Public Defender Claims Surveillance Video Proves SFPD Misconduct
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/BCN) - San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said Wednesday that his office will be investigating surveillance video taken during two drug busts at a residential hotel in the city's South of Market neighborhood that appears to show police misconduct.
The videos were released Wednesday by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who said the tapes show that officers violated constitutional rights by entering residences without warrants or consent and then lied about it in police reports and in court.
During the busts, which occurred Dec. 23 and Jan. 5, San Francisco police officers entered residential rooms on the fifth floor of the Henry Hotel at Sixth and Mission streets after receiving tips from informants about narcotics in the rooms, according to the public defender's office.
Adachi said that in both cases, "the camera told a very different story than what the officer testified to."
KCBS' Anna Duckworth Reports:
Gascon, who was police chief at the time of the two incidents, said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon that the video footage was brought to his attention earlier on Wednesday, and "gives us great cause for concern."
He said the district attorney's office will be investigating both the possible criminal misconduct of the six officers involved in the two incidents and whether other cases involving those officers might be affected.
Given Gascon's ties to the Police Department, Adachi had called for an outside agency like the state attorney general's office to investigate the case.
That request could pose another conflict of interest because state Attorney General Kamala Harris was elected in November to her current post while she was still the city's district attorney.
Gascon said he saw "absolutely no reason why I should recuse myself" from the case.
In the first incident on Dec. 23, four officers arrived at the Henry Hotel and obtained a master key that allowed them to open the doors to any room.
At that point, Officer Arshad Razzak wrote in his police report that officers knocked on the resident's door, announced themselves and waited for a response.
According to the report, after hearing no response, the officers used the key to slightly open the door and, without entering the home, told a female resident they were waiting outside until they could obtain a search warrant.
The woman then gave the officers verbal permission to search the premises while officers contacted headquarters and asked for a consent form she could read, according to Razzak's report.
A man inside the room was then arrested on suspicion of possessing 65 grams of heroin and a single rock of crack cocaine, said Deputy Public Defender Anne Irwin, who represented the suspect.
However, the surveillance video obtained by the public defender's office from the hotel appears to show officers walking up to the door of the room, bursting in, and immediately pulling out a man and putting him in handcuffs.
In the second case on Jan. 5, four officers again responded to the fifth floor of the hotel, which Adachi called a "so-called hot spot" of drug activity, and obtained a master key.
A police report written by Officer Richard Yick stated that officers were met in the hallway by a woman who voluntarily opened the door to her room.
A man who came to the door told officers he was on probation, which the officers then confirmed with dispatch before entering and searching the room, according to Yick's report.
Razzak and Yick were both present in the two cases, according to the public defender's office.
The man and woman were arrested after police found about 15 grams of heroin, said Deputy Public Defender Tal Klement, who represented the pair.
However, the surveillance video taken on that day appears to show Yick covering the camera for about 15 seconds while other officers allegedly ordered the woman to open the door, according to Klement, who said there was never any conversation with the occupant of the room.
After obtaining the surveillance tapes, the public defender's office "kept the fact that we had the video under wraps" as the officers testified in court that they had followed lawful procedures while searching the residences.
After the video evidence was presented to the judge, the Jan. 5 case was dismissed on Monday.
The Dec. 23 case was dismissed by the district attorney's office the next day.
Police Chief Jeff Godown said the six officers, who average between 12 and 15 years of experience on the police force, could be put on paid administrative leave as early as Thursday and said the Police Department will conduct an internal investigation into the incidents.
"We need to look at the tape, review the police reports," and look at the transcripts of the officers' testimony in court, Godown said.
"Police officers and prosecutors need to play by the rules," Gascon said. "When we don't play by the rules, the whole system crumbles."
Adachi said the public defender's office also plans to conduct its own investigation into other cases involving the officers in these incidents, and other cases involving the Henry Hotel.
"It's clearly not an isolated case," he said. "It's just chance that we were able to get the videos."
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