For over a year there was a pattern of police use of force deaths, in San Mateo County. This pattern culminated, in the October 3, 2018 Millbrae death of 36 year old pedestrian Chinedu Okobi.
Despite what would appear to any reasonably objective observer, an escalating body count, Mr Wagstaffe, as District Attorney, did nothing to address / curb the situation. And now, his administration is seemingly poised to render a decision blaming Okobi’s death, on something other than the unnecessary & excessive use of force by officers. This is a familiar pattern with DA Steve Wagstaffe, with his having blamed previous deaths on the decedents -their respective acts & medical conditions.
Most recently, he went on television saying he was not going to speculate on the Okobi case, that he had to get all the facts, before rendering a decision on the matter. Yet, instead of keeping his word, he went on camera and questioned the product liability aspect of Tasers, a device repeatedly used by officers, in their confrontation of Okobi .
Mr. Wagstaffe ignored a year long prologue of police use of force deaths, in his very jurisdiction. And then he told us he was not going to release videos, in his possession, ones which depict exactly what had happened, in the most recent death, that of Mr. Okobi.
Chinedu Valentine Okobi
Just as his office had excluded two African American’s from serving on the jury in the Tracey Biletnikoff murder case, a matter in which he had been criticized by the appellate court. This was a Murder Conviction reversed because of Wagstaffe’s behavior. “During jury selection, the prosecutor, Stephen Wagstaffe, peremptorily struck the only two African-American members of the jury pool… We hold that a comparative juror analysis, in combination with other facts in the record, demonstrates that the prosecutor’s purported race-neutral reasons for striking at least one of the jurors were pretexts for racial discrimination.”
He now says he is not going to release the videos and audio recordings of Chinedu’s murder to the public, his employers, so that they can see them.
The People do not need an interpreter, to understand what they are seeing for themselves, Mr. Wagstaffe.
Okobi’s mother and sister were shown the videos and audio recordings, and here is what his sister, Ebele, said about them:
It’s readily apparent you are struggling to shoehorn your narrative of what occurred with the facts and, in so doing, you have passed the rubicon of truthfulness, leaving honesty & integrity behind, and entering a sea of deception -familiar territory for yourself, a directed or desired outcome.
The taint and stench you and your cadre have brought to the office of district attorney is palpable and, I submit, can not be removed, without your & their removal.
Felony fraud resulting in the diversion of over 2 million dollars of public monies being characterized by your office as sloppy accounting practices, at San Mateo County Transit, is but one / just one example of DA Wagstaffe’s aversion to the truth. False debits are not errors or sloppy accounting, Steve, they are intentional criminal acts.
The bias you have demonstrated, when it comes to Sheriff Carlos Bolanos and former Sheriff Greg Munks, excusing their abhorrent behavior & giving them a pass, when they were detained by Las Vegas metropolitan police and the FBI, in a human trafficking investigation, one in which they had gone to a home being used as a whorehouse in a rundown residential neighborhood with Asian indentured sex-slaves, at least one of whom was a minor, and a cache (3,500 tablets) of illegal ecstasy drugs, is reprehensible and not in keeping with the public’s trust, Steve.
In that unguarded moment, in what you thought would be a confidential email to the duo, you expressed your support and consoled the two that the matter would soon pass and become yesterday’s news. This provides a rare glimpse into the flawed (real) character & thinking of who is District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
Here are those emails, #ThoseWhoMatter:
The fact that Okobi’s killers are back at work, armed, with unfeathered contact with the public & custodies alike, is testament to the fact DA Wagstaffe has cleared them and communicated this information to Sheriff Bolanos. Yet he is still massaging his findings to the public, delaying what he has obviously determined -that the officers’ use of force resulting in Okobi’s death was justified (reasonable) and that he and his office are going to do nothing about it, giving them a pass.
You are a snake oil salesman, Steve, selling the public adultered versions of the truth and being a shill for morally corrupt county officials. Release the videos, so we can see just how much!
If you as the reader are asking, “How on Earth is Steve Wagstaffe still the District Attorney of San Mateo County.” You are on the right track. The short answer is that you are responsible for him being there. He can only be recalled or voted. He has full immunity for anything he does.
By Michael G. Stogner
