Section 1070 of the state’s Evidence Code states that no print or TV journalist can be held in contempt for failing to turn over sources for both stories and “unpublished information.” Section 1524(g) of the state penal code is a blanket affirmation that a search warrant cannot be issued for any of the items described in Section 1070 of the Evidence Code.Īnd yet two judges - two - signed off on those warrants.Īttorney and UC Berkeley lecturer Geoffrey King predicts they will be overruled.
Your humble narrator has learned that they purportedly knew full well that he is a credentialed journalist.*
Photo by Joe Eskenazi.Ĭalifornia’s “ shield law ” protecting journalists is strong enough and specific enough that First Amendment lawyers initially figured that the judges who signed the warrants entitling Friday’s raid on Carmody’s home and office, Victor Hwang and Gail Dekreon, hadn’t been informed that he’s a journalist.īut that apparently isn’t so. “If the police department was more professional,” said a longtime Adachi colleague with a sigh, “Jeff wouldn’t have had all those wins.” Jeff Adachi, 1959-2019. That’s what happened previously when the SFPD attempted to use a warrant to pry away material from a journalist and was smacked down in court. If the SFPD’s internal investigation is going well, this is an odd way of signaling that.Īs the rancid cherry atop this putrid sundae, whatever information about the source of that SFPD leak the department’s internal affairs officers gleaned via raiding Carmody may well be rendered null and void. This action was not one that evinced strength or competence the department, unable to maintain internal control, responded by launching an external show of force. It’s actually impressive for the SFPD to botch this so badly at both ends. (Despite what you’ve seen on Law & Order, the District Attorney was not consulted prior to this raid). After being called on the carpet for this, the SFPD’s response has been to hit hard at the outside man, storming the home of a freelance TV cameraman. Its tawdry details oozed about the Internet - supplementing phone calls members of the press received bandying about additional tawdry details, many of which proved to be unsubstantiated. Mere hours after Adachi succumbed, the police report had been improperly leaked, ostensibly by cops who despised him. The city of San Francisco, and its police department, should be deeply embarrassed.
For one, Carmody - who obtained the leaked Adachi police report and peddled it around town, selling it to a purported three TV stations - has been lionized and transformed into a First Amendment hero and martyr. This was a transcendently heavy-handed and misguided move, and one that produced a number of toxic byproducts. A phalanx of armed cops served a search warrant and carted off a goodly number of Bryan Carmody’s possessions in the latest bizarre reverberation following the sudden and unexpected February death of public defender Jeff Adachi. The San Francisco Police Department, never one for subtlety, took a literal sledgehammer to the door of a freelance TV cameraman Friday. Freelancer who peddled lurid Jeff Adachi police report has been rendered a First Amendment hero by grotesque police overstep
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