells. “The sexual and physical abuse is well-documented, dating back to 2015. It takes bravery to come forward, and they want to make sure no other women go through that.”
The judge agreed with the prosecutors and denied bail. Lopez, holding her daughter, sat and wept while surrounded by at least half a dozen people consoling her.
For Avalos, the fight is only beginning.
“My client is ready to fight this back until the end,” she said in the hallway after the hearing. “He is disappointed and heartbroken, but he is ready to prove his innocence.”
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 14.
Occam’s Razor:
out of the blue, four women decided to accuse a man of sexual assault,
OR,
the one and only man accused is a serial perpetrator of sexual assault.
The man is guilty— if it’s been three years and these four, separate women have persisted to sound the bell on this threat to the community by the name of Jon Jacobo, chances are that he did it, and knows full well what he did.
Jon is characterized as charismatic at best, and calculating even diplomatically. Likely, he thinks he’ll slide out of all three counts like the slime he is.
If he said in the past, “I believed then, as I do now, that our relationship was completely consensual,” EVEN AFTER hearing on public account how the “relationship” was not consensual (much less while he was in the process of SA, REPEATEDLY), then it’s very clear that Jon simply believes he is the master of his own reality, and all other people who seek accountability from him be damned.
He had so many opportunities to correct his behavior and face restorative justice. Unfortunately, now he has to face the serious repercussions he’s accumulated by pushing around his ball of mess.