As district attorney of San Francisco, Kamala Harris dropped an unlicensed driving charge against an illegal immigrant who months later mowed down a young law student with his car.
In June 2010, Harris’s office dropped charges against Roberto Galo, an illegal immigrant who was arrested for driving without a license while going the wrong way down a one-way street. Five months later, in November 2010, Galo killed Golden Gate University Law student Drew Rosenberg, 25, after slamming his car into the young man at a stoplight.
"Galo had been caught in June, driving without a license. Wrong way on the one way street, no insurance," Drew’s father Don Rosenberg told the Washington Free Beacon. "[Harris’s office] had dropped the charge … they dropped driving without a license and no insurance."
Rosenberg, a former supporter of Harris, said he was shocked at how "incompetent" and "biased" her staff was after his son was killed. He said police had told him the homicide case against Galo was a "slam dunk." But, due in part to blunders by Harris’s office, Galo avoided felony charges and ended up spending less than two months in jail.
The news comes as Harris has faced questions about her record on illegal immigration during her time as vice president, where she has served as President Joe Biden’s point person on the border crisis. It also raises questions about her policies as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, where she championed reduced penalties for unlicensed driving, a position that was supported by many illegal immigration advocates in California.
On Nov. 16, 2010, Galo made a left-hand turn at a yellow light in San Francisco and struck Drew Rosenberg, who was riding a motorcycle. Galo, while apparently attempting to flee, drove over and backed up on Rosenberg’s body multiple times, before a passerby stood in the front of the car to block Galo from leaving the scene. Five men had to lift the vehicle off of Rosenberg, and he died from his injuries.
The fatal accident took place five months after Galo was arrested in San Francisco for driving without a license and for driving the wrong way down a one-way street. But the district attorney’s office, led by Kamala Harris at the time, dropped the unlicensed driving charges. Galo was also allowed to reclaim his impounded vehicle the day after his first arrest, despite a California law that requires cars to be held for 30 days.
At the time, San Francisco law enforcement leadership was reluctant to prosecute unlicensed drivers, after activists claimed that such laws unfairly targeted illegal immigrants.
Rosenberg said he asked a prosecutor in Harris’s DA office how many unlicensed drivers the city tried in the year before his son was killed. The attorney "kept refusing to answer. Finally, she said to me, we didn’t try anyone," said Rosenberg.
Galo was charged with felony vehicular homicide after Rosenberg’s death, but a judge reduced the charges to a misdemeanor homicide. Don Rosenberg said Harris’s office failed to inform him about the court hearing date where the charges were reduced, and prosecutors balked when Rosenberg asked them to appeal the charge reduction. While the DA’s office eventually agreed to file an appeal, it was rejected after one of the prosecutors misfiled it in the wrong court.
One month after Drew Rosenberg’s death, Harris stepped down as district attorney to become California attorney general. Her successor, George Gascón, declined to file another appeal against the charge reduction, and the case moved forward as a misdemeanor.
Ultimately, Galo was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison. He served just 43 days before he was released by San Francisco sheriff Ross Mirkarimi. Rosenberg’s family said they were not notified of the early release.
"What I've now learned is what happened to me is the rule, not the exception to the rule," said Rosenberg, who voted for Harris for attorney general just days before his son was killed, and now advocates against illegal immigration.
After Harris became attorney general, Don Rosenberg attempted to set up meetings with her to discuss his concerns about California's unlicensed driving policies, according to emails and letters he shared with the Free Beacon.
In a February 2011 letter to Harris, Don Rosenberg wrote that he and his son Drew "voted for you for California Attorney General."
"For my son Drew it would be the last vote he ever placed," wrote Rosenberg. "My son is dead because the DA did not believe (and continues to [not] believe) that driving without a license is a big deal."
Rosenberg said his requests for meetings with Harris were declined.
"They think you'll give up and go away," said Rosenberg. "They think they can get away with the crap that they pull, because eventually you're going to go away."
In 2012, two years after Drew Rosenberg was killed, Harris, who had been elected California attorney general, issued a legal opinion endorsing a controversial Los Angeles policy that reduced impound penalties for unlicensed drivers. Under the law, people caught driving without a license would have their vehicles impounded for just one day instead of for 30 days.
Conservative and pro-law-enforcement groups opposed the policy, arguing at the time that it was "illegal and dangerous."
"Unlicensed drivers—whether unlawfully present aliens or not—are a menace to public safety," said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, whose group sued Los Angeles over the impounding rule.