A jury deliberated only two hours Tuesday afternoon before acquitting San Francisco grocery store worker Angel Garcia, 32, of three counts of lewd acts upon a child. If convicted, he faced up to 10 years in prison and a lifetime of registration as a sex offender, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Carmen Aguirre.

Garcia’s troubles began Dec. 10 after his 6-year-old son and the boy’s 12-year-old cousin, who lived in the same flat with multiple family members, began fighting over a new video game. Garcia grabbed the girl on her sides, several inches above her waist, and pulled her off his son, Aguirre said. Garcia’s longtime girlfriend walked into the living room at that moment and became concerned that Garcia may have been touching the girl inappropriately.

“Mr. Garcia and his girlfriend were having relationship problems and there was incredible tension between them. Her mental state was so compromised by all the fighting and jealousy that she was feeling like she didn’t even know this man who had been her boyfriend for eight years,” Aguirre said. “In this highly charged environment, there was a misunderstanding that the little girl had been sexually victimized.”

The girlfriend later reported it to her therapist, who alerted police.  The girl told police investigators that Garcia had touched her inappropriately over her clothing on two other occasions.

During the nine day trial, both the girl and Garcia took the stand. A psychologist specializing in trauma testified to the suggestibility of children’s developing brains and the tendency of children to avoid contradicting a trusted adult by adopting the adult’s version of events, Aguirre said.

Although Garcia, who has no criminal record, was found not guilty on all charges, Aguirre called the case “a tragedy all around.”

“Mr. Garcia spent six months in jail and his family is now fractured,” she said. “The little girl had to go through the traumatic experience of testifying and being cross-examined in front of a jury. She was a victim – not of what the prosecution claimed, but of being ensnared in an adult situation she had nothing to do with creating.”

Adachi said the jury made the right decision.

“Fortunately for Mr. Garcia, his public defender was able to show in court that the charges were untrue and the jury saw the truth in this case,” he said.

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The summit, JUSTICE ON TRIAL: Gangs, Neuroscience and Drug Reform, will be held in the library’s Koret Auditorium from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free, but seating is limited. All attendees must register at sfpublicdefender.org.

The Justice Summit is the premier criminal justice conference on the West Coast. This year’s lineup focuses on the most hotly-debated subjects: gang violence, drug decriminalization and whether some people are pre-wired for violence, said San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi.

“This is going to be the most captivating and provocative Justice Summit yet,” Adachi said. “The focus is on the freshest ideas in criminal justice. While high tech brain scans are changing the way we see mental illness and criminal culpability, legislators are preparing to do away with felony charges for drug possession and youth violence experts are finding new strategies for reducing gang violence.”

UCLA Professor Jorja Leap, author of Jumped In: What Gangs Taught Me About Violence, Drugs, Love, and Redemption, will provide the keynote address, then the discussion will kick off with the first panel, Jumped In: Strategies to Reduce Gang Violence. Leap, who has worked nationally and internationally in violent and postwar settings, will join SFPD Commander of Investigations Michael Biel, former gang members and local gang intervention workers.

The second panel, The Brain on Trial, explores whether free will is truly free and features Dr. Kent Kiehl, president of the Mind Research Network and professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of New Mexico. Kiehl has interviewed and used neuroimaging on more criminals than any other researcher in the world. He will be joined by David Faigman, director of the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science and Health Policy and author of Laboratory of Justice: The Supreme Court’s 200-Year Struggle to Integrate Science and the Law and Legal Alchemy: The Use and Misuse of Science in the Law.

“Today, neuroscientists can detect subtle differences in brain functioning with their scans that were unimaginable 30 years ago,” Adachi said. “It raises profound questions about how to hold people accountable for criminal behavior.”

The final panel of the day is devoted to State Sen. Mark Leno’s proposed legislation that would change simple drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor under state law. The bill’s supporters tout it as a way to ease overcrowding in state prisons and county jails while saving taxpayers millions of dollars. The panel features San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, Adult Probation Chief Wendy Still, National Drug Policy Alliance Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann and Deputy Public Defender Tal Klement.

The Justice Summit is co-sponsored by the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association of Northern California.

To register to attend this free event and for information on additional speakers, please go to sfpublicdefender.org. 

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Pakwai Woo, a 65-year-old retired baker from San Francisco, was found not guilty of one count assault with a deadly weapon. The jury deliberated only an hour before reaching its verdict, said Woo’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Scott Grant.  Woo, who had no criminal record and had never before been in a fight, was arrested Aug. 14 after stabbing 49-year-old Zhi Chen in the back of the knee at Pier 30.

The trouble between the men started a month previously, when Woo sided with another man who was arguing with Chen over who had caught a particular fish. On Aug. 14, they ran into each other at the same fishing spot. Chen, who had been drinking, approached the retiree, unzipped his pants, and began aiming his urine stream into Woo’s bucket of live bait, which was suspended from the pier from a rope, Grant said.

When Woo asked Chen to stop, he testified, Chen responded belligerently, insisting he would urinate wherever he’d like. Then Chen, who outweighs Woo by 50 pounds, punched Woo and pushed him to the ground, an independent witness testified during the three-day trial.

Woo scrambled to his feet and ran a few feet away, where he pulled out his pocket knife and waved it. Chen then pushed past people who were trying to hold him back and kicked Woo in the chest. Woo raised his arm in self-defense, stabbing Chen once in the leg.

Responding police officers arrested Woo without interviewing him, since he speaks only Cantonese, Grant said.

During the trial, Chen’s fishing buddies, who had been drinking on the day of the incident, testified on his behalf but gave wildly inconsistent stories, Grant said. Chen admitted on the stand that he started the fight and witnesses testified to Woo’s gentle nature.

“The only independent witness in the case testified that he saw Mr. Chen coming after Mr. Woo again after beating him,” Grant said.  “Mr. Woo just wanted to enjoy a day of fishing when he was attacked without provocation.”

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi said the case was a clear instance of self-defense.

“They say the truth will set you free, but in  this case, it took elbow grease and a gumshoe investigation by a public defender, who was able to show that Mr. Woo acted in self-defense and saved him from an unjust jail sentence,” Adachi said.

The acquittal is the latest in a string of victories for the Public Defender’s Misdemeanor Unit. In January-March, deputy public defenders won 56 percent of their 43 misdemeanor jury trials.

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Jury members deliberated less than two hours before finding Agapito Hernandez, 38, of San Francisco, not guilty of child endangerment, reckless driving and giving false information to an officer, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Lutes-Koths. Hernandez was acquitted of a fourth misdemeanor charge, driving without a license, by the judge.

Hernandez was arrested March 4 after his SUV plunged into the frigid waters near the Gashouse Cove Marina. Hernandez, his two teenage sons and their friend were inside the vehicle but escaped injury. The foursome had finished a late-night crabbing trip when Hernandez tried to back out of his parking space, he testified.  When the car wouldn’t move, Hernandez hit the gas harder and the SUV spun out of control. His brakes, which had given him minor problems in the past, failed to work. Hernandez spun the car in one-and-a-half circles to avoid hitting anything, then lost control. The SUV went over the sidewalk and into the Bay.

At the two-day trial, a witness who helped the family out of the water testified that although he used the word “donuts” to the responding police officer, he only saw the car spun in one-and-a-half circles.  Hernandez’s sons also testified that the incident was an accident, not reckless driving.

Hernandez, who has no criminal record, told responding officers that he had been having brake trouble, but police never investigated the mechanical mishap. There were no signs on the ground that the car had been doing donuts.

“Mr. Hernandez is a sweet, honest family man,” Lutes-Koths said.  “It’s sad he had to go through an arrest and trial because police never attempted to investigate whether this was an accident.”

In the second victory for San Francisco public defenders Tuesday, a jury acquitted engineering student Tarek Oueslati, 34, of San Francisco, of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, battery and assault. A driving on a suspended license charge was dismissed mid-trial.

Oueslati was arrested Aug. 3, 2011 following a road rage incident in downtown San Francisco sparked by accidentally cutting off a Lexus with his moped. The Lexus driver, an attorney, began honking furiously at Oueslati as the men drove up Sutter Street. As they approached a red light at Franklin Street, the driver got out of his car and confronted Oueslati, said Oueslati’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kevin Mitchell.

After yelling at Oueslati, the motorist got back into his vehicle. The driver claimed Oueslati then spit through the Lexus’ open window as the light turned green — an accusation Oueslati denied. The man swung open his car door, hitting Oueslati’s moped, then pushed him in the chest with both hands, Oueslati testified.

Oueslati told the jury he then head-butted the man once with his helmet in self-defense. When the driver sought medical treatment weeks later, he learned he suffered a detached retina that required surgery to repair.

During the weeklong trial, jurors heard testimony from a police officer who had been conducting a traffic stop nearby. The officer claimed he did not see any spit, but that Oueslati head-butted the Lexus driver twice. A passenger of the motorist who was being pulled over by the officer also took the stand, testifying that a bus blocked both his and the officer’s views of the confrontation.

“Mr. Oueslati maintained his innocence from the beginning,” Mitchell said. “In fact, he begged police officers to get the footage from the camera mounted nearby, but they refused.”

Adachi said the two victories illustrated the need to look beneath the surface of criminal allegations.

“After our office investigated these cases, it became clear these were not crimes, simply a car accident and a case of self-defense,” Adachi said. “What sometime appears to be a crime turns out to be an unfortunate circumstance where no criminal intent existed.”

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Jury members deliberated a day and a half before finding San Francisco resident Ricardo Politron-Sanchez, 43, not guilty of battery on a cohabitant and threats, both misdemeanors. The jury deadlocked on misdemeanor assault, which was then dismissed by the district attorney, said Politron-Sanchez’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Ariana Downing.

Politron-Sanchez was arrested Feb. 21 after he and his girlfriend came home from a dance club to find her married cousin and the cousin’s boyfriend in their residence.  Politron-Sanchez became angry and accused his girlfriend of letting the pair use their apartment for trysts, Downing said.

At the week-long trial, Politron-Sanchez testified that as he was showing the couple to the door, the man began behaving in a threatening manner. Politron-Sanchez picked up a small folding knife from a nearby shelf and pointed the folded knife at the door before telling the man to leave. Politron-Sanchez’s girlfriend, who mistakenly believed Politron-Sanchez would stab her cousin’s lover, jumped up and grabbed Politron-Sanchez, sending both of them careening into a mirror, which crashed to the floor.

Politron-Sanchez’s girlfriend then claimed that Politron-Sanchez held the knife over her head and threatened her as she picked up the glass. Over the following days, she added that Politron-Sanchez also hit her, kicked her, and pelted her with a beer can.

Politron-Sanchez’s girlfriend told several different versions of the incident to police, prosecutors and on the stand, Downing said. When asked to speak to an investigator from the Public Defender’s Office, the woman told Downing, “No, I’ve told too many different versions already.”

Downing said the not guilty verdict was due to a lack of evidence against Politron-Sanchez and the complaining witness’ changing story.

“Each detail of the story revealed evidence of her dishonesty. For example, she never mentioned a beer can to police at the scene or in her written statement. Later, she told an investigator that she was hit with the beer can while picking up glass. On the stand, she changed her story to say that she was kneeling down on the floor, her eyes raised to God,” Downing said.

Politron-Sanchez faced up to three years behind bars if convicted of all charges.

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi commended Downing for untangling the confusing tale to get to the truth.

“This is a case where Ms. Downing’s exacting cross-examination revealed that the witness was untruthful in her statements to police.  The truth of this case and the hard work of his lawyer ultimately set Mr. Politron-Sanchez free,” Adachi said.

The case involves a man who entered a no contest plea Nov. 7 to one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence. He was sentenced to five days in jail and three years’ probation, with the condition he pay $1,463 in fines and complete a three-month program for first offenders. The brief filed today asks to withdraw the man’s plea.

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi said his office will review up to 1,000 cases after an examination of police records revealed a failure by officers to maintain accuracy readings of Preliminary Alcohol Screening (PAS) devices since at least 2006.

Approximately 150 cases have been identified so far, Adachi said. All are misdemeanor convictions that occurred within the past six months.

“We have prioritized these 150 cases because some clients only have a six-month window to  withdraw their guilty pleas and ask for a review,” Adachi said.  “This is the first step to providing legal relief to hundreds of people who may have been wrongly convicted.”

The hand-held device, called the Alco Senor IV, is used to test the breath of drivers following traffic stop. It requires accuracy checks every 10 days. DUI expert Jim Norris, who was in charge of the San Francisco Police Department Forensic Services Division from 1995-2004, determined officers have not followed their own policies and manufacturer’s instructions for calibrating the devices for at least seven years.

“Some of our clients were convicted based on the blood alcohol content indicated by these faulty tests,” Adachi said. “There must be a case by case review.”

Norris’ examination of police procedure and records are included in the brief, which will be assigned to a judge on Wednesday. Challenges in the remaining cases are expected to be filed over the next several months.

Adachi urged public defender clients who were arrested by the SFPD, given a breath test at the scene of their arrest and subsequently convicted of a DUI, to call his office at 415-553-1081

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Since the mid-1990′s, the SF Police Department has used PAS devices to administer breath tests to motorists suspected of driving under the influence.

The SFPD has used the Alco Sensor IV, a handheld device capable of capturing a breath sample, to provide a blood to breath ratio of the amount of alcohol in the suspect’s blood. The Alco Sensor IV is not an intoxilizer.

Under the SFPD Policy Manual and the PAS manufacturer’s guide, accuracy checks of the devices are required every 10 days. The accuracy test, which uses a known sample to test the PAS device’s ability to read blood alcohol level, is designed to ensure that the device is working properly.

Public Defender Adachi said that several Deputy Public Defenders who had reviewed accuracy logs noticed that the maintenance records showed that the results of sample testing when compared to the actual reading were identical.

“It’s a mathematical impossibility to consistently have the same results for sample testing and the actual reading,” said Adachi. This prompted Adachi’s office to bring the discrepancy to the District Attorney, who determined that while the SF Police Department was calibrating the PAS devices, they were not conducting the required accuracy tests.

District Attorney Gascón said that upon learning of the discrepancy, he took action by not using the PAS device in pending cases and sending a notice to defense attorneys. “We are in the process of identifying cases that could be affected. Until the review is done we don’t know the number of cases that could be affected.” said Gascón. Gascón also said that the Police Department is cooperative and he is working with SF Police Chief Greg Suhr to ensure that the correct maintenance procedures are followed in the future. Until the police develop new procedures, the District Attorney will not admit PAS evidence in pending cases. As for past cases where the PAS evidence was used, “we will carefully review closed cases to determine if further action is needed.” Gascón said

Adachi said that his office handles hundreds of driving under the influence cases each year, and that his office is investigating cases as far back as 2006.

“We do not know how many cases will be affected at this point, but we are asking anyone who was convicted of driving under the influence or alcohol related driving offense to contact our office.” Adachi said that only cases involving the SF Police Department where a PAS device was used during the arrest would be potentially affected.  Adachi said that his office has set up a special number, 553-1081 for former clients of the office to call. Clients represented by private attorneys or non-public defender appointed lawyers should contact the attorney who handled their case.

PDF version containing supporting documentation: PAS-devices-press-release

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Phuc Le, 44, the son of a U.S. serviceman who came to this country through the Amerasian Homecoming Act was found not guilty after two days of jury deliberation on charges of murdering Tuan Nguyen, 36. He was represented by Deputy Public Defender Manohar Raju.

Mr. Le was in his home in the wee hours of February 6th, 2010, when two intoxicated male acquaintances and one female acquaintance came to his home.  A verbal altercation which arose when they demanded money turned physical when Long Vu, 32, threw a mala (Buddhist rosary) of prayer beads from Mr. Le’s late mother’s Buddhist shrine at Mr. Le.

When Mr. Le asked his visitors to leave, they became increasingly angry and Mr. Vu began breaking Heineken bottles and brandished them as shanks against Mr. Le.  Mr. Le retrieved a kitchen knife to defend himself and continually shouted for his visitors to leave.

In the ensuing scuffle the non-bottle-breaker male, Mr. Nguyen, was stabbed in the heart.  Testing by the Medical Examiner revealed that Mr. Nguyen had a blood alcohol level of .30.
Mr. Le, speaking Vietnamese through an interpreter, withstood a full day of withering cross-examination as he explained how he only had the knife to scare his dangerous visitors away and only raised it to ward off the two as they came at him rather than leaving his apartment.  The two non-injured visitors fled, while Mr. Le stayed on the scene, tried to revive Mr. Nguyen, and then called 911.

Mr. Le’s attorney, Manohar Raju said, “Mr. Le is a hardworking family man who works as a hardwood floor installer. This is a case of a man who was forced to defend himself against a pair of assailants who attacked him with broken bottles. We are grateful that the jury found that Mr. Le acted in self-defense and acquitted him.”

The defense team also included investigator Andrew Koltuniak, paralegals Colleen Kojima and Joan Kruckewitt, and interns Kiran Shenoy and Ami Hong Nguyen, who is fluent in Vietnamese.

In the two years that the case was in progress, Mr. Le was held in San Francisco County Jail.

Mr. Adachi said that the case illustrates the practice of overcharging by prosecutors in criminal cases.

“This was a clear case of prosecutorial overcharging,” Adachi said. “A man attacked with sharp objects in his home shouldn’t have been charged with first degree murder. This is the reason why cases need to be tried before ordinary citizens who will vote their conscience.”

PDF: Public Defender Press Release 02-24-12

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Terence Singleton, 25, was acquitted of attempted murder charges.  If convicted of the original charges, he would have been sentenced to life in prison. Instead, the jury deliberated for only an hour before finding him not guilty of the charges.

This was a case which looked pretty awful for Singleton until the complaining witness, his girlfriend, walked into the Public Defender’s Office and spoke with Singleton’s attorney, Qiana Washington, and gave a lengthy recorded statement admitting to fabricating the story to police. At trial, the complaining witness refused to testify under advice of her attorney.

Instead of being a hapless victim to a vicious attack, she had brought a gun along to add weight to her argument that Singleton should turn some money over to her. Instead of being shot at by Singleton, she admitted to trying to cock the gun to threaten him. When the gun jammed, she threw it on the ground and it discharged.

She promptly hotfooted it to the police station to make sure her version of events got in before her boyfriend got a chance to. Much like a game of tag, the first person to give a statement wins. The police arrested Singleton for attempted murder.

Learning the gravity of the charges filed against Singleton, she admitted to the police that she had lied. They threatened to charge her with filing a false police report and report her to CPS. As a result, she came to the Public Defender and told the truth.

Subsequent investigations indicated that she has a history of domestic violence and other unprovoked attacks.

Defense attorney Qiana Washington thoroughly prepared her case and subpoenaed witnesses including a police officer who testified about an incident in which the complaining witness had stabbed a previous boyfriend. Washington also presented audio of the confession by the complaining witness.

The jury took a look at the Rashomon-like competing realities and concluded there was more than enough reasonable doubt to drop the charges against our client.

“This was a living nightmare for my client, who could have faced life in prison for a crime that was manufactured from the complaining witness’ false statements,” said Singleton’s attorney, Qiana Washington.

Adachi said the case highlights the importance of jurors weighing all the available information so that they can assess the credibility of witnesses.

“We were fortunate in this case that there was a voluntary statement by the alleged victim which contradicted her earlier statement to police.” Adachi said.

PDF: Public Defender Press Release 02-22-12
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In 1921, the California Legislature passed the Public Defender Act after Clara Foltz, California’s first female lawyer, spent years advocating for the creation of Public Defenders’ offices to provide legal assistance to poor people in criminal law cases. Later in 1921, responding to the Public Defender Act, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance creating the Office of the Public Defender.

San Francisco is unique among the counties of San Francisco in having elected Public Defenders. There have been seven individuals who have served as Public Defender in the 90 years from 1921 to the present: Frank J. Egan, Gerald J. Kenny, Edward Mancuso, Robert Nicco, Jeff Brown, Kimiko Burton, and Jeff Adachi.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors appointed Frank J. Egan as the first Public Defender; his term commenced on October 15, 1921. He was elected to as Public Defender in August of 1922 and served in the position for ten years. Following Frank J. Egan’s removal from office, Gerald J. Kenny was appointed Public Defender in 1932 and subsequently elected.

In 1935 the Civil Grand Jury found that “The office of Public Defender, under the direction of Mr. Gerald J. Kenney, has been handled in a most efficient manner.” Kenney served as Public Defender for two decades, dying in office in 1954.

Edward Mancuso was appointed in 1954 by Mayor Elmer Robinson to complete Gerald Kenney’s term and the Public Defender began to represent indigent people accused of misdemeanors as well as those accused of felonies.

By the time of the Supreme Court’s 1963 decision in Gideon v. Wainwright which clarified the Constitutional mandate for public defenders, San Francisco had already had a Public Defender’s Office for over 40 years.

Upon the retirement of Edward Mancuso in 1974, Robert Nicco, who had been Chief Attorney under Mancuso was appointed Public Defender and then elected in November 1974. Under Robert Nicco’s tenure, the office’s diversity was broadened, including the hiring of Estella Wheatley Dooley, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office’s first African-American female employee, and Fred Smith, an African-American man who was Chief Deputy Attorney from 1974-1979.

When Robert Nicco chose not to run for Public Defender, Jeff Brown was elected Public Defender in 1978. Under Jeff Brown’s tenure as Public Defender, after decades of occupying cramped space in the Hall of Justice, the Office moved across Bryant Street into its current location at 555 7th Street in 1987.

Jeff Brown resigned from the Public Defender’s Office in 2001 and Kimiko Burton was appointed as Public Defender. In 2002 Jeff Adachi was elected as Public Defender, and following his swearing in as Public Defender in 2003, Jeff Adachi named Teresa Caffese as Chief Attorney, the first woman to serve in that role.

Jeff Adachi oversaw the creation of the Office’s Paralegal Unit and Clean Slate Program. In 2005 the Clean Slate Program, of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office received the Mayor’s Fiscal Advisory Committee’s Managerial Excellence Team Award and in 2006, Clean Slate received the California Public Defender’s Association Program of the Year Award. In 2006 Jeff Adachi received the American Bar Association’s Dorsey Award, honoring an outstanding public defender or legal aid lawyer. In 2007 Jeff Adachi received the California Lawyer of the Year Award.

In its 90 years of existence, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office has enabled countless people to exercise their constitutional right to counsel. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office will be celebrating its 90th Anniversary with a private event on December 9, 2011.

Adachi noted that free legal representation is important because it prevents miscarriages of justice.

“The right to legal counsel in this country is a sacred constitutional right, and over the past 90 years, our office has grown from our humble beginnings to a world class team of lawyers, investigators, paralegals, and support staff who work tirelessly to provide high quality representation to those who cannot afford to hire a lawyer,” said Adachi.

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