The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives people accused of a crime the right to counsel. But when does this right become a blank check for the Public Defender’s Office? This is the issue facing the Board of Supervisors right now as it attempts yet again to get a handle on the public defender’s budget. Read More
Condoms have popped up as evidence in at least eight low-level prostitution cases in the past year, according to the Public Defender’s Office, despite a 1994 city policy that bars prosecutors from using them against suspects as a means to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
“We have continued to see cases that include photographs of condoms,” said Tamara Barak Aparton, a spokeswoman for the Public Defender’s Office. Read More
This Facebook user wants to share more than just your status.
A 23-year-old laid-off cable installer was acquitted Wednesday on charges that he attacked a woman in a San Francisco parking garage last year while trying to force her into prostitution. One reason for the acquittal was that the alleged victim’s Facebook posts revealed that she, in fact, is a cruel pimp, the Public Defender’s Office said. Read More
A San Francisco dad who spanked his 11-year-old son with a belt for misbehaving in church was acquitted of child abuse charges Tuesday, the Public Defender’s Office said.
A jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding 32-year-old Allan Rivera not guilty of misdemeanor child abuse and battery, said Tamara Barak Aparton, spokeswoman for Public Defender Jeff Adachi. Read More
Phuc Van Le, 44, was acquitted of murder Thursday after testifying that he brandished a kitchen knife to ward off two men who refused to leave his apartment in the early morning of Feb. 6, 2010, the Public Defender’s Office said.“This is a case of a man who was forced to defend himself against a pair of assailants who attacked him with broken bottles,” Le’s attorney, Manohar Raju, said in a statement. Read More
Public Defender Jeff Adachi will be allowed to use his name and image on election materials promoting his Proposition D pension measure after all. Within 24 hours, the Ethics Commission reversed its decision on the rules, after saying Adachi is prohibited from using his image and name on the pension measure materials because he was also running for mayor. Read More
Defense attorneys Wednesday unveiled another surveillance video that they say shows undercover police officers conducting an illegal search, this time in the Richmond District.
Private attorney Robert Amparan said at a news conference Wednesday at Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s office that a judge had just thrown out his client’s felony marijuana possession for sale case because video evidence contradicted the officers’ testimony in court and statements on the police report. Read More
Prosecutors have dismissed 68 criminal cases in connection with the ongoing investigation into a plainclothes unit accused of illegal searches during drug raids and falsifying police reports, a spokesman said Monday.District Attorney’s Office spokesman Seth Steward said the 68 cases dismissed as of Friday constituted the majority of the open cases involving the unit that his office would dismiss. Read More
San Francisco Police Department Chief Jeff Godown said Friday that officers will continue the common practice of using master keys to enter residential hotel rooms for searches, despite Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s request that they stop. Read More
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and his office will not investigate alleged misconduct by eight police officer that was brought to light by surveillance footage. Read More
