Gary Klien
The Marin Independent
MARIN, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has apologized to Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle for remarks accusing his department of a racist traffic stop.
Newsom had based his comments on a story relayed by a longtime friend who is African American. However, his friend says it was a different agency that made the traffic stop.
That aside, the governor was “reckless” to disseminate unverified anecdotes at a time of anti-police protests around the country, Doyle said.
“His comments were irresponsible,” he said. “They were outrageous.”
The trouble started Friday during Newsom’s regular public update on the coronavirus crisis. He opened with remarks about George Floyd, the black man whose death during an arrest in Minnesota has ignited days of protests and riots.
“This moment weighs heavily, I know, in the hearts of so many,” Newsom said. “There’s deep anger. There’s deep frustration. There’s deep fear. And I can attest to that, but only intellectually.
“One of my oldest friends, Derek Smith, he just sent me a picture of his oldest son, who I knew since he was born. He just graduated from USC. That same kid, no less than four years ago, before he was graduating from a high school in Marin County, was pulled over by the local sheriff for no other reason than he was driving with his brother in a car — and he happened to be black.
“I remember Derek calling me in panic, lighting up my phone, saying, need to talk to you, need to talk to you. And I said, ‘What’s the problem?’ He goes, ‘I need you to call the sheriff right away. I can’t take it anymore.’ And he starts tearing up, saying, ‘I can’t take it anymore.’ Because it’s hardly his first experience, or his kids’ first experience.
“That wasn’t caught on videotape. That was just a day in the life of that one child, just another family. Happens every single day all across this country. We are so much better than that.”
Smith, reached by phone on Saturday, said it was not the sheriff’s department that made the traffic stop. Smith said his son, then a student at Branson School, was pulled over by local police during a trip to the campus in Ross. His other son was also in the car.
The circumstances surrounding the traffic stop are unclear. The youths were released. Several law enforcement agencies — municipal police departments, the sheriff’s department, the California Highway Patrol and College of Marin police — have jurisdiction along the Sir Francis Drake Boulevard corridor.
The Ross Police Department has no record of such a stop, Chief Erik Masterson said on Saturday. He said he does not think Ross police initiated it.
A preliminary search by the sheriff’s department also turned up no report of the incident, nor any complaints lodged about it.
Smith says he asked for a meeting with Masterson after the incident. Masterson took the meeting.
“It was handled very professionally,” said Smith, 53, a former classmate of Newsom’s from Redwood High School. “We had a very constructive, learning meeting. The chief apologized to me and my family.”
Masterson, for his part, remembers meeting with the Smiths, but recalls it differently.
“As I recall Mr. Smith came to me about wanting to get proactive about his son attending Branson School and worried his son would be stopped ‘for his being black,’” said Masterson, the police chief since 2011. “As I recall, there was some underlying issue with either his son, or other family member having a negative interaction with the police. I don’t remember specific details, but do not believe it involved the Ross police.”
“Mr. Smith I believe wanted to introduce his son and ask that the officers be made aware his son would be attending Branson School. I remember it struck me as surprising, but also sadly realistic.”
Newsom’s communications director, Nathan Click, said the governor’s office called Doyle on Saturday to apologize for the reference to his department.
As for Doyle’s contention that the governor’s anecdote was reckless, Click cited the “full context” of Newsom’s remarks.
Doyle said the apology came from Newsom’s chief of staff, Ann O’Leary.
“I have to say that it’s remarkable that the chief of staff would reach out to me and apologize,” he said. “I’ll get over this, but I just feel for the men and women in this organization that work hard. The damage has already been done. There are going to be people who think that sheriff’s deputies are racist.”