San Francisco Sheriff's Deputy Faces Arraignment Today in Case Tied to County Jail Strip-Search Class Action

Deputy Nanette Musto, charged with battery and assault by a public officer, is arraigned this morning. The witness is a plaintiff in Veen Firm class action

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, July 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Deputy Nanette Musto, charged with battery and assault by a public officer, is arraigned this morning. The complaining witness is a plaintiff in the class action brought by The Veen Firm and Bertolino Law.

San Francisco Sheriff's Office Deputy Nanette Musto (51) is scheduled to be arraigned this morning on criminal charges of battery and assault by a public officer at County Jail No. 2. That jail is the same facility at the center of a federal civil rights class action brought on behalf of 20 women by The Veen Firm, LLP and Bertolino Law, PC. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced the charges on July 13, 2026. According to plaintiffs' counsel, the complaining witness in the criminal case is a plaintiff in the civil lawsuit.

The arraignment is set for 9:00 a.m. in Department 17 at the Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco, under Court Number 26016092. According to the District Attorney, on July 12, 2025, while on duty at County Jail No. 2, Deputy Musto asked a female inmate whether she had surgically augmented her body and then, without permission or lawful necessity, touched the inmate's breast. The incident was captured on jail surveillance footage and left the woman humiliated and embarrassed. Musto is charged with battery (California Penal Code section 242) and one misdemeanor count of assault by a public officer (Penal Code section 149).

The charges arrive one year after the conduct and only after the women sued. Their complaint, filed May 22, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges a supervisor-authorized pattern of degrading, suspicionless searches, including a May 22, 2025 mass strip search in which male deputies watched women undress while body-worn cameras recorded, in violation of the Sheriff's own policy. It also alleges denial of menstrual hygiene and retaliation against women who complained.

“For a year, these women were told to stay quiet. This week the District Attorney confirmed what our client has said all along: a deputy criminally violated a woman inside that jail,” said Elizabeth Bertolino of Bertolino Law, PC, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs. “This is vindication, and it is also just the beginning.”
“It took a lawsuit and a full year for anyone in power to take these women seriously,” said Anthony Label, a partner at The Veen Firm, LLP and co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs. “This was never one woman making it up. It happened inside a jail that broke its own rules and then punished the women who spoke up. The City still has to answer.”

Counsel are available for interviews around today's arraignment, and the plaintiff who reported the incident is available for comment from custody through counsel. To request an interview, contact info@veenfirm.com or (510) 560-6731.

Case Information

Civil case: Sahagun Lopez, et al. v. City and County of San Francisco, et al. (N.D. Cal., San Francisco Division).

Criminal matter: People v. Nanette Musto; battery (PC 242) and assault by a public officer (PC 149); Court Number 26016092; arraignment July 14, 2026, Department 17, Hall of Justice.
Counsel: Elizabeth Bertolino (Bertolino Law, PC); Anthony Label and Molly Ryan (The Veen Firm, LLP).

About The Veen Firm, LLP
For more than 50 years, The Veen Firm has represented individuals in catastrophic injury and civil rights cases against institutional defendants. Learn more at veenfirm.com.

About Bertolino Law, PC
A San Francisco civil rights and personal injury firm representing individuals in cases involving constitutional violations, gender-based violence, and institutional misconduct. Learn more at bertolinolawfirm.com.

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