A raft of criminal cases, at least one of which involves the death of two pedestrians in San Francisco, are being tossed out after an appellate court ruling that chided the city's courts for still using the pandemic as an excuse for unconstitutional trial delays.

A total of 70 cases, some of which involved sexual battery and DUI, were dismissed en masse in San Francisco Superior Court on Thursday. As ABC 7 reports, the dismissals come in response to a ruling by the state Court of Appeals in the case Mendoza vs. The Superior Court of California. A three-judge panel ruled that San Francisco judges had improperly been delaying cases well past their deadlines for constitutionally mandated speedy trials.

Judges "cannot perpetually rely on the COVID-19 pandemic" as a reason for these delays, the appellate judges ruled. And on Thursday, San Francisco Superior Court Presiding Judge Anne-Christine Massullo dismissed 70 of the 189 still pending cases that fit in this category.

In a statement, per the Chronicle, Massullo said, "Our Court was bound by a decision by three justices on the Court of Appeal. There was no discretion. We were required to follow their order. In January 2024 there were 722 no-time waiver misdemeanor cases. Most of these defendants were out-of-custody. As of August 13, there were 189 no-time waiver misdemeanor cases, and of those 189, I dismissed 49 cases, and an additional 21 cases were on appeal in our Appellate Division, for a total of 70 cases."

Massullo added, "Today, I also heard from the affected victims in some of these cases. Their statements were very moving and this Court honors their bravery in coming forward. In the future, we hope that the District Attorney’s Office will prioritize cases appropriately so that justice can be served."

Among those victims, as the Chronicle reports, was Wayne Henderson, whose wife Mary and 33-year-old daughter Willa were killed in a 2022 taxi collision near Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Henderson offered a statement to the court, saying, "We, the victims of these crimes, are being denied our moment of accountability… to see and hear the defendant answer for his misconduct. The moment that we at the very least deserve. How is this justice?”

Both the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and the Office of the Public Defender were laying the blame on the judges themselves, the Chronicle reports, with DA Brooke Jenkins calling the trial delays an "abuse of discretion."

Andrea Lindsay, who manages the misdemeanor unit for the SF Public Defender, tells the paper that many of their clients would have likely been vindicated in court — and while none were incarcerated awaiting trial, some had suspended licenses and other restrictions because of their cases.

Lindsay also said that more dismissals are likely.

"Regrettably, the system has now failed countless victims of crime who will not see justice done," Jenkins said in a statement. "For those cases that do not fall under Mendoza and for every case that we bring forward, we will do everything we can to ensure that justice is done."

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