San Francisco: Better and Harder

Chesa Boudin (KQED photo)

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin has taken the heat for the explosion of crime ("San Francisco gun violence rose last year, with shootings up 33%") in San Francisco.

But leniency towards criminals was only one part of his campaign. Another promise was "holding officers accountable for wrongdoing."

SF Police Chief Bill Scott is now terminating an agreement to cooperate in police-use-of-force investigations with the DA's office.

Chief Bill Scott (Chron photo)

Chief Scott claims that prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence in the trial of Officer Terrance Stangel, who beat a man with a baton. [bold added]

Nicole Pifari, an attorney for Stangel, claimed that the District Attorney’s Office withheld incriminating evidence from police as they investigated the man Stangel allegedly beat, Dacari Spiers. That evidence — that Spiers was allegedly beating his girlfriend prior to the altercation with Stangel — may have helped lead to criminal charges against Spiers, Pifari argued.

In her motion to dismiss the case, Pifari said [Magen] Hayashi, the district attorney’s investigator, failed to inform the police department of a follow-up interview with a witness who reported seeing Spiers assaulting his girlfriend. The defense alleged that Hayashi then lied about it by saying she had no further contact with the witness when providing police with an update on the investigation.

Pifari claimed Stangel was justified in his use of force under the circumstances.

In responding to Pifari’s questions under oath Thursday, Hayashi said she was pressured to sign the affidavit against Stangel after removing exculpatory information.

Asked who pressured her, she said, “it was a general understanding in my experience in this office, if you don’t sign these things you’ll be fired.”

Police are held to high standards of ethical behavior. The DA's office is also held to high standards and in its oversight role has allegedly broken them. Meanwhile, pity poor Magen Hayashi, who will be thrown under the bus because Chesa Boudin will act shocked to discover that anyone in his office would lie on an affidavit.

In San Francisco criminals, who are regularly released without bail, enjoy the bonus of law enforcement at loggerheads with itself.

Whatever his personal beliefs in what's going on in the once-beautiful City, your humble blogger is a believer in democracy. San Francisco is getting what it voted for, good and hard.