The Girlboss of mass incarceration once tried to get a 4-year-old to lie to put a likely innocent man in jail.
After firing 15 prosecutors Friday, interim district attorney Brooke Jenkins boasted that her top new hires were all women, describing her new deputies as “three women of color, with decades of prosecutorial experience at the highest levels.” (Many of the prosecutors she fired were also women and people of color, but #Girlboss energy isn’t concerned with nuance, only “winning.”)
Jenkins has been described as the type of prosecutor who wants to win at any cost. It’s a breed of prosecutor that is willing to withhold evidence, who doesn’t concern themselves with matters of innocence or guilt—just proving guilt—and in Jenkins’ case, reportedly coaching a 4-year-old girl about what to say on the stand in a child molestation case.
Jenkins was caught on tape coaching a 4-year-old to say that she’d been sexually molested by her mother’s boyfriend. "‘Say that – that’s what you need to say,” Jenkins was filmed saying.
The case rested entirely on the girl’s testimony—there was no DNA evidence, injuries, or records on the suspect’s phone. The Davis Vanguard, which reported on the case, suggested the girl had initially been coached by family members in a custody battle.
“It’s a really troubling case,” a former prosecutor with the DA’s office says. “But that’s who Brooke is. She’s just really unethical.”
Why hasn’t the State Bar investigated her?