One of the ongoing problems in San Francisco is that even when the police do their job and even when they have a prosecutor who does her job, cases still wind up before judges who often seem more interested in the rights of the accused than the rights of victims.
Judges in San Francisco are elected to six-year terms but once appointed those judges are rarely challenged and, even when they are, the challenger rarely wins. And yet, a judge in San Francisco just picked up a challenger in the coming election because her record is so bad.
A former state attorney, now in private practice, is running to unseat a controversial judge on the San Francisco Superior Court.
Anthony Tartaglio, 39, a workers rights attorney who spent five years as a deputy attorney general, filed paperwork Tuesday morning to challenge Judge Michelle Tong, a frequent target of complaints from the San Francisco district attorney’s office and advocates for tough-on-crime judicial rulings.
“I’m running for Superior Court judge because justice and the rule of law are essential to keeping San Francisco safe and vibrant,” Tartaglio said in a statement.
Tartaglio was inspired to run against Judge Tong by a story he read last year about her handling of a case involving a child abduction. It started with a marriage that had by all accounts turned abusive and violent. Guillaume Garreau and Sana Onayeva married in 2020 and had a son. But by early 2023 Garreau filed for a separation and requested a restraining order against Onayeva. She in turn filed a similar restraining order against him.
Their case was assigned to San Francisco family court judge Daniel Flores. The appearances were stressful, Garreau said, but he found the judge to be patient and professional.
After hearings over six months that included hundreds of pages of evidence, audio recordings, sworn declarations, and examination of witnesses, Flores found that Onayeva had committed domestic abuse against Garreau.
Flores granted Garreau’s domestic violence restraining order and denied Onayeva’s, citing “significant credibility concerns” in her testimony and evidence, including an instance when she made false claims to law enforcement.
In short, the judge sided with the husband and awarded him custody of their son. The wife was given visitation. Later that year, the wife went back to court to ask for permission to travel to her home country with her son. Enter Judge Michelle Tong who took over the case after the previous judge was transferred to other duties.
Tong had no experience in family law, having spent most of her brief judicial career in small-claims court. She’d been assigned to the family court just four months prior, most likely because she lacked seniority. It happens all the time.
Tong spent 17 years as an attorney for San Francisco’s public defender’s office before running for judge in 2020. She was initially assigned to small-claims court, then civil harassment — a position even less desirable than family court but with significant power. In one controversial decision in 2023, Tong denied a restraining order for a teenager who was being harassed by notorious serial stalker Bill Gene Hobbs. Hobbs was later sentenced to prison for a series of sexual assaults and battery on San Francisco women.
Garreau and Onayeva appeared before Tong for the first time in late November 2023. Before the hearing, Tong tentatively granted Onayeva’s request to take Maximilien out of the country.
Garreau’s attorney objected to this ruling, pointing out that if Onayeva didn’t return with the child Garreau would have no recourse. The attorney also pointed out that “Onayeva had no job in San Francisco and had transferred $220,000 to her brother in Kazakhstan.”
Tong reversed herself and denied permission for Onayeva to take her child abroad. But a few months later she reversed herself again, announcing that she was convinced Onayeva would not abduct the child.
“I have full faith and confidence that [Onayeva] will not only go and return; but, secondly, does not want to permanently reside there,” Tong said. “I could be wrong; maybe at some point in the future, but I don’t think it’s now.”
On March 16, 2024, Onayeva left for Kazakhstan with Maximilien. He was 2 years old. They never came back.
Charges were filed against Onayeva, but as predicted there was nothing Garreau could do to force her to return. He spent a quarter million dollars fighting to get his son back in a Kazakhstan court. And early last year he won the case. Onayeva was ordered to return to return the child to the US. Last February Garreau traveled to Kazakhstan with two officials from the SF DA’s office to collect his son. The address where Onayeva was supposed to be was empty. She disappeared and Garreau still hasn’t found her or his son.
Garreau’s case is a nightmare but it isn’t Judge Tong’s only brush with abject failure:
Jordana Cahen appeared before Tong in July 2022 while recovering from a beating by her ex-boyfriend that left her hospitalized with a fractured eye socket and broken nose. He also owed her nearly $7,000. Tong ruled that he needed to pay back only $555. Cahen said that when she asked for an explanation, Tong laughed. Cahen left the courtroom humiliated. A year later, a criminal court ordered her ex to pay her $32,000. He’s now serving a sentence of seven years to life for torture and abuse.
One mother went before Tong for a domestic violence restraining order to protect herself and her children from her ex. Tong denied the request and granted split custody. A follow-up hearing was reassigned to Judge Anne Costin, who severely limited the father’s visits.
Tong’s reputation was so well known that when she was given a promotion to criminal court in June 2024, DA Brooke Jenkins had her prosecutors object to every case to which Tong was assigned. As a result, she was essentially demoted again back to civil harassment and traffic cases.
Getting rid of Judge Tong seems like a no-brainer, but in San Francisco that doesn’t guarantee it will happen.
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