The former Human Rights Commission executive director and leader of the Dream Keeper initiative, Sheryl Davis, who has been facing an array of city ethics charges over the alleged misuse of funds, is now officially facing criminal charges.

The San Francisco District Attorney's Office appears to be preparing charges against Sheryl Davis, whom former Mayor London Breed tapped to lead the city's Human Rights Commission and, later, her Dream Keeper initiative. And as the Chronicle was first to report, Davis was arrested Monday morning alongside James Spingola, the former CEO of the nonprofit Collective Impact, and Davis's live-in romantic partner.

Davis was reportedly booked on "a raft of felony charges" that include misappropriation of public funds and perjury.

As SFist reported in September, following the release of a city audit report on Davis's activities, the City Services Auditor found a host of questionable expenses in the record that suggested self-dealing and misappropriation of funds to the tune of $4.6 million.

These expenses included $353,000 on "likely ineligible" food expenses, including restaurant buyouts and catering expenses; $19,000 in tuition expenses for Davis's son, a graduate student at UCLA; and a total of $1.1 million in professional services expenses and purchases made by HRC for things like tickets to gala events and various "consulting" services.

Spingola, who took over Collective Impact, the non-profit that Davis founded, when she left to work for the city, allegedly came to receive $1.5 million in grants to the organization from HRC while Davis was in charge — a clear conflict of interest given that the two lived together. And Collective Impact received $27 million in city grants overall during his tenure.

The auditor noted that Davis signed a conflict of interest form only about her past association with the non-profit, but not about her relationship with Spingola.

The city Ethics Commission hit Davis with a host of charges in November, outlined in a 31-page document, to which she responded by saying she was simply a "failed bureaucrat,"who was "too focused on the people, but not on the rules."

After being named executive director of the city's Human Rights Commission by Breed, Davis was tapped to lead the Dream Keeper Initiative in 2021, which was the city's response to the racial injustice protests surrounding the death of George Floyd. Breed envisioned the initiative as being able to redirect city funds to help the local Black community, with $60 million per year redirected from law enforcement expenses.

The scandal regarding Davis's alleged misuse of city funds first broke in September 2024, after it came to light that Davis was trying to conceal an expense for a $10,000 Martha's Vineyard rental house — dividing it into two invoices that fell in each of two fiscal years, before and after July 1. The issue of Davis signing off on $1.5 million in contracts for the nonprofit led by her romantic partner also came to light at that time as well, and Davis swiftly resigned from her official positions.

The Martha's Vineyard rental, the city auditor later learned, was for interns who were supposed to accompany Davis to a "philanthropic conference" on the island in August 2024, and they apparently never ended up using the house even though it had already been paid for.

The District Attorney's Office launched an investigation into Davis's spending last year, and it appears charges have not been officially filed but likely will be soon.

This is a developing story.

Previously: Former Dream Keeper Chief and Human Rights Commission Director Sheryl Davis Hit With Array of Ethics Charges