By Tim Redmond – November 19, 2019 – 48Hills.org Four years in prison — for driving without a license? Oakland man arrested in SF faces long prison term — despite a jury finding him not guilty of two felonies. If you want to get a sense of what’s wrong with the criminal justice system in...Read More
SAN FRANCISCO – On Friday, November 15, 2019, a jury found Carlos Gordon not guilty on all counts of assault with a deadly weapon, making criminal threats, and a misdemeanor assault. The jury agreed with the defense that Mr. Gordon’s act of tossing a few decorative pebbles in the direction of a construction worker was...Read More
SAN FRANCISCO – On Tuesday, November 12, 2019, a jury acquitted a homeless man of two felony charges after police pulled him over at gunpoint for riding a stolen motorcycle on Division Street and San Bruno Avenue at 6pm on June 26, 2019. However, he may still serve four years in prison for driving without...Read More
SF’s failed ‘War on Drugs’ needs innovation to transform the status quo by Hadi Razzaq, Managing Attorney for the Investigation Unit of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office San Francisco has historically responded to street-level drug activity in the same way: periodically cracking down on low-level drug sellers by ramping up policing. But arresting and...Read More
Op Ed by Danielle Harris – Director of Public Integrity for the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Published by the San Francisco Examiner on September 13, 2019 Our mental health crisis is not a tragedy waiting to happen, as some would have it. The tragedies are happening, have happened, and continue to happen. They are stacking...Read More
SAN FRANCISCO – Robert Chan, an attorney for the family of Jeff Adachi, is releasing three independent reports that raise serious questions about Jeff Adachi’s autopsy, which was conducted by the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office (OCME) in March 2019. The independent reviews found the cause of death was “sudden cardiac arrhythmia and acute myocardial...Read More
On April 18, 2019, the SF Board of Supervisors called for an investigation of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) for improperly leaking a confidential police report regarding Mr. Adachi’s death, which would later be disseminated throughout the country. We do not know the motive for leaking the report or how it occurred. We do...Read More
SF Public Defender, immigrant rights groups escalate legal pressure on Trump admin as anger over abrupt transfers mounts. San Francisco – Local immigration attorneys filed a flurry of “Habeas Corpus” petitions in federal district court today, seeking the release of 10 people arbitrarily transferred last week from the West County Detention Facility in Richmond to...Read More
NOTE: This op-ed will appear in Friday’s Daily Journal to declare that we have the right to plead no contest, a right that San Francisco courts have denied our clients. While it is true that the taking of a no contest plea is subject to the court’s permission, I argue that their decision to deny...Read More
