Public defender’s office client was accused of assault and robbery, but was actually the victim of theft
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, June 30, 2026
MEDIA CONTACT: PDR-MediaRelations@sfgov.org
**PRESS RELEASE**
SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco jury has acquitted 46-year-old Tony Befford of a felony assault charge that stemmed from a Jan. 29 altercation over a stolen wallet near MacLaren Park. On that day, Befford noticed his wallet had been stolen, and while looking for it, he saw the alleged victim shoving the wallet down his pants. Befford testified that he was merely trying to retrieve his wallet and defended himself in the fight that ensued. His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Naira Der Kiureghian, argued that police had failed to properly investigate Befford’s side of the story. Prosecutors initially charged Befford with robbery in addition to assault, but dropped the robbery charge after the alleged victim recanted.
“From the beginning, police did not believe Mr. Befford’s repeated assertions that his wallet had been stolen and that he had been attacked,” said Der Kiureghian. “They did virtually nothing to investigate his account of what happened, and ended up accusing him of robbery even though it was Mr. Befford whose wallet was stolen that day. On top of that, prosecutors overcharged this case and wasted public resources—and jurors’ time—carrying out a multi-week trial on a charge they could not prove.”
On Jan. 29, Befford visited the park with an acquaintance and realized after she had left that his wallet and phone were missing. Befford returned to the park to look for the items, and saw a man pick up the wallet and put it down his pants. Befford approached the man to explain that the wallet belonged to him and to ask for it back, but the man kept walking away. Befford repeatedly tried to approach the man to ask for his wallet back, and the interaction eventually escalated into a physical fight. Befford said the man punched him first and that he punched the man back in self-defense.
When police arrived, the alleged victim told police that Befford had robbed him, but later that night he found the items he claimed Befford had stolen. Nearly two weeks after the incident, he recanted the robbery accusation to the police. By that point in the case, prosecutors had already charged Befford with robbery, and a judge had kept him in jail. The robbery charge was eventually dismissed, but the case proceeded to trial on the felony assault charge. On May 28, the jury found Befford not guilty of felony assault and guilty of a lesser misdemeanor assault charge in connection to the fight. Befford was immediately sentenced to credit for time served, having already served four months in jail, considerably more than the maximum sentence possible for the misdemeanor charge.
“I’m grateful that the jury in this case weighed the evidence carefully and found that police and prosecutors had overcharged Mr. Befford,” said elected San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju. “Overcharging by the District Attorney’s Office happens frequently and often results in long, damaging periods of unnecessary incarceration for our clients, heavier workloads for the defense, and a waste of public resources.”
The defense team for Befford was led by Deputy Public Defender Naira Der Kiureghian and included Paralegals Madison Matthies and Sandra Reyna, Investigators Carolyn Phillips, Emily Guerin, and Gary Sourifman, and Social Worker Mileti Afuha’amango.
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