Brad Chapin, the man who first accused Emanuel “Manny” Yekutiel of sexual assault in June, said that he was so stressed in the months that followed that he could hardly sleep.
Now that Yekutiel is out of the race, he says he’s better, and can rest.
He’s also advocating for other sexual-assault survivors, and today announced his endorsement in the District 8 supervisor race: Darshini Patel.
Patel, Chapin said, was one of the people — along with Supervisor Myrna Melgar and Ivy Lee, the director of the Office of Victim and Witness Rights — he felt particularly supported by when he first came forward.
He remembers appreciating a statement Patel put out on the day his accusation was first reported, which called out the “reflex to question and minimize” survivors.
Later that week, he ran into Patel at a rally in support of sexual-assault survivors.
“Even though I tried to go in disguise, she recognized me immediately, and walked up and gave me a hug,” Chapin said. “I felt really, truly connected to her through that process, and just could tell how much she genuinely cared and not in a self-serving way.”
He endorsed her shortly after, but initially she didn’t want to publicize it.
“People were horrible to him, and I didn’t want it to add to that in some way,” said Patel, who used to work at DoorDash and in the Obama White House. “I didn’t want it to seem like I was politicizing the situation.”
When Chapin came forward, many prominent political figures cast doubt on his allegations. Mayor Daniel Lurie endorsed Yekutiel in September, saying that he had been reassured by Yekutiel that the incident did not happen.
A few weeks prior to that, the San Francisco chapter of the Democratic Party endorsed Yekutiel as well, after a so-called investigation that did not examine whether or not an assault had taken place.
Yekutiel dropped out of the race last Thursday after two subsequent allegations of sexual assault were published by the San Francisco Standard. Chapin’s June accusation — that Yekutiel painfully grabbed his testicles at a house party in 2020 — was first published three months before that.
Those three months were traumatizing, Chapin said.
In early August, Chapin lost his job as a city worker, which he attributed to the stress he was living under since speaking out in June. His friends set up a GoFundMe to help him cover his rent.
“Thank God,” Chapin said. “Otherwise, I would definitely be losing my apartment.”
The District 8 race is now a three-way contest between Patel, recovery advocate and former Nancy Pelosi aide Gary McCoy, and attorney Michael Nguyen.
McCoy is considered the front-runner; he has raised the most money, and has received mainstream endorsements. Prior to Yekutiel’s departure, McCoy and Patel formed an alliance.
Chapin, for his part, said he was also drawn to Patel because “she knows what she doesn’t know.” He thinks she will consult outside experts and actually listen to them, instead of making decisions “that are just politically advantageous.”
Chapin added that he is also excited to elect a queer woman of color in District 8, which has only ever been represented by gay white men, though, he added, “I would never vote for someone or support someone just because of that.”
Chapin plans to campaign and host fundraisers for Patel in the remaining weeks of the race.
In the wake of Yekutiel’s withdrawal, Chapin said he has met with Nancy Tung, the chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, who some are calling on to resign, and is planning a meeting with Mayor Lurie.
He wants both Tung and Lurie to use their political power to work with people advocating for survivors. Lee and Melgar, for instance, are working to improve how the city responds to reports of sexual assault — the police clearance rate for rape cases is half the national average.
What Chapin wanted to emphasize the most, though, is how grateful he is to Ryan Clark and his partner, the two men who came forward about their own alleged experiences with Yekutiel last week, ultimately leading to Yekutiel’s withdrawal.
“Before they came forward, my life, every day, was traumatizing,” Chapin said, explaining that people would regularly harass him in the street.
“People,” he says, “have called me an anti-Semite” — Yekutiel is Jewish. They have also told him he was “un-rapeable” and that “Manny is so sexy,” he added.
Chapin said he had been struggling to sleep and was thinking about leaving San Francisco.
But Clark and his partner going public “gave me my life back,” Chapin said. “Now I feel like I can go outside and not fear people saying just such terrible things.”