Busted San Francisco Human Rights Fee chief Sheryl Davis funneled taxpayer money by means of her companion’s nonprofit to pay celebs — even dropping hundreds on books selling herself and well-known buddies, in line with an affidavit.
Davis was arrested Monday for a “pervasive sample of self-dealing” whereas she was head of the Dream Keeper Initiative — a $120 million plan to help black residents created after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.
The human rights boss had a $350,000-per-year pay packet as head of the Human Rights Fee — however allegedly used her companion James Spingola’s nonprofit, Collective Influence, as a “slush fund” to pay for celeb-studded occasions and to assist hawk her kids’s e-book, “Free to Sing.”
Davis typically cut up prices with the nonprofit to pay for restaurant buyouts, musical acts and different splurges, prosecutors say.
The Human Rights Fee paid a $10,000 speaker charge in Might 2023 to Sonya Curry, the mom of NBA star Steph Curry, and booked a $4,810.50 afterparty at Worldwide Smoke, a San Francisco restaurant operated by Ayesha Curry, the basketball champ’s spouse, and celeb chef Michael Mina.
The Might 2023 occasion, referred to as “Fierce Love & Pleasure,” was billed as a “essential dialogue” meant to create a “secure area for our younger individuals,” in line with an Instagram publish that includes Curry alongside educator Dee-1 and civil rights advocate Areva Martin.
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Davis additionally “directed” Collective Influence to buy copies of Curry’s e-book, “Fierce Love: A Memoir of Household, Religion and Objective” — charging $5,554.62 to a different metropolis division, the Division of Youngsters, Youth and Their Households, for that expense, per the affidavit.
Collective Influence, which obtained almost $8.5 million in Dream Keeper Initiative grants between 2021 and 2024, allegedly paid greater than $30,000, together with resort, for the songstress Goapele to carry out at two occasions — together with $5,000 to carry out a launch social gathering for Davis’ kids’s e-book in January 2023.
Davis organized the sale of 1,500 copies of her e-book to San Francisco Public Library — incomes as much as $100,000 from e-book gross sales from her writer, E book Child, in 2024, in line with an financial disclosure submitting.
Her division paid no less than $6,000 to the agency Varner PR to advertise her e-book, amongst different bills, and shipped “greater than 205 kilos” of unspecified books to a resort in New Orleans through the Essence Pageant of Tradition, in line with a prior audit.
The nonprofit additionally spent hundreds hiring different performers for Human Rights Fee occasions — a $5000 honorarium for R&B artist Ledisi, round $25,000 for rapper and producer D-Good, and greater than $25,000 for charges and resort for crooner Emily King, in line with the affidavit.
Different high-end fetes included a $20,539 “banquet buyout occasion” that includes the journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, greatest recognized for The 1619 Venture, and a $5,000 buyout of Worldwide Smoke in October 2022.
Davis can be accused of paying for VIP social gathering tickets, first-class flights upgrades and even her son’s UCLA tuition utilizing public funds.
She signed contracts with a nonprofit referred to as Homeless Youngsters’s Community value greater than $3.5 million, which subsequently paid Davis’ son $140,000 for “contract analysis” companies.
Davis “misappropriated Metropolis funds for her personal private use or using another person,” prosecutors concluded.
“For instance, she paid hundreds of {dollars} for galas and sponsorships of occasions unrelated to HRC and paid somebody’s hire with HRC cash.”
She additionally continuously tapped a communications and branding agency referred to as PJS Consultants as she sought to construct her profile as an writer, per the affidavit.
Davis resigned from her job on the Human Rights Fee in 2024 amid allegations of misspending.
The division has since put in new management and launched reforms, together with inner processes to keep away from conflicts of curiosity.
Mayor Daniel Lurie final yr proposed merging the Human Rights Fee with one other scandal-ridden company, the Division on the Standing of Ladies, to kind a brand new physique referred to as the Company on Human Rights.
