Charges have been filed in the fatal assault of a Chinese woman that had been originally ruled an accident in San Francisco.
The case will be combined with another attack against a Cantonese-speaking 71-year-old woman allegedly by the same suspect.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins made the decision to reverse her department’s original finding of an accident following pressure from the community and Mayor London Breed.
AsAmNews reported on those efforts by the Asian American community back in March.
Prosecutors say Thea Hopkins (44), shoved his 63-year-old victim to the ground, causing her to hit her head on the hard surface.
Yanfang Wu died two days later from her injuries.
Prosecutors originally refused to press charges ruling the incident was an accident.
Pressure mounted after the San Francisco Standard reported Hopkins allegedly pushed another Chinese woman in March of this year, nine months after the incident with Wu.
Hopkins is now being charged with assault and elder abuse, but not manslaughter for Wu’s death. So far there is no indication hate crime charges will be filed.
The District Attorney’s office told the Standard it “did not have the evidence to show that there was an intent to kill or a conscious disregard for life.”
Hopkins has pleaded guilty to all the charges.
In the attack on the 71 year old, she is accused of grabbing the victim by the collar, slapping her three times in the face and pushing her against a tree.
The victim suffered injuries to her face and neck.
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Prosecutor Brooke Jenkins should get fired. First her office doesn’t file charges claiming it was an accident, and then her office says there is not enough evidence to support manslaughter/disregard for life when Hopkins pushes an elderly woman down causing her to hit her head on the pavement and die. And there is no hate crime charge when Hopkins attacked Asians in two separate incidents. She is the DA so the buck stops with her and she is ultimately responsible. Is Jenkins biased against Asians or just incompetent or both?
In other matters: She had a bar complaint filed on her for claims of multiple misconduct violations. She has been found to have committed prosecutorial misconduct. She was reported as hiring a high school buddy who does not even have a law license as chief of staff of the DA’s office.
How does she get to keep this job with that kind of record? Unbelievable.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins needs to stop practicing law if she doesn’t know it or refuses to uphold it. First she refused to prosecute at all, claiming it was an accident. Now she refused to file murder or manslaughter charges claiming there was a lack of evidence of intent to kill or a conscious disregard for life.
Under the felony murder doctrine, a defendant can be charged with murder if someone dies while they are committing a felony, regardless of whether they intended for the death to happen at all. It doesn’t matter whether Thea Hopkins intended to kill or not. She committed a violent assault, which is a felony, and someone died as a direct result. This is felony murder.
This is either a clear message about how Brooke Jenkins treats the Asian American community or a clear message that Brooke Jenkins doesn’t know the criminal laws that she is responsible to uphold. Which is it, Brooke?