SF public defender’s office hit with $26,000 contempt fine over limiting caseloads

The office of San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju was fined $26,000 by a San Francisco Superior Court judge this week — $1,000 each for 26 acts of contempt related to Raju’s decision to limit the number of new felony cases the Public Defender’s Office accepts.

In a series of unfavorable decisions Tuesday for the Public Defender’s Office, Judge Harry Dorfman declined to reverse his contempt ruling, rejected a request to consider the matter one act of contempt rather than 26, and turned down a request to make whatever monetary sanctions were handed down as minimal as possible.