A San Francisco jury has acquitted a Black man who was falsely accused of damaging a white person’s property, threatening to kill them, and attempting to rob him.
Testimony and evidence during the trial revealed that Trevon Morgan, a man who suffered job loss due to house arrest as a result of the allegations, was falsely targeted based on his race and was, in fact, a victim of racial harassment.
According to his Deputy Public Defender, Ilona Yañez, law enforcement violated his client’s civil rights by not thoroughly investigating the case, which had very visible racial overtones.
“The allegations in this case were reminiscent of other “Karen” cases where someone called the police on a Black person who had done nothing wrong. Here, the complaining witness racially profiled Mr. Morgan, who is Black, assumed the worst about him and falsely accused him of wrongdoing based on the color of his skin,” Yañez said in a statement.
The story leading up to the incident is remarkable. Morgan, a soon-to-be father, left his house to go to the store on the morning of Aug. 24, 2023. He noticed he was being followed by someone.
The white man following him was thought to be mentally ill and unsheltered and started to verbally assault him with racial slurs and harass him as he walked to the store.
Morgan, 21, finally made it to the store and went in, but when he walked out of the Inner Sunset District store, the man started to pepper him with racial slurs again.
Shortly afterward, a motorist driving by doubled-teamed the young man without question and sided with the homeless person in berating him.
Police were contacted to address the commotion and were told that Morgan, the pedestrian, had dented his car and threatened to steal his reading glasses. The person also said that the young African-American threatened to kill him.
As the motorist gave his account, police bodycam footage showed one officer struggling to make sense of the man’s claims against Morgan.
Despite even their skepticism of various claims, the arresting officers took the young man into custody, thus sending his life in a tailspin for months.
Footage obtained by Morgan’s public defender captured the second man admitting that his car was already damaged before the exchange.
“Police and prosecutors pursued this case without any corroborating evidence of a crime, despite the numerous glaring red flags as to the complaining witness’s credibility, and in so doing perpetuated this vigilante’s racism,” Yañez said in a statement.
Leading up to the case, Morgan was required by the court to wear an ankle monitor and live over the last five months on home detention. As a result, he lost his job as a security guard. Not working prevented him from supporting his pregnant girlfriend over the last quarter of 2023.
Now, Morgan, with the jurors’ decision on record that he was not guilty of felony attempted robbery (his official charge), can start repairing his life.
“When prosecutors bring charges and are unwilling to look at the merit of the evidence, it is severely damaging to the accused and a waste of public resources,” said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju. “I appreciate our defense team’s unwavering advocacy of Mr. Morgan and thank the jury for returning a just verdict.”
