Man who violently assaulted female FBI employee steps from Bureau’s SF HQ found not competent to stand trial
A man who violently assaulted a female FBI employee on the street near the Bureau’s San Francisco office – the latest in a string of attacks he has committed on Bay Area women – has been found not competent to stand trial by a federal judge one day after a hearing held to determine his capacity.
Akal Allen was indicted on a charge of ‘felony assault on a federal employee inflicting bodily injury’.
“The court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that Allen lacks a rational understanding of the proceedings against him and is unable to consult with his lawyers in a meaningful fashion, such that he is not competent to stand trial,” wrote U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in an order issued today.
Allen’s attorney and a psychiatrist took the view that he was not competent. Allen himself disagreed and maintained that he was competent which caused the judge to hold the hearing to resolve the conflict.
During the hearing, the bulk of which was held in-camera, the court heard from Dr John Chamberlain who “credibly testified that Allen suffers from an unspecified schizophrenia disorder that is presently interfering with his ability to understand the charges against him and communicate meaningfully with counsel.”
“The court also conducted an under-seal colloquy with Allen,” Chhabria continued, “in which his responses to questions were mostly nonsensical and unrelated to the topics of inquiry.”
Bureau of Prisons officials have up to four months to demonstrate that there is good chance that Allen will return to competence in the near term. If they are unable to do so then he will be committed indefinitely to a hospital facility.
An earlier analysis of Allen’s “100-page rap sheet” uncovered a breathtaking catalog of violent and sexual crime against women in and around San Francisco – and an equally remarkable catalog of lenient treatment given him by judges and prosecutors.
It is an open question whether today’s order will herald what might become, in effect, a further indulgent disposal which could lead to Allen returning to city streets relatively quickly.
According to an affidavit supplied to the court, Allen approached his victim on the early evening of Friday June 8 2023 and “without provocation” punched her in the face, immediately breaking her nose.
He struck her one more time before fleeing, later attacking other pedestrians.
The woman – a crisis management specialist working for the FBI’s counter terrorism branch – had left the Phillip Burton Federal Building at 6:35pm and begun walking west on Turk Street and then north on Polk Street. Even though she had left the office, the affidavit explained, she was on call.
Video footage showed Allen leaving his residence on O’Farrell Street at about the same time. Moments later he happened across the victim on Polk Street, blocking her way and yelling angrily at her. The woman attempted to step around Allen only for him to step in front of her again and launch the assault.
Passers-by came to the victim’s aid and she was transported to an emergency department nearby. One week later she was rushed back to the ER suffering from partial facial paralysis, jaw-tightening, and being unable to keep her eyes open – later diagnosed as post-concussion syndrome due to the assault.
After the attack, Allen continued walking and was later seen attempting to attack a man who was able to escape. As he walked he yelled at passers-by. He threatened to assault a witness (calling her a “bitch”) and threw a rock at both her and another witness.
At an earlier hearing a magistrate judge was told that Allen’s rap sheet “is over 100 pages long and he has convictions for battery, assault, sex crimes, vandalism, and drugs, as well as countless arrests and contacts with law enforcement.”
In June 2011 Allen was charged in Solano county with six felonies after he repeatedly sexually assaulted a developmentally disabled 21 year old woman who the District Attorney said had “the mentality of a child.”
He met his victim on the street, led her to an abandoned house in Vallejo and had sex with her three times.
“[The victim] did not want it to happen, was unable to push the larger defendant away from her, was choked severely during the incident and was in pain in both her anus and the vagina afterwards,” a deputy district attorney wrote.
“At some point…the defendant punched [her].”
Allen pleaded guilty to one count of ‘unlawful sexual intercourse’ and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
In 2014 Allen broke in to an Alamo Square home where two girls, age 12 and 14, were alone. The 14 year old encountered Allen in the family bathroom and was asked by him to come inside. She and her younger sister retreated to a room with a lock and immediately called her mom and the police.
Allen pleaded ‘no contest’ to one misdemeanor count of aggravated trespass and guilty to one felony count of ‘resisting an executive officer’. A felony burglary charge was dismissed. He was sentenced to 44 days time served.
In May 2019 Allen was charged with nine felony sex crimes after walking in to a laundromat, stripping, masturbating in front of a series of women doing their laundry, including one folding clothes with her child, and then rubbing his erect penis on the buttocks of another woman before she could escape.
On June 17 2019 Allen was allowed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure. The rest of the charges were dismissed. He was sentenced to six months in county jail.
In what might be seen as an unsurprising turn of events, Allen began picking up arrests again in 2020: in Oakland in November 2020 for assault with a deadly weapon and in San Francisco in June 2022, for assault with a deadly weapon, and December 2022 for assault and battery.
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