SF DA Boudin fights recall
Few could have foreseen the longer term repercussions of that horrible tragedy on New Year's Eve 2020, when Troy Ramon McAlister, then 45, while allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol and methamphetamine, struck Elizabeth Platt and Hanako Abe as they entered a crosswalk at Mission and Second streets.
Platt, 60, was killed on the spot; Abe, 27, died soon after in hospital.McAlister, who pleaded not guilty in his arraignment a few days later, had a long arrest record and was out on parole.
He is still being held at San Francisco County Jail #3 and is scheduled to appear again in court on April 27.McAlister's record, and the role of the San Francisco District Attorney's office in the plea deal that had set the suspect free nine months earlier, came under immediate scrutiny and added urgency for those seeking to recall DA Chesa Boudin.Fourteen months after Boudin, San Francisco's embattled district attorney, took office in January 2020, he was targeted with the first of what would be two efforts to recall him.
Launched by failed, sometimes Republican, mayoral candidate Richie Greenberg in March 2021, the first recall effort fell 1,714 signatures short of the required 51,325 signatures needed by that August to spark a recall.
