San Francisco Public Defender

More police misconduct allegations in SF

The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office today released surveillance footage that attorneys there say contradicts a police report explaining why an officer pushed and then handcuffed a Richmond district shop owner outside his store.

According to the public defender’s office, police were called to the store to investigate an argument between two men outside of Charles Tran’s store. Tran was not involved in the altercation. The footage shows Tran speaking with an officer before the officer pushes him, handcuffs him, pushes him against the wall, and forces him to sit on the sidewalk by pulling his legs out from under him.

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FILED UNDER: Police, Jeff Adachi, San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco Public Defender

May 27, 2011 | 5:19 PM | By Ali Winston

34 more cases dropped in wake of SFPD scandal; total now 119

Twenty-six more felony cases involving Mission Station plainclothes officers were dropped today by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon as Public Defender Jeff Adachi revealed yet another video appearing to show discrepancies between police reports and actual events. Matt Gonzalez, the chief attorney for the Public Defender’s office, accused Mission Station plainclothes officers of removing items that haven’t been accounted for from the home of Harvey Salazar, whose drug possession charge was among those dismissed today.

In total, 14 officers from the Mission and Southern stations have been accused by the Public Defender’s office of falsifying evidence, entering and searching residences without a warrant, and taking valuable property from citizens without booking it into evidence. According to Erica Derryck, a spokesperson for the District Attorney, 34 cases involving Mission officers under investigation have been dropped along with 85 cases involving officers from Southern station’s plainclothes unit.

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FILED UNDER: Police, Jeff Adachi, Mission Station, San Francisco, San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco Public Defender

March 31, 2011 | 6:40 PM | By Ali Winston

Video overturns yet another SFPD arrest: Adachi & Godown clash in the press

Just when the furor over San Francisco Police officers busting flophouse residents without warrants was fading away, Public Defender Jeff Adachi yesterday revealed a new video of another allegedly illegal search and arrest, this time in the Richmond District. The video prompted San Francisco Judge Gerardo Sandoval to dismiss marijuana sales charges against the arrested man, who was found with a glass jar full of marijuana and a medical marijuana patient card. The officers had allegedly forced their way into his apartment without consent, which is documented on the video posted above.

Interim Police Chief Jeff Godown did not take warmly to Adachi going public with the latest video and dropped case. The former LAPD officer fired back at a press conference, claiming SFPD is “under attack every day” by Adachi, who would do better to keep such misconduct allegations between his office and SFPD.

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FILED UNDER: Courts, Jeff Adachi, Jeff Godown, San Francisco, San Francisco Police Deparment, San Francisco Public Defender

March 8, 2011 | 6:57 PM | By Ali Winston

Who’s fit to investigate the SFPD civil rights scandal?

SF Public Defender

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi

The San Francisco Police Department is facing its biggest scandal in years after Public Defender Jeff Adachi released videos last week that allegedly show plainclothes narcotics officers repeatedly busting into a SoMa residential hotel without a warrant. The recordings were captured by security cameras mounted inside the Henry Hotel at 106 Sixth Street.

Seemingly every day, a new video pops up. On Monday, Adachi released videos of a December 2 narcotics arrest. The Public Defender claims the 29-year-old man inside the targeted room was set up by officers and then charged with possession of cocaine. Charges were later dropped in this and thirteen additional cases following the release of the videos. Additionally, thousands of cases involving eight officers from the Southern District’s plainclothes squad may be called into question because of the footage and what it purportedly depicts.

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FILED UNDER: Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation, George Gascon, Kamala Harris, narcotics, San Francisco, San Francisco District Attorney, San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco Public Defender, scandal, Southern District

January 27, 2011 | 6:48 PM | By Ali Winston

Report: SF Public Defender wins 70 percent of murder trials

SF Public Defender

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi

Aside from having one of the lowest arrest rates for murder in the country, San Francisco rarely sees convictions in murder cases that actually do go to trial. According to Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s year-end report for 2010, 70 percent of all murder trials result in acquittals, hung juries , or mixed verdicts. In addition to the Public Defender’s success in 10 homicide trials, two other murder cases were overturned on appeal.

There were 20 arrests for murder in 2010 up to the last week in December. There were 33 homicide arrests in both 2009 and 2008. San Francisco saw 50, 45 and 97 murders in those years, respectively.

Overall, 48 percent of all trials handled by Adachi’s office resulted in no conviction, up from 38.5 percent two years ago. Public defenders won an astonishing 79 percent of the 62 felony trials they pursued, and 66 percent of the 106 misdemeanor cases they tried.

Yet another challenge for newly-minted District Attorney George Gascon.

FILED UNDER: Courts, San Francisco, San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco Public Defender

January 21, 2011 | 5:17 PM | By Ali Winston

SFPD’s Robbery abatement: necessary policing or entrapment?

Ali Winston

San Francisco Police question a man in the Mission District

Decoys are big at 850 Bryant. For at least three decades, the San Francisco Police Department has run Robbery Apprehension Teams (colloquially known as RATs) to suppress crime, sending plainclothes officers into the street to draw out would-be robbers. The San Francisco Police Department says these operations are essential to reducing crime – and both robberies and robbery arrests declined 4 and 18 percent, according to late December SFPD Compstat figures.

However, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi is calling RAT a rat, alleging that SFPD’s sting operations amount to entrapment.

Rebecca Young and Robert Dunlap have been in charge of the Public Defender’s Felony unit for three years. Their attorneys represent anywhere from 40 to 50 defendants annually in RAT cases. From Young’s standpoint, the decoy undercover officers are manufacturing crime that otherwise would not take place.

“What they’re doing is creating opportunities for vulnerable, poor, disenfranchised people to engage in activity they wouldn’t otherwise engage in,” said Young. “It’s not random, it’s provocative and a form of entrapment.”

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