OAKLAND — Renia Webb has a story to tell, but its most twisted, off-putting elements would’ve probably dampened the vibes at her fledgling mayoral campaign’s Dec. 10 kickoff.
So instead, Webb told the crowd of supporters only how the tale had begun, on an evening exactly two years prior, when she was chief of staff to then-newly-elected Mayor Sheng Thao. It’s an anecdote that has boosted the credibility of Webb’s early campaign to be the next mayor.
Her life changed, she said, when a federal agent approached her in San Francisco to warn that the soon-to-be mayor’s administration was already under investigation.
“It just hit me like a ton of bricks because,” Webb told the room, “I remember my exact words: ‘I don’t know anything about that.’ And that federal agent told me, ‘I know you don’t — and as long as you keep your nose clean, you’re going to be OK.’”
Webb has repeated the anecdote widely, especially after Thao, her romantic partner Andre Jones and two businessmen were charged with felonies last month for alleged bribes the now-ex-mayor is accused of accepting before the 2022 election.
In Webb’s full telling of the story, what follows the run-in with the federal agent is a grim, at times unsettling tale of how she was intimidated, nearly poisoned and even, in bizarre fashion, urinated on by unknown attackers whom she believes are connected to her former boss.
But the veracity of Webb’s claims is in question, including the opening act. The man Webb describes as a federal agent denies he’s ever been one. In an interview and follow-up statement, he said he’s never met or even heard of Webb.
The man, a father of four and a California Highway Patrol officer serving in a jurisdiction 115 miles to the north, said he hasn’t been assigned to the Bay Area in his career. And he was disturbed to learn that he’s a central character in Webb’s supposed memories.
Webb had provided this news organization with the man’s first name and cell phone number. Asked this week why the man had denied knowing her, Webb responded, “How would I have this man’s number if he didn’t give it to me?”
The apparent identity mix-up is a key point of confusion in a detailed and often perplexing set of allegations that Webb is lodging publicly against Jones and Thao.
Her telling of this longer version of events is precise and deliberate, but beyond a few police reports she filed there’s little available evidence to suggest they took place how Webb describes them.
Many parts of the story are difficult to corroborate, including a moment when federal agents surprised Webb and her son at a hospital to draw their blood with the staff’s permission or when a man showed up at her home impersonating an Alameda police sergeant.
The details may come to overshadow Webb’s candidacy in the April 15 special election, in which she is attempting to bill herself as a truth-teller about Thao who can defeat the establishment choice and heavy favorite to win the race, retired East Bay Congresswoman Barbara Lee.
Attorneys for Thao and Jones did not respond to numerous requests for comment on Webb’s allegations.
Privately, former officials who worked for Thao and other city officials have attempted to discredit Webb’s allegations, which have quietly raised eyebrows and skepticism around the town’s political circles for some time.
Webb, however, voluntarily left on bad terms before Thao even took office as mayor in January 2023. An Oakland native with experience in local politics, Webb currently works in smaller learning groups with first-graders at Crocker Highlands Elementary School, a position funded by the school’s Parent Teacher Association.
Emails shared with this news organization indicate that after her exit from Thao’s team, Webb did arrange a meeting with a special agent in the FBI’s Oakland field office in early 2023.
But it’s unclear if what she told investigators played any role in the indictments against Thao, Jones or father-son business duo David and Andy Duong — the alleged conspirators in what federal prosecutors call a secret bribery scheme to influence Oakland’s politics.
The charges against the four defendants do not mention Webb. At a Jan. 17 news conference, Assistant U.S. Attorney of Northern California Patrick Robbins declined to comment on any witnesses interviewed by investigators.
In the aftermath of the indictments, local television news outlets have aired some of Webb’s claims against Thao and Jones, focusing on how her alleged meeting with the federal agent may line up with the timeline of pre-election bribery recently described by prosecutors.
But the reports do not contain any of the more sordid details that Webb hasn’t hesitated to share publicly — claims that could damage her credibility in the eyes of some observers. In an interview last month with this news organization, Webb laid out the full narrative.
“I just have a crazy memory,” she said at one point. “I almost have a photographic memory. I think you can gather (that) just from talking to me.”
The federal agent, as Webb describes him, had an intimate knowledge of Webb’s family members and her dynamic with Thao. He seemed to be aware, she said, that people tied to the mayor-elect had recently broken into Webb’s home and left a knife on the counter. His warnings, she said, would prove prescient.
A day after her run-in with the agent, Webb recalls Jones begging her to come over with her son for a play date. While there, she said, Jones suddenly panicked and yelled when his daughter picked up a cup of orange juice intended for Webb’s son.
When, days later, her son fell sick, Webb claims that Jones reacted with wide-eyed shock and worry. She said it convinced her that Jones had attempted to poison them.
Webb said she called federal agents for help and was told to head to the local Kaiser hospital, where she claims the feds themselves intervened with hospital staff and drew blood from Webb and her son.
Webb said she hasn’t heard anything else from the feds about the blood sample, but the ordeal was traumatizing enough to rapidly begin deteriorating her relationship with Thao.
On Dec. 19, Webb angrily emailed Thao, accusing Jones of abuse. Eleven days later, she accused the mayor-elect of having something to do with Webb’s car, a Dodge Dart, being stolen and vandalized.
Rev. Damita Davis-Howard, an East Oakland pastor who Webb said had a close relationship with her, urged her on a call to “stop lying” and check herself into a hospital or risk losing her job, accusing her of having a mental health episode, Webb said.
“I’ve never had mental-health issues a day in my life,” Webb said in an interview. “I’m not a liar; I have a crazy-ass memory.” Davis-Howard declined to comment.
On New Year’s Eve, three weeks after the fateful meeting with the federal agent, Webb resigned as chief of staff for Thao’s campaign. That’s when, Webb says, the situation became more threatening.
After a burglary at their West Oakland home led Webb and her son to decamp to a Singleton Avenue home in Alameda, “loud footsteps” in the attic led her to call the police several times between Jan. 2 and Jan. 3 — only for responding officers to find no intruders.
The last of these is a bizarre assault that Webb said she encountered when returning to the home to gather some belongings — an intruder urinating on her from the ceiling when she sat down in the restroom.
Webb said she lost her trust in the local authorities altogether when a man of a totally different ethnicity and appearance showed up at her home, impersonating a kindly Alameda police sergeant who had taken her report a couple of days prior.
But the mayoral candidate, who has enjoyed a run of positive momentum for her mayoral campaign in the days since the indictments, maintains no ill will toward Thao, whom she believes is primarily a victim of Jones’ alleged abuse — just as Webb also describes herself.
“I’m still sad about Sheng,” Webb said. “I love that girl, I used to treat her like a little sister. … I really think she could’ve been a good mayor had she not been corrupted a long time ago.”
Staff writer Jakob Rodgers contributed reporting.
Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.