Quote:“How the mighty have fallen,” King David says in the Bible as he laments the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. The phrase could certainly apply to Sheryl Davis, the former executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, who led the city’s Dream Keeper Initiative. She also led a community group, MegaBlack SF, whose members used to call her “queen.”

Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff has another way of saying it: "The harder they come, the harder they fall."

Davis, 57, is often described as a “powerful civil rights watchdog,” but she was arrested Monday and charged with multiple felonies alleging that she misused funds — millions of dollars worth.

She’s in big, big trouble:

Sheryl Davis, once San Francisco’s most powerful civil rights watchdog, continued her spectacular fall on Monday when she was booked on suspicion of a raft of felony charges including misappropriation of public funds and perjury, the Chronicle has learned.

Davis, who oversaw the San Francisco Human Rights Commission under former Mayor London Breed, was booked on the same morning as James Spingola, the former CEO of Collective Impact, a nonprofit Davis funded, according to jail records. Her bail was set at $50,000. Spingola is also being held on unspecified charges.

Davis was tapped by Breed in 2021 to lead the Dream Keeper Initiative, the city’s response to the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. The effort started with a pledge to redirect $60 million a year from law enforcement to fund programs aimed at helping the Black community.

It’s far from the only fraud story to come out of the Golden State in recent weeks:

She’s accused of living the high life using taxpayer money:

Prosecutors said Davis used public funds for personal benefit, while a city audit flagged spending on a 30-night luxury hotel stay, hundreds of sports tickets and lavishly catered events.

Dream Keeper was described as a $120 million investment in San Francisco’s Black communities following Floyd’s death, with officials initially seeking to redirect funding away from law enforcement.

Prosecutors alleged Davis remained connected to the nonprofit’s finances even after taking her city role, including serving as a signatory on its bank account and helping steer how the money was spent.

But wait, there’s more! A September city audit found that she’d used our hard-earned dollars to pay for more than 500 San Francisco Giants tickets, over $350,000 in catering and events, more than 700 gift cards totaling more than $20,000, and at least $75,000 spent promoting her book and podcast.

Fraud. It’s not just Minnesota’s speciality — more and more, it's proving to be California’s too.

Link

Not to generalize, but it seems black woman aren’t too honest when given a combination of money and power.

(04-02-2026 01:54 PM)banker Wrote:  Not to generalize, but it seems black woman aren’t too honest when given a combination of money and power.

Generalize away when it's the truth. And it's not just limited to their women.

Nobody is surprised in the least