Now that SF Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board commissioner William “Tariq” Palmer II is in Sheriff’s Department custody on sexual battery charges, some at City Hall are calling for his immediate resignation, and vowing they’ll remove him if they can.

We noted over the weekend that a member of two City Hall oversight commissions, William “Tariq” Palmer II, had been arrested and jailed on sexual assault charges. Once a feel-good story of a man who was long-jailed but now on the straight and narrow, Palmer’s history within the criminal justice system got him appointed to the SF Sentencing Commission and SF Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board.

But now that Palmer is in Sheriff’s Department custody without bail on some brutal-sounding charges including sodomy by use of force and assault with force likely to create great bodily injury, this would seem to create a conflict of interest for his oversight role in the department. And since he’s being held without bail, it seems implausible he would be attending any commission meetings (the next of which is scheduled for December 1).

According to SF County Jail records, he is currently in County Jail, and the screenshot above does not show the additional charges of false imprisonment, assault with force like to commit great bodily injury, and sexual battery by restraint. There is no court date listed in that entry, but the Chronicle reports Palmer is scheduled to appear in court today, on Monday.

And KRON4 reports that prominent people at City Hall are calling for Palmer's immediate resignation. “He has been asked to resign,” Supervisor Aaron Peskin said in a Saturday statement to KRON4. “If he doesn’t resign I will be taking the necessary steps under the applicable laws to remove him.”

The incident in question happened in August, and according to the Chronicle's reporting, Palmer offered a woman a ride at a BART station but instead took her to his home and sexually assaulted her. Police investigated the claim, and arrested Palmer this past Thursday morning

Palmer’s life story of incarceration and alleged reform started when he was arrested at age 17 for robbing someone at gunpoint (that someone turned out to be an off-duty police officer), and Palmer was sentenced to life in prison. He earned a GED and an associate’s degree while incarcerated for 31 years, but was released from a state prison in Solano in March 2019 after the state Supreme Court ruled his sentence was excessive. After his release, he worked with nonprofits dedicated to ending the cycle of incarceration, and a Black-owned newspaper. He’s been serving on the Sentencing Commission and Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board since 2021, though he’ll be “serving” in a different capacity behind bars at least for the time being.  

Related: Criminal Justice Advocate and SF Oversight Board Member Arrested on Sexual Assault Charges [SFist]

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