Diana Peng
Introduction
Diana Peng, a 42-year-old San Francisco woman at the center of a yearlong saga over a $4.4 million Sea Cliff mansion, was charged with firearms, narcotics and animal-neglect offenses by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office after police executed a search warrant at the disputed home and found seven neglected dogs, methamphetamine and a revolver . District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced the charges on Tuesday, November 10, 2026: four felonies and four misdemeanors against Peng, who is prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition because of prior felony convictions . Peng pleaded not guilty and was released by a judge over the opposition-free protest of neighbors, on conditions including staying away from the mansion, wearing an ankle monitor and attending weekly Narcotics Anonymous meetings .
Background Information
The charges arise from the home at 250 32nd Avenue in Sea Cliff, one of San Francisco’s most affluent neighborhoods, which neighbors say was abandoned by its owner around 2020 before roughly a dozen people began showing up and some moved in . The property’s legitimate deed, as investigators describe it, belongs to Wei Wang, an absentee owner based in China who has struggled to enter the United States to secure the home and is years behind on taxes . The city attorney’s office has sued Peng and another alleged squatter, Brandon Aadee, over allegations they used forged and altered deeds to claim the property and sell it for profit — allegations that remain pending in that civil suit, and that the district attorney did not charge criminally . Peng herself was previously convicted of felony perjury in San Mateo County in March 2008 and, in 2012, pleaded to identity theft and commercial burglary in a forgery-and-ID case, serving seven months .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged; not convicted. The account below comes from the San Francisco District Attorney’s release and from coverage by the New York Post and the San Francisco Standard. Peng has pleaded not guilty, is presumed innocent, and has not been tried; the forged-deed allegations live in a pending civil lawsuit and were expressly not filed as criminal charges .
According to court documents cited by the district attorney, Peng was arrested on November 6, 2026 while in possession of a .38-caliber revolver along with additional rounds of both .38-caliber and 9mm ammunition — possession barred by her prior felony convictions — and was found in possession of methamphetamine and related paraphernalia . The November 10 complaint charged four felonies: unlawful possession of a controlled substance with a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon, and two counts of possession of ammunition by a felon; the four misdemeanors are animal neglect, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of methamphetamine, and driving when her license privilege was suspended or revoked . Police Chief Derrick Lew said officers seized “numerous items” including the firearm with a magazine and additional ammunition, and found seven dogs being neglected inside the home; Animal Care and Control took custody of them . The Post reported the animals were two adult pit bulls, four puppies and a 4-month-old dog, which a neighbor said residents had repeatedly reported over the sounds of their distress .
Assistant District Attorney Victoria Robinson said the “sheer amount” of ammunition found in the search indicated an “increasing level of criminality” . Notably, police had included suspected fraud among the charges at the time of Peng’s arrest, but the district attorney’s filed case does not include any fraud count — the deed-forgery allegations remain the city attorney’s civil suit against Peng and Aadee . Peng pleaded not guilty at her November 10 arraignment, and was released the same afternoon: under California law she cannot be detained pending trial for the nonviolent offenses charged, and the judge imposed conditions — a stay-away from the 32nd Avenue home (reported as 150 feet by the Standard and 150 yards by the Post), drug testing, weekly Narcotics Anonymous attendance, an ankle monitor, and a ban on possessing firearms or animals . Her attorney told the court Peng works as a legal assistant earning about $3,000 a month, which she uses to support her mother .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The Post’s own headline cast her as “San Francisco’s squatter queen smashed with charges after cops make horrifying discovery in $4M mansion” — the tabloid framing of a saga neighbors had lived with for a year . Neighbors who had complained about the house for more than a year — unwelcome activity at all hours, flooding from a damaged water main, reports of stolen property, and fears of intruders — described the search’s findings as long-feared confirmation . Next-door neighbor Whitney Lynn called the discovery of a firearm, ammunition, narcotics and neglected animals inside the house “a worst nightmare realized,” and said that before the stay-away order “there was a real possibility that I would be leaving this courtroom, and Diana Peng would be back in this house this evening, sleeping next to my kids again with guns and ammunition and drugs” . Another resident, Cameron Will, said neighbors were disappointed prosecutors did not charge fraud, and predicted “the whole street” expected Peng to return and try to remove the boards securing the house; he said neighbors may seek restraining orders . Jenkins credited residents who “committed themselves” to keeping law enforcement informed, saying their persistence produced the warrant behind the charges, and Lew acknowledged officers had investigated activity at the home “for months” . After the search the property was boarded up with “No Trespassing” signs, posted by police with help from the fire department to deter entry .
Current Status
Peng has pleaded not guilty to all eight counts and was released on the judge’s conditions on November 10, 2026, the day of her arraignment at the Hall of Justice . The district attorney’s office says the firearms-narcotics case remains an active investigation, separate from the wider dispute over the property’s ownership, and the Post reported that inquiry is ongoing . The case is at the charging stage only: no trial has occurred, no conviction has been entered, and the fraud allegations connected to the house exist only in the city attorney’s pending civil lawsuit, which the district attorney declined to mirror criminally . The city last month put the house up for auction in an effort to recoup unpaid taxes, a step in the ownership fight that proceeds independently of Peng’s criminal case .
Impact on Their Career/Life
The new charges land on a record that already made Peng a prohibited possessor: her 2008 felony-perjury conviction in San Mateo County carried three years’ probation and 90 days in jail, and her 2012 plea to identity theft and commercial burglary in a forgery case put her behind bars for seven months — the convictions that now bar her from firearms, ammunition and, per the judge’s order, animals . An ankle monitor, a stay-away from the house at the center of her public notoriety, drug testing and weekly Narcotics Anonymous now govern her daily life while she awaits trial on the eight counts . The seven dogs remain in Animal Care and Control custody, and the boarded-up mansion — its ownership still contested in the city’s civil suit against Peng and Aadee — sits behind “No Trespassing” signs as the broader saga works its way through separate legal tracks .
Sources
- NY Post, “Suspected SF Sea Cliff squatter facing gun, drug charges,” November 11, 2026 — source
- @nypost on X, “San Francisco’s squatter queen smashed with charges after cops make horrifying discovery in $4M mansion,” November 11, 2026 — source
- San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, “Woman charged with firearms, narcotics, and animal neglect offenses following search of Richmond District home,” November 10, 2026 — source
- San Francisco Standard (George Kelly), “Alleged Sea Cliff squatter charged with drug and gun possession, animal neglect after raid,” November 10, 2026 — source