We have a new Hall of Fame entry in the annals of chutzpah, with the former director of an SFPD-affiliated nonprofit who’s under indictment for embezzling $100 grand suing the nonprofit for $26,000 in back pay she claims they still owe her.

It is difficult to keep track of all of the nonprofit spending scandals that have rocked SF City Hall over the last five years, but one stands out in particular because the director of the nonprofit allegedly embezzled $100,000 in taxpayer money from the SFPD. We refer to SF SAFE, an SFPD-funded “crime prevention education services” nonprofit that got caught up in scandal in early 2024 when a City Controller report found they were gouging the SFPD for $10,000 a month on limo rides, plus Vegas and Tahoe trips, and $162 gift boxes for their events.

A mere six days later, that scandal exploded into millions of dollars missing from their bank account, and allegations of check forgery lodged at SF SAFE’s executive director Kyra Worthy. By July 2024, DA Brooke Jenkins’s office charged Worthy with 34 felony counts of misusing public money, bank fraud, wage theft, and passing bad checks. Through DA Jenkins recused herself from the case, perhaps because she has attended so many of SF SAFE’s fancy taxpayer-funded parties.

And lavish parties these were! While Worthy is accused of embezzling around $100,000, the overall total of allegedly misused funds is $700,000. That includes the event below with now-state Assemblymember Catherine Stefani and former SFPD Chief Bill Scott, for which, according to Worthy’s indictment, she “spent $6,000 on an event planner and nearly $50,000 on catering." And, "The event featured a champagne greeting, open bar, and prime rib carving station.”

As Mission Local also noted, “She spent more than $24,000 at Marshall’s,” all on taxpayers' dime, according to the charging document.

Worthy is seen in the middle of the photo above (next to Mahammed Nuru!). Her embezzlement case is now making its way through the courts.

But the Chronicle now reports that Worthy is suing the defunct nonprofit SF SAFE for $26,000 — an amount she says includes her final paycheck and accrued vacation time she claims to be owed. (Mind you, she left the organization with negative $16 in their bank account.)

The Chron dug through filings to find that Worthy was being paid $157,000 per year in the executive director position. They also spoke to an anonymous former employee, who was furious at Worthy’s nerve for submitting the lawsuit, considering that her employees did not get their final paychecks either (reportedly an aggregate sum of $80,000) because the nonprofit dissolved.

And amidst all this, SF SAFE had, just two months prior, spent $98,000 on an event called Halloween Candy Explosion, which per Worthy’s indictment, spent “$20,000 for desserts and ice cream; $15,000 for a taco truck; $19,000 for a petting zoo, face painting, bouncy houses, carnival games, and a climbing wall; $20,000 for event planners; and $7,000 for ‘mobile luxury restrooms.’”

Worthy's new lawsuit is separate from her criminal embezzlement trial, in which she’s pleaded not guilty, and is being represented by court-appointed attorney Jeremy Blank. Her suing for back pay is a civil trial in SF Superior Court, and the Chronicle reports she’s representing herself as her own attorney on this one.

Related: Scandal-Plagued SFPD Partner Nonprofit SF SAFE Now Accused of Stiffing Local Florist Out of $17k [SFist]

Image: @MrCleanSF via Twitter