We have a new Hall of Fame entry in the annals of chutzpah, with the former director of an SFPD-affiliated nonprofit who’s under indictment for embezzling $100 grand suing the nonprofit for $26,000 in back pay she claims they still owe her.
It is difficult to keep track of all of the nonprofit spending scandals that have rocked SF City Hall over the last five years, but one stands out in particular because the director of the nonprofit allegedly embezzled $100,000 in taxpayer money from the SFPD. We refer to SF SAFE, an SFPD-funded “crime prevention education services” nonprofit that got caught up in scandal in early 2024 when a City Controller report found they were gouging the SFPD for $10,000 a month on limo rides, plus Vegas and Tahoe trips, and $162 gift boxes for their events.
A mere six days later, that scandal exploded into millions of dollars missing from their bank account, and allegations of check forgery lodged at SF SAFE’s executive director Kyra Worthy. By July 2024, DA Brooke Jenkins’s office charged Worthy with 34 felony counts of misusing public money, bank fraud, wage theft, and passing bad checks. Through DA Jenkins recused herself from the case, perhaps because she has attended so many of SF SAFE’s fancy taxpayer-funded parties.
And lavish parties these were! While Worthy is accused of embezzling around $100,000, the overall total of allegedly misused funds is $700,000. That includes the event below with now-state Assemblymember Catherine Stefani and former SFPD Chief Bill Scott, for which, according to Worthy’s indictment, she “spent $6,000 on an event planner and nearly $50,000 on catering.” And, “The event featured a champagne greeting, open bar, and prime rib carving station.”…