On Monday, the same day rape allegations shook the campaign of Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner, the San Francisco Chronicle published an investigation into a separate allegation involving San Francisco cafe owner and Board of Supervisors candidate Manny Yekutiel.

The allegation dates back to 2020. According to the Chronicle, LGBT activist Brad Chapin accused Yekutiel of grabbing him, fondling him, and attempting to penetrate him with a finger during a party in San Francisco’s Mission District.

The Chronicle reported that it first contacted Chapin in March. After speaking with him several times, the outlet attempted to verify portions of his account independently. However, it was unable to reach witnesses who had attended the party where the alleged assault took place.

The story had already surfaced elsewhere. On June 30, The San Francisco Standard published its own report on Chapin’s allegation and the political fallout surrounding it.

According to the Standard, Chapin filed a police report in April. In that report, he said the alleged assault happened on Feb. 21, 2020, inside the bedroom of a Mission District home after he went looking for friends.

“He grabbed me, and I was trying to get away. He wouldn’t let me go,” Chapin told the outlet. “He stuck one of his hands down my pants and grabbed me and was squeezing me and intentionally causing pain. It was bizarre. He literally had me by the testicles. It was intentionally sexually demeaning.”

Chapin also pointed to a text message he sent around the time of the alleged incident, telling a friend, “Manny just sexually assaulted me.”

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Yekutiel has denied the accusation.

“These allegations are false. What is being described did not happen,” he said in a statement to The San Francisco Standard.

“When he reached out to me, I told him directly that it didn’t happen. He filed a police report, the police investigated, and took no further action. They said they didn’t even need to interview me.”

The allegation could still carry political consequences. Yekutiel is not an unknown figure in San Francisco politics. The Standard described him as “a fixture of San Francisco politics,” noting his ties to figures such as former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie.

Chapin also has political ties of his own through an LGBT organization connected to Yekutiel’s main opponent in the Board of Supervisors race.

The San Francisco Chronicle said it published its investigation Monday because the Standard’s earlier report had already pushed Chapin’s allegation into the center of the local campaign.

The two reports, however, did not read the same way.

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For example, The San Francisco Standard reported that after filing the police report in April, Chapin met Yekutiel at a local park because he wanted to “find some way to forgive him and move past the incident.”

The Chronicle described that same meeting differently. According to its report, the encounter was arranged as a “pretext call” by a police investigator, and Chapin wore a recording device issued by police when he met with Yekutiel.

The Chronicle also cited a June 9 email from the police investigator to Chapin, in which the case was described as “open” but “inactive.” In practical terms, that means authorities did not have enough evidence to charge Yekutiel with sexual assault.

The Chronicle also included comments from Yekutiel that struck a more measured tone.

“I’m not here to attack or hurt anyone,” Yekutiel told the outlet. “I take this issue super seriously, but also I think in instances like this, especially with what’s being accused, I have to be completely clear that what is being described never went on and never happened.”

He added, “Anyone who comes forward deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. I won’t disparage Brad or question his character. But I know what’s true for me. And I understand the ugly reality of political campaigns today.”

The Chronicle also noted that Yekutiel and Chapin had friendly-sounding social media exchanges after the alleged assault. It further pointed to apparent inconsistencies in Chapin’s account regarding the claim that Yekutiel attempted to insert a finger into his anus.

The accusation is disturbing, and the details are unusually graphic. Whether true or not, it has now become part of a heated local political race in one of the country’s most reliably Democratic cities.

Meanwhile, the allegations against Platner have already prompted some leading Democrats to describe them as credible.

A similar pattern played out earlier this year with former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, who ended his gubernatorial campaign in April after multiple allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault damaged his run.

Still, based on the differing accounts from the two San Francisco news outlets, there is no clear public answer about what happened at that party in 2020.

The Western Journal