in this one. >> john: it's a lion's roar. >> noah: i mean, that is ridiculous. >> mary: yeah. i have to applaud. he gave him the angle and zverev found the reply. >> noah: missed that one. >> noah: right back to his bread and butter, zverev gets the insurance rate, and he'll serve for a spot in the finals when we come back. welcome to roland-garros. ♪ ♪ (♪♪) (♪♪) (luke) this will be a gold mine of local intel. (marci) so, tell us about this corn festival. (♪♪) (stylist) oooh you got your corn pudding... (marci) so...is it safe around here? (stylist) sometimes. [luke gasping] (marci) no eyebrows? (luke) think of how light it'll feel in the summer. we gotta run. eleven thousand more neighborhoods to go! (vo) ding dong! homes-dot-com. >> noah: sascha zverev trying to reach second grand slam final, lost in 2020 at the u.s. open. he is one game away, has been serving almost like a cyborg from his second set on. >> john: what a bummer for casper ruud, though. trying to make the breakthrough, win a slam, as zverev is. but things were looking so good. it's just gone completely downhill. first set he looked like he could win the whole thing. >> noah: zverev now, 18 aces, has just turned it up to a different level. ruud hitting his spots this that first set, cited the stomach issues since then, hasn't quite been the same. two points away. >> noah: perfect way to end it. sascha zverev avenging his loss from a year ago against casper ruud, and is into his first roll roland-garros final. not shaking hands because he doesn't feel well. doesn't want to give it to zverev. that's classy from casper ruud. >> won the sportsmanship award in 2022, perfect example right there. but in his fourth straight semifinal, zverev finally gets through. so our final is set. we had some big names into the semis after novak djokovic was forced to withdraw. ruud got through. >> and it's down to two. >> noah: zverev and alcaraz, three and four in this draw. alcaraz looking for his third grand slam, zverev still in search of number one. we'll have all the action, men's final sunday at 9:00 a.m. eastern on nbc and peacock. we'll also be back tomorrow for iga swiatek with her third straight title, taking on paolini. it begins at 9:00 a.m. on nbc and peacock. john mcenroe, i'm noah eagle, we'll see you tomorrow from women's final action from roland-garros. magaly: i definitely don't want someone else to have to go through what i did. bigad: saade is a two time cancer survivor. she underwent radiation and ultimately a double mastectomy. here in san francisco, female firefighters have a six times higher rate of breast cancer than the national average. the department has lost more than 300 firefighters to cancer over the past 20 years. ongoing exposure to smoke and other chemicals is so serious the world health organization now classifies firefighting as an actual carcinogen. and in recent years, studies have also shown the jackets and pants firefighters rely on to stay safe during emergencies are made with materials proven to cause cancer. magaly: to put something in the equipment to people who are already there to risk their life for you seems really malicious. bigad: these so-called pfas chemicals help clothing repel flammable liquids and resist extreme heat, but researchers say the compounds can be harmful when absorbed through the skin. the level of exposure for firefighters and exact health risks are still being studied. bigad: what is it like knowing that the very thing that's supposed to protect you may actually have been part of the reason you got cancer? magaly: you know, we can't stop the job from being dangerous. we can't not run into fires, but we can change the future. we can make it so that someone else doesn't have to go through this. male: we're tired and we're dying. bigad: on the steps of san francisco city hall, behind a mound of uniforms, firefighters and lawmakers recently announced plans to enact a first-in-the-nation ban on firefighter clothing made with pfas. those uniforms, known as turnouts, would need to be replaced over the next two years. aaron peskin: fundamentally, what's at stake is people's lives. bigad: san francisco supervisor aaron peskin authored the legislation. he says while outfitting an entire department won't be cheap, doing nothing could force the city to pay an even higher price. aaron: the approximately $10 million it will cost is so small compared to a human life. it's so small compared to the cost of healthcare. it's so small compared to the cost of settling lawsuits. it is morally right and it's financially right. bigad: but alternative gear that doesn't use pfas still isn't widely available, even though the potential health hazards have been known for years. critics, including the firefighters union, argue that's because industry standards released by the national fire protection association continue to be written in a way that favor the use of pfas chemicals by including certain requirements that can't easily be met using other materials. the nfpa tells us it doesn't create or dictate standards, but instead relies on expert volunteers, including many representatives of the firefighting community. the nfpa and the firefighters union remain locked in a heated lawsuit about what the standards should say. we contacted some of the largest manufacturers of firefighter gear to understand why pfas continues to be used. only viking responded, telling us there's been a lack of pfas-free fabrics approved by the nfpa, but says it's now testing alternative materials and plans to release a new line of gear by the end of the year, manufactured without pfas. at least two other companies, fire dex and lion, are already advertising pfas-free uniforms that are now being tested at fire departments across five cities, including san francisco, where firefighters say so far the gear is working. bryan ormond: we don't want to just trade one hazard for another. so, we'll burn the first one. bigad: chemist bryan ormond is trying to find out if those alternatives will be safer long term. at his lab at nc state university in raleigh, he and his team are testing fabrics for reliability. bryan: there's a little bit of char right here. bigad: so far, he says, his research has shown removing pfas can make uniforms less breathable and more flammable. bryan: we're introducing a potential hazard for flammability on the fire scene where firefighters didn't have that before. bigad: but he cautions what he's seeing in the lab could differ from what firefighters might experience on the front lines. regardless, first responders across the country continue to suit up. bigad: so, even with the risks, they're still willing to put on the uniform. magaly: in a heartbeat. it's not a choice when we have to do our job, it's our job. bigad: but lieutenant saade is concerned about her trainees, who were just issued the same type of standard clothing she's worn for decades. her fight for safer gear, she says, is for them, so firefighters can focus on saving lives instead of worrying about their own. magaly: this would affect the future, and if it changes, and legislation goes forward, then, yeah, then it was all worth it. bigad: with the investigative unit, i'm bigad shaban. candice: if approved, the ban on fire gear made with pfas will go into effect in two years. coming up, was an accused rapist let off the hook? prosecutors offered a plea deal despite a confession and an apology, we investigate. candice: a peninsula woman says her alleged rapist was let off the hook too easily, taking a plea deal and serving no additional jail time, and now her trust in the legal system is shattered. investigative reporter hilda gutierrez looks at how often defendants charged with certain sex crimes take plea deals. hilda gutierrez: this was originally brought as a rape case that police say included a videotaped confession and an apology note by the defendant, so the victim wonders why prosecutors offered him a deal that leaves him with no sex crime on his record, and says she was not consulted. hilda: carrie banks grew up believing in the justice system. she comes from a law enforcement family. her father and uncle worked for the belmont police department. carrie: and i grew up knowing that if you did wrong, you'd get in trouble, and the police would help you, and the police did. hilda: but she says her trust was shattered when she was raped. carrie: but i knew, like, the process would work, at least i thought. hilda: it was the summer of 2021. banks, a mother of two, was at a local piano bar in san carlos, where she recalls talking to an acquaintance she had met the year before. at some point, she said she realized she had enough to drink and walked outside with a friend to order a right shared home. the acquaintance followed them. carrie: and he comes up to the bench we're waiting on, and starts kissing on me, again, like, similar to the year prior, and my buddy is like, "hey, hey, hey," and when he does say that, the guy runs off. hilda: banks says her friend helped her get home and snapped this photo of her in bed before leaving her apartment. carrie: clearly had enough, so pass out from drinking. hilda: when banks woke up, she says the acquaintance, fernando altuna mendoza, was standing by her bed. carrie: he's there, and i'm like, "what are you doing, you know, get out of here, get out of here," and i remember getting up, chasing him out, and i really truly believed i had stopped him. and i saw on my phone, all the, you know, missed calls through instagram. hilda: screenshots show altuna mendoza tried to reach her in the middle of the night before entering her apartment. banks says she reported the incident to the san mateo sheriff's office and obtained this restraining order. carrie: you don't have the right to come into my house. i've never invited you to my house. this is, you know, this is not okay. hilda: banks says it was the sheriff who, upon questioning altuna mendoza a week later, let her in on what really happened that night. according to the sheriff's report, altuna mendoza wrote an apology note that in part read, "i shouldn't have opened your door and gone into bed with you." in the narrative, altuna mendoza also agreed that having sex with someone who was too intoxicated to consent is rape. he was booked and charged with two felony counts of rape and sexual penetration with a foreign object. hilda: in november of last year, banks says she was ready to go to trial, but as she sat in this court, she was told the defendant was ready to enter a last-minute plea deal for false imprisonment, a charge she had never heard of before, and wasn't even a sex crime. carrie: and i begged her to please not do this, that i was ready. i said i would rather lose on the stand than to let him get away with false imprisonment, which meant nothing. shin-mee chang: even though we were ready to go to trial on that day, we decided to offer some charges that were felonious but did not carry sex registration. hilda: shin-mee chang was not the prosecutor in banks's case, but supervises the sex assault unit within the san mateo county da's office. we asked why they accepted a plea down when the sheriff's report states they had a taped confession. shin-mee: the trial deputy, after having listened to it, decided that there were some issues because of the tone of the conversation. hilda: banks says the prosecutor never mentioned the confession tape or its tone. chang says the timing of the plea was unfortunate, and in hindsight wishes they would have asked for a continuance to consult with banks and give her time to process it. we reached out to altuna mendoza and his attorney, but never heard back. it turns out the plea agreement in banks's case is not an isolated one. nbc bay area's investigative unit reviewed records for rape and sexual battery cases from the san mateo sheriff's office dating back to 2018. through public records request, we obtained information on 60 cases and cross referenced their original charges with the final outcome. we found 32% of the cases were either rejected by the da's office or later dismissed; 11% are ongoing; and about half, only 57%, were resolved. of the 31 cases where the da charged the defendant with a sex crime, 19 resulted in a sex crime conviction; four were convicted of a sex crime by jury; but in eight cases, 26% of the time, the defendant negotiated a non-sex related plea deal. shin-mee: sometimes the facts or the witness statements change after we file the case, and if our case is weaker than we originally assessed it to be, then we are going to enter into negotiations with defense. hilda: but a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of banks's case told us, "we expected a harsher sentence. this was a no fail case, meaning everything was put together with a legal confession in a box and ribbon for them to prosecute accordingly." the sheriff's office has not released a confession tape to the investigative unit or to banks, but told us, "as the charging entity, the district attorney's office determines the strength of a case for the purposes of prosecution." carrie: you know, they just kept saying to me, "well, you know, this stuff doesn't happen," and all i could keep looking at them and saying, "but why did it happen to me?" like, why didn't i matter? hilda: altuna mendoza only spent five days in jail, but was put on probation and told to abstain from alcohol and drugs. two months ago, he was caught driving under the influence and is now serving six months in jail for violating his probation. that's more time than he ever served in connection with the banks case. banks is now working with civil rights attorney aaron zisser, who's reached out to the department of justice, citing our findings and requesting a practice investigation into the san mateo county da's office. with the investigative unit, i'm hilda gutierrez. candice: coming up, bart spent millions of dollars to buy new lights, but never installed them. we investigate next. candice: it's not a joke, but a legitimate question, how long does it take for bart to change a lightbulb? bart promised to install brighter lights in the subway tunnel under san francisco, but six years have gone by and those lights haven't been installed. investigative reporter jaxon van derbeken digs into what's supposed to be a dramatic safety improvement both for passengers and workers. jaxon van derbeken: this is bart's subway tunnel under san francisco. you can see it's quite a dark space, so dark that bart awarded a $12 million contract back in 2018 to make it much brighter. javed khan: so, we are going up considerably on the lighting. jaxon: then bart project manager, javed khan, pitched the plan to install more than 2,100 new lights, twice as many as bart had in the tunnel, saying it would bring ten times more light into the subway, and bring the lighting up to current code, so train operators could see better and passengers could evacuate more quickly during an emergency. javed: for emergency egress, you wanna be able to see the walkway and find the exit. jaxon: but today, six years later, bart has yet to install those lights, so what happened? bart inspector general, claudette biemeret, says the problem goes back to 2020, two years after the lighting contract was approved, when a whistleblower complained that bart was not getting its money's worth. claudette biemeret: it didn't meet the standards of the specifications that they set out. jaxon: the inspector general confirms the new lights were not as bright as bart wanted, and wouldn't last as long as the contract specified, still, bart liked them because they would be easy to install and lower projected maintenance costs. after the inspector general's office got involved, bart fired the lighting contractor and settled with them for $2.4 million, and vowed to install all 2,182 fixtures itself. this video we took in the subway shows that another four years later, those old, dim, fluorescent fixtures still line the tunnel, and those new lights bart promised to install? most are in storage with time running out on their warranties. claudette: that's wasteful, yeah, you want to make sure that you're getting the best use out of your purchases. jaxon: bart board member debora allen, a frequent critic of bart management, has another word for it. debora: sometimes i do look at some of these things and say, "gosh, you know, that's pretty-- that could be pretty absurd." i can see how the public would say that. jaxon: we reached out to bart, they wouldn't answer any specific questions about what's going on with the lighting, saying only that they're reviewing the inspector general's findings, and the agency acknowledges the procurement process did not meet our high standards, and we will work to do better in the future. during a recent audit committee meeting, bart deputy general manager, michael jones, suggested the audit process itself is to blame for all the delays, but quickly added-- michael jones: there's multiple reasons why that project was not completed at, you know, at that time and at this point in time. debora: okay, well, i'd love to know all the other reasons. jaxon: bart officials now say they've installed roughly 30% of the lights they bought for san francisco, mostly in the berkeley hills tunnel. but when allen asked whether any of the uninstalled lights are still under warranty... debora: is it gone? i mean, we're past the warranty? female: i really don't know. jaxon: it's not clear how long it will take for bart to finish installing the replacement lights in san francisco. back in 2018, bart predicted it would take a dedicated contractor two years, because crews can only work during a four-hour window while the system is down overnight. jaxon van derbeken, nbc bay area news. candice: now, if you have a story for our investigative unit, just call 888-996-tips, or go to our website, nbcbayarea.com/investigations. i'm candice nguyen, thanks for watching nbc bay area, where we investigate. a risk. we're going to show you the work being done in the south bay. good afternoon everyone. i'm terry mcsweeney. welcome to nbc bay area news at 4:30. our

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