A San Francisco prosecutor who handles child abuse and sexual assault cases received a California State Bar public reproval in 2023 for conduct involving his own children — and was publicly honored by DA Brooke Jenkins at an SFPD Sexual Assault Awareness Month event this year.

Reporting by The San Francisco Standard on Tuesday revealed that Richard Hullinger, one of six attorneys in DA Brooke Jenkins' office who prosecute child abuse and sexual assault cases, was arrested in 2018 in Sonoma County while driving drunk with a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old in the back seat. He was initially charged with two felony counts of child abuse. He ultimately pleaded no-contest to a misdemeanor and completed a diversion program, clearing his criminal record of the child cruelty charge by 2019. But the accountability didn't end there. In 2022 the State Bar of California opened a separate disciplinary case — which concluded in a public reproval and a year of probation in 2023, while Hullinger was already employed at the DA's office. Jenkins' office has responded by calling him "exemplary" and characterizing the entire history as a "fully resolved misdemeanor offense" that predates his work there. That framing leaves out the State Bar chapter entirely.

The basic facts of the 2018 incident, first reported by The Standard's Anya Schultz and Jonah Owen Lamb, are striking enough on their own terms. According to the State Bar's own court filings — cited in the Standard's report — Hullinger was driving northbound on Highway 101 in Sonoma County in May 2018 when a sheriff's deputy pulled him over after watching him speed, swerve, and tailgate other vehicles, including a marked patrol car. His two young children were in the back seat. His blood alcohol level registered at more than three times the legal limit.

When deputies attempted to take him into custody, Hullinger was belligerent. He invoked his status as a former criminal defense attorney to avoid a field sobriety test, called one officer a "piece of shit," and, in front of his crying 7-year-old son, declared that "daddy's going to jail because of these dickheads" — and that authorities would "take you and you'll go to a foster family and they'll raise you," causing the boy to "scream in terror," according to the bar filing. Child Protective Services took custody of both children that night because no family members could be reached.

He was charged with two felony counts of child abuse and two misdemeanor DUI counts. Those charges were eventually downgraded. He pleaded no-contest to one misdemeanor child cruelty count and one misdemeanor DUI, completed a diversion program, and the child cruelty charge was dismissed in 2019. The Sonoma County Superior Court later sealed the case — declining to disclose when, at whose request, or on what grounds.

Hullinger was hired by the San Francisco DA's office in October 2021, under then-DA Chesa Boudin. In June 2022 — the same month Boudin was recalled and Jenkins was appointed by Mayor London Breed — the State Bar opened a disciplinary case. That case was settled in 2023: a public reproval, a one-year probationary period, and $6,479 in disciplinary costs. A public reproval is not a criminal conviction, but it is a formal finding by the body that licenses California attorneys.

Jenkins' office did not contest his continued employment through any of this. Hullinger has since handled more than 40 child abuse cases, per Superior Court records cited by the Standard. This year, the DA's office publicly recognized him at SFPD's Sexual Assault Awareness Month event — an acknowledgment Jenkins' own office cited in defending him.

The DA's statement, issued to the Standard, called Hullinger "an exemplary prosecutor" who had "tirelessly and effectively fought for justice on behalf of victims of unspeakable crimes." It said he "accepted responsibility for the 2018 incident and satisfied all legal and professional requirements." Then came the framing that warrants scrutiny: "It is disappointing that attention is being focused on an incident from nearly a decade ago rather than on the years of public service that have followed," the statement read, describing the matter as "a fully resolved misdemeanor offense that predates his work in this office."

The criminal charges do predate his employment. The State Bar discipline does not. The public reproval was issued in 2023, when Hullinger was already a sitting prosecutor. Jenkins' office's statement does not address it.

Hullinger did not respond to The Standard's request for comment. The SF DA's office did not respond to questions from The Dissent.

What's also unresolved is whether any formal policy governs the assignment of prosecutors with relevant criminal or disciplinary histories to units handling those same types of cases. The SF DA's office had not answered that question by publication time.

The sealing of Hullinger's original Sonoma County case also raises procedural questions that no public official has explained. The court would not say when the sealing occurred, who requested it, or on what grounds — an unusual opacity for a matter that became, years later, a professional ethics question adjudicated by the state's bar association.