Prosecutors tried to hide evidence from the jury, then misled the public.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 8, 2026
MEDIA CONTACT: PDR-MediaRelations@sfgov.org
SAN FRANCISCO — Today, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office released police body-worn camera footage showing SFPD officers brutally beating and kneeling on the head and neck of 33-year-old Kevon Gibson, who was hospitalized for several days after the incident in August 2025. The Public Defender’s Office also revealed how the District Attorney’s Office charged Gibson with crimes he did not commit, tried to hide evidence from the jury, and then misled the public about the case after the trial.
See footage of the police beating here.
See footage of police taunting a neighbor, with racial overtones, here. (This occurred right before the beating. Police mistakenly believed Gibson was in a neighbor’s apartment.)
“SFPD officers brutally beat Mr. Gibson as he screamed for help. Instead of holding these police officers accountable, the DA’s Office tried to hide key evidence from the jury and then misled the public by thanking the officers for their actions,” said Deputy Public Defender Bonnie Chan-Silen, who represented Gibson along with Deputy Public Defender John Paul Passaglia. “The public should be aware of the brutal and racist actions of these San Francisco police officers, and the dishonest way that prosecutors presented this case to the jury and the public.”
Complainant Made Racist, Physical Threats Against Gibson to Police, But Police Arrested Gibson
On Aug. 17, 2025, a resident of an apartment building on Sixth Street confronted and threatened Gibson, who had been staying in the building to help caretake for a friend. The resident (complainant) then called the police, alleging instead that Gibson had threatened him. When police interviewed the complainant, he again made violent threats against Gibson, called him the “n—” word and told police that he would “stick this knife into his Black ass” and “slice and watch him bleed everywhere.” Later, Gibson returned to the unit he was staying in and ran past the complainant’s door, hoping to avoid confrontation. However, the complainant called police back to the building and asserted similar threats toward Gibson to the three officers who responded.
SFPD Officers Taunted a Neighbor, Brutalized Gibson, Claimed They Were Assaulted
The SFPD officers who responded ignored the complainant’s racist threats against Gibson. Instead, SFPD officers Brendan Caraway, Brian Conway, and Gabriel Rivera spent several minutes taunting Gibson’s friend through her door, believing Gibson was inside the apartment. Although the friend was not a suspect, the officers pounded on her door and made harassing comments with racial overtones—mocking Gibson’s first name, Kevon, and referring to him as the woman’s “big ass boyfriend.” Seen smiling and laughing, they then falsely told the woman that her father had sent them; that they had drugs for her; and said that if they kicked down her door “no one would care.”
When officers learned that Gibson was actually in an elevator down the hall, they rushed over. Although they told Gibson that they were not going to pull him out of the elevator and that he was not under arrest, two of the officers immediately grabbed his wrist and began to pull him out of the elevator. Gibson begged the officers to listen to him multiple times. Instead, the officers quickly escalated the situation with severe physical violence.
The officers then slammed Gibson on the ground. They punched him in the head multiple times, kicked him, knelt on his head and neck, and pulled and held him by his hair. Gibson pleaded with them to stop, repeatedly said that he could not breathe, and told them that he was “scared to death.” In response, the officers told Gibson to shut up. Gibson was hospitalized in the ICU for several days because of the beating. He was then transferred to jail, where he remained for the next year while facing charges.
In an attempt to justify the beating, the officers later lied to the District Attorney’s Independent Investigations Bureau (IIB) by claiming that Gibson assaulted them. One officer falsely claimed he was bitten, another lied that he was punched multiple times in the head and that Gibson wrapped his radio cord around his neck, and a third officer falsely alleged his thumb was almost broken. However, body-worn camera footage and surveillance video refuted those claims, and a jury later found the officers’ allegations to be not credible.
District Attorney’s Office Covered Up the Police Brutality and Commended the Officers
The Internal Investigation Bureau (IIB) within the District Attorney’s Office investigates incidents where officers are suspected of using excessive force. It is supposed to be independent and separate from all other units in the DA’s office. IIB staff went to the hospital and woke Gibson up to interview him, but turned over their notes to prosecutors in the office. The DA’s office charged Gibson with making criminal threats against the complainant, three felony counts of resisting arrest based on the officers’ claims that Gibson had assaulted them, and gun possession.
Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Jimenez prosecuted the case. Jimenez offered Gibson a plea deal where the felony resisting arrest charges would be dismissed. However, the deal would have required him to sign a waiver, known as a Harvey waiver, that could have weakened any civil claims he may bring against the police officers. Gibson rejected the deal, so the case went to trial.
The DA’s office fought to withhold information from the defense that showed the complainant’s propensity for violence and racism. A judge had to order them to turn it over, agreeing that the defense is entitled to such discovery. Jimenez did not call the complainant to testify in the prosecution’s case. After Jimenez dismissed the criminal threat charges against Gibson, Chan-Silen and Passaglia called the complainant as a defense witness. Jimenez made further efforts to block the complainant’s testimony altogether.
Jimenez sought to only show jurors bodycam footage of the arrest without the audio, which would have prevented the jury from hearing Gibson pleading with the officers to listen to him, the officers yelling at Gibson, and Gibson screaming for help. Gibson’s defense attorneys, Chan-Silen and Passaglia, moved for the court to allow the jury to see and hear all of the bodycam footage, including the officers taunting the other neighbor through her door, and the complainant making racist and violent threats against Gibson. The court granted the defense’s motion.
Jurors swiftly acquitted Gibson of all three felony counts of resisting-arrest, but found him guilty of misdemeanor resisting arrest charges that the prosecutor had added during the trial. They also convicted him of unlawful gun possession which Gibson plans to appeal, as he contends he possessed the gun only temporarily and out of necessity because he feared that the complainant was going to attack him.
After the verdict, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins issued a press release that thanked the officers and omitted the fact that they had beaten Gibson so badly that he had to be hospitalized and sustained lasting injuries. It also omitted the fact that the DA’s office was unable to convict Gibson of felonies for resisting arrest because the officers had lied about being assaulted, or that prosecutors had dropped the underlying criminal threat charges based on serious problems with the complainant’s credibility.
“Brooke Jenkins claiming victory, hiding any mention of police brutality, and thanking the very officers who the jury described as violent, is deceitful and deeply unjust,” said Chan-Silen.
Public Defender’s Office Will Seek Accountability
“It’s our job as public defenders to fight back against government overreach, and to protect the community by confronting violence perpetrated by state actors. That is why we are exposing this police brutality and the District Attorney Office’s attempts to cover it up,” said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju. “My office will continue to advocate for transparency and accountability when police officers and prosecutors misuse their immense authority to harm our clients and our communities.”
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office plans to file a complaint with the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability and notify the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to seek decertification of the officers.
Note: The videos discussed above are downloadable here:
- Complainant speaking to police, threatening Gibson, calling him a racial slur
- Officers harassing a neighbor, mocking Gibson’s name in racist manner
- Officers brutally beat Gibson (body-worn camera)
- Additional video of the beating can be found here. (This footage is from a hallway surveillance camera that did not record audio.)
Stills and screenshots:
BWC screenshot of officers grabbing Gibson’s wrist
BWC screenshot of officer punching Gibson
BWC screenshot of officer kneeling on Gibson’s neck
BWC screenshot of officer pulling Gibson’s hair
Photo of Gibson in hospital after beating
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