First, a fatal crash. Then, missed court dates. Driver faces trial after years of delays 2%
By George Kelly19%
7/30/2026, 3:43:46 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 2 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 12% saturation with 50 hits. Analysis detected 88 faulty-reasoning hits from 416 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 10.6% and a BS Rank of 2% (22,032 of 22,405 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 98.30% of the article peer group.
After years of delays, a San Francisco judge has ordered that a trial will begin in August for a motorist accused of running a red light and killing a motorcyclist in 2021 in SoMa.
Breanna Gordon has repeatedly missed hearings in her misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter case but remotely attended San Francisco Superior Court on Thursday as attorneys clashed over whether she can be trusted to appear.
The family of the victim, Paul McManus, 40, had complained that Gordon was not being held accountable for her missed appearances .
Gordon, 36, was driving a 2018 Jeep Compass when she fatally struck McManus as he rode a motorcycle home from a James Taylor concert, according to prosecutors.
In arguing to begin the trial soon, Deputy District Attorney Zain Qazi pointed to Gordon’s absences from court appearances since her Dec. 14, 2021, arraignment and to the seriousness of the charge.
Qazi said Gordon failed to appear for a trial scheduled for June 24, 2024, and did not return to court until receiving a bench warrant May 26, 2026.
Qazi pressed the court to order Gordon present at all future hearings “so that this case can actually be discussed.”
Public defender Gabriella Rodezno, who is representing Gordon, said her client lives in Bakersfield and missed proceedings in part because she has a child with serious medical complications.
“She has been struggling to deal with the accident and her child, which caused her to get some instability, and that’s why she missed her jury trial dates,” Rodezno said.
Of more than 14,000 pending criminal cases in San Francisco Superior Court in July, more than 6,000 involved a defendant in “fugitive status” who was wanted for arrest after missing a court appearance, according to the district attorney.
Rodezno disputed the prosecution’s contention that a judge had previously required Gordon’s presence at all hearings.
“She was never ordered by any judge to appear at any and all future hearings,” the public defender said.
The judge set a jury trial for Aug. 21 and ordered Gordon to appear that morning in person or by Zoom, declining to place her on standby for the trial date.
The judge acknowledged that Gordon lives some distance away, which could complicate a standby arrangement.
Outside the courtroom, Rodezno and Qazi both declined to comment.
They directed inquiries to the public defender’s and district attorney’s offices, which did not respond to requests for comment.
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