Fired SFDA employee says he asked Brooke Jenkins about her ‘panties' by mistake

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — There’s never a good time to ask your boss, “What color are your panties?” Especially if she is one of the most powerful people in San Francisco.

But that’s what happened earlier this year when a San Francisco District Attorney’s Office victim witness advocate replied to DA Brooke Jenkins’ email. The advocate, 56-year-old Jovan Thomas, lost his job within hours of clicking the “reply to all” button, which sent the message to the entire staff.

Thomas’ attorneys filed an invasion of privacy lawsuit this week detailing what allegedly happened in January when he sent the embarrassing email. The suit names Jenkins, the DA’s office, and a human resources employee as defendants.

Jenkins’ initial all-staff email was about murder victim Matthew Shepard, the lawsuit says. Shepard was a gay man who was tied to a fence, tortured, and left to die in Wyoming in 1998. Jenkins had sent a calendar invitation for an anti-discrimination staff meeting related to the Shepard case.

Thomas claims he intended to send the “what color are your panties?” message as a joke to his fraternity brother with hopes of making him laugh and “cheer up.”

“Plaintiff was aware that his friend was a straight male who did not wear panties. It was a silly joke intended to cheer up his friend,” attorneys wrote. The message was inadvertently sent to Jenkins, as well as every employee of the DA’s office, according to the lawsuit.

After screen grabs of the “panties” email circulated on X, false online rumors swirled of an affair between Jenkins and Thomas. SFDAO then sent a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle clarifying that Jenkins had no relationship with Thomas, and condemned the message’s “misogynistic behavior,” the suit states.

Thomas says he immediately apologized for his inappropriate email and explained that the reply was intended for his frat friend. Attorneys wrote, “In the context of their long-time friendship, plaintiff’s flip question had no sexual, off-color, obscene, misogynistic or sexist meaning or intent.”

The DA’s human resources director informed Thomas that he was being laid off.

The lawsuit accuses someone within the DA’s office of tipping off the media, making malicious statements about Thomas to the press, and leaking information that Thomas was terminated.

His attorneys claim, “The private facts disclosed by defendants were not of legitimate public concern, or newsworthy. Defendants acted with hatred and ill will toward plaintiff.”

The leaks invaded the ex-advocate’s right to privacy, the suit states.

Thomas has struggled to find a new job since the email scandal even though he worked as an advocate for a decade. The lawsuit, filed on July 19 by Law Offices of R. Michael Lieberman, demands a jury trial.

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