SerpApi.Org
Newly hired Sausalito City Manager Elaine Forbes made her first court appearance Tuesday after prosecutors charged her in connection with breaking into multiple yachts this past weekend in the San Francisco Bay-area city.
The 53-year-old Forbes faces four misdemeanor charges: petty theft, two counts of "unauthorized lodging" on separate boats and one count of prowling at the Sausalito Yacht Harbor on Saturday morning.
Forbes is the former director of the Port of San Francisco and had been working as the manager only since July 1.
Two days before her arrest, the City Council placed Forbes on a two-month leave of absence. The following day, she was reported missing. Sheriff's deputies arrested Forbes early Saturday morning amid her allegedly manipulating the controls of a 66-foot-long yacht at the marina "as if she was attempting to steal the vessel."
The owner of another boat, Andy Cunningham, said she returned to find her vessel to find it ransacked.
"She took all my clothes and tried them on. They were inside out," Cunningham told Bay Area ABC 7. "There was a jar of maraschino cherries she dumped into a shoebox. She had drunk a lot of alcohol on the boat, about four bottles of our wine."
Forbes' family said she was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time of the alleged incidents.
Sam Singer, the family spokesperson, released a statement on behalf of Forbes, saying family members "believed that she was on a vessel she owned." The statement obtained by multiple local media outlets states she "regrets and apologizes for any and all behavior she exhibited during her personal mental health crisis."
The city of Sausalito released a statement Monday saying, "Our thoughts are with Elaine and her family. She remains on a leave of absence while we evaluate the facts surrounding the matter."
The judge delayed her arraignment to Wednesday, so her public defender could attend in person.
