SAN FRANCISCO — On Jan. 27, a Bay Area federal public defender filed a motion to dismiss a gun possession case against her client, arguing that police violated their own regulations during a downtown police chase, then lied about her client having an arrest warrant weeks later to conduct and illegal search of his car.
A judge never got the chance to make a ruling. Just 10 days after the motion was filed, the U.S. Attorney’s office filed a motion to dismiss the charges, without stating a rationale. During the time between the dismissal and the defense motion, prosecutors never responded or attempted to defend the allegedly unlawful search in court.
The case stemmed from two instances: a Jan. 12, 2022 police chase in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, and the defendant’s arrest on March 2, 2022, by several San Francisco police officers. Prosecutors say that during a search of the defendant’s car the day he was arrested, a Glock pistol with an extended magazine was found, as well as small amounts of heroin and methamphetamine.
The defendant was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and faced 15 years in federal prison. But the case fell apart at the beginning of this year.
In the Jan. 27 defense motion, Assistant Federal Public Defender Gabriela Bischof argued that police violated their own charter during the police chase when they attempted to pull over a Mercedes in the Tenderloin that was registered to her client. Bischof wrote the officers were in an unmarked car and dressed in civilians clothes, and that an SFPD general order “explicitly forbids non-uniformed officers from initiating traffic stops.”
Bischof added that the officers admitted they couldn’t see into the Mercedes and that they assumed her client was driving because it was registered to him. Finally, on March 2, 2022, Bischof wrote the officers “lied” to her client about him having an arrest warrant for the January chase, handcuffed him, booked him at a local station and used the arrest as an excuse to search his vehicle without probable cause.
The case is only the latest federal prosecution to be dropped over allegations of police misconduct in the Bay Area. In February 2021, a federal judge gutted a gun case by ruling San Francisco officers violated the Fourth Amendment during a search of a Mercedes. It was the third such case in the preceding eight months. Last May, a Richmond rapper’s gun charge was dismissed days before a hearing where a federal judge was to rule on a motion accusing Richmond police of an illegal search.
Last year, federal prosecutors dropped more than a dozen current and pending prosecutions involving officers who were implicated in a massive criminal probe targeting law enforcement in Pittsburg and Antioch. In that still-ongoing investigation, at least eight officers from Antioch and two from Pittsburg were accused of a range of crimes involving dishonesty, including violent civil rights violations, fraudulently obtaining college degrees for incentive pay, and accepting bribes. In a separate but related move, Contra Costa prosecutors dropped an estimated three dozen cases.
Source: www.mercurynews.com