SAN FRANCISCO — A jury in San Francisco County Superior Court found a Black woman not guilty on all charges after a two-week trial stemming from an incident at the University of California, San Francisco, Emergency Department that prosecutors charged as assault on a police officer and criminal threats, totaling 15 counts. The woman was released after spending more than eight months in the San Francisco County Jail.
After several days of pretrial litigation and jury selection, a jury heard opening statements from Deputy District Attorney Ashley Lee and Deputy Public Defender Deborah Awolope on May 14, 2026, before Lee began presenting the prosecution’s case.
According to testimony from UCSF medical staff and medical records entered into evidence, on Aug. 29, 2025, the woman was brought by ambulance to the UCSF Parnassus Emergency Department on an involuntary psychiatric hold, commonly known as a 5150 hold, by the San Francisco Police Department after barricading herself in a room and calling police officers demons.
Upon assessment before admission at UCSF by roughly 10 medical professionals, it was determined that the emergency department “was not the right place for her” because the department “did not have the means” to handle a 5150 patient categorized as a danger to others. One nurse testified that the accused should have been taken to San Francisco General Hospital Psychiatric Emergency Services.
However, according to various testimony, the San Francisco Police Department’s response to UCSF staff’s objections was, “You cannot refuse,” as UCSF Parnassus Emergency Department is designated as appropriate for psychiatric patients and regularly receives 5150 patients.
The accused was then admitted for evaluation. Staff testified that her behavior while being transported to a room was so chaotic that it left “many other seriously psychotic patients traumatized.”
This included one man whom staff “couldn’t give enough medicine to calm down.”
The accused was medically evaluated by Dr. Andrew Kendle, who testified that it was a group decision that the accused’s conduct was behavioral, not psychological, but that only Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Erin Muladore had the authority to lift the 5150 hold.
Muladore did not testify. The only evidence provided regarding her evaluation of the accused was introduced by Awolope and described the “immediate behavioural emergency posing risk to… the patient or others” as the accused being “agitated, yelling, [and] declining to engage in ED care,” and exhibiting “psychomotor agitation.”
Muladore also noted that the interaction did not constitute a “full risk assessment and psychiatric evaluation.”
The staff then left the accused in the room by herself and provided her with food before preparing to discharge her without additional evaluation.
One nurse testified that medical staff assigned to care for the accused had a group chat in which it was stated that they “didn’t want to make her too comfortable,” and that she was likely “malingering” because she “didn’t want to be unhoused.”
The same nurse testified that it was not her impression that the accused was malingering but that it was her responsibility to follow the team’s discharge instructions.
When staff attempted to discharge the accused, she refused to have her vital signs taken and reported that her stomach hurt and that she wanted to lie down a while longer.
That response prompted staff to call UCSF police.
UCSF Police Officer Andrew Lopez responded to assist with the discharge. His body-worn camera was activated and captured the incident that was later entered into evidence.
Lopez entered the room and, after informing the accused she had to leave, received the same response: “My stomach hurts, I want to lie down for a while and then I will leave.”
When told she would still need to leave, the accused responded, “you will have to take me out the same way you brought me in on the gurney.”
The nurses agreed and prepared to move the accused out on the bed on which she was lying, with Lopez assisting. The accused then began yelling and arguing with staff.
A nurse bent down to pick up the accused’s shoes, which were on the floor beside her, without announcing her approach or intended action.
The accused yelled loudly in response, grabbed the shoes away from the nurse, made threatening comments and stood up.
Lopez repeatedly instructed the accused to calm down. When she stood up, he reached out without warning and touched her arm.
The accused slapped his arms away, said, “Get off of me,” and proceeded to attack the officer.
The officer fell, and the accused got on top of him and began swinging until various staff members pulled her off and restrained her to the bed.
The accused was then arrested and taken to the San Francisco County Jail.
In a video entered into evidence by Awolope, one nurse told a responding officer after the incident that “it feels like we get whoever SFPD doesn’t want to deal with, we get left with them, and we don’t have the resources…how do we work as a team instead of get the shit that they don’t want?”
According to records admitted into evidence by Awolope and testimony from San Francisco General Hospital staff, within two days of discharge from UCSF, the accused was placed on another 5150 hold after allegedly attacking jail staff, having feces on her cell floor and threatening medical personnel.
It was also determined that she had untreated diabetes.
The accused was taken to San Francisco General Hospital Psychiatric Emergency Services, evaluated and admitted as an inpatient to the psychiatric unit for 21 days of monitoring.
The hospital sought authorization to involuntarily medicate her with antipsychotic medication and diagnosed her with unspecified schizophrenia based on her “defecating on the floor,” “paranoid thoughts,” “hostility,” “suspicion of the intentions of clinicians,” and “lack of acknowledgement of medical problems.”
Awolope called the accused’s mother as a witness.
She told jurors that her daughter is a mother of three children, a college graduate who once worked as an ophthalmic technician, and her only remaining child.
She testified that her daughter had no history of violence until late 2021.
According to the mother, that period marked the beginning of unusual behavior, including disappearing for two weeks, violent outbursts, distrust of close family members and calling her own children demons.
The mother also testified that the accused received two and a half years of treatment in a San Francisco inpatient mental health program beginning in 2022.
Her final words to the jury were: “I want help for [my daughter], I want to know what happened to her.”
The accused’s state of consciousness during the incident, in light of evidence regarding her mental illness, became the central issue during closing arguments.
Lee argued that the accused’s ability to distinguish between medical staff and police officers, engage in conversations with medical personnel and UCSF’s evaluation supported a finding that she was conscious of her actions.
Awolope argued that the accused had been experiencing a psychotic episode and fluctuating in and out of consciousness since she was initially placed on a 5150 hold before the incident.
She argued that when the nurse reached down to grab the accused’s shoes, it triggered another episode during which the accused was not conscious of her actions.
Awolope contended that the accused’s subsequent hospitalization and diagnosis at San Francisco General Hospital supported that conclusion.
After two half-days of deliberations, the jury found the accused not guilty on all 15 counts.
One juror told counsel after the verdict that she, along with other jurors, believed the case never should have been brought to trial.
After more than eight months in the San Francisco County Jail, the accused has been released.
