Subject: Criminal Law

• District Attorney Files Criminal Charges Against Supervisor Ed Jew

  June 12, 2007

• San Francisco Police Department Can't Stop Homicides

  November 6, 2008

• Shoot First: Mehserle Likely Only Bay Area Cop Ever Charged With Murder for On-Duty Killing

  Just like Johannes Mehserle, we can't give you a straight answer -- but the former BART police officer appears to be the first Bay Area cop to ever find himself charged with murder following a job-related shooting. Jim Chanin, a veteran Berkeley attorney who has prosecuted more than 20 police shooting incidents and is currently handling two in Oakland, couldn't recall a similar instance. The closest he could come was a policeman last year convicted of murder in Ohio -- but that man killed his pr

  January 14, 2009

• SF Weekly Letters

  November 19, 2008

• First Offender Prostitution Program Punishes Victimless Crime

  March 5, 2008

• Gus Fallay Beats Bribery Rap, Wants Old Job Back at SF Department of Building Inspection

  January 16, 2008

• Open-air Crack Market

  February 28, 2007

• Stained Rep

  February 14, 2007

• Letters to the Editor

  Week of Wednesday, January 25, 2006

  January 25, 2006

• Let It Bleed

  Prosecutors' reluctance to charge murder suspects in S.F. leaves alleged killers on the street, flush with bravado

  January 18, 2006

• Legal Pirouette

  Marin County DA Ed Berberian switches his office's position, agreeing to Catholic Church demands to withhold sex-abuse documents from the press

  February 23, 2005

• Letters to the Editor

  Week of Wednesday, February 9, 2005

  February 9, 2005

• Letters to the Editor

  Week of February 2, 2005

  February 2, 2005

• Zipped Up

  S.F. Archbishop William Levada doesn't want the public to know about decades of alleged sexual misconduct by his clerics. But why are district attorneys in San Mateo, Marin, and San Francisco helping him keep secrets?

  January 19, 2005

• Case Study: Ludrate Burton

  A jailhouse "snitch" fingered Burton for murder

  October 29, 2003

• Innocence Arrested

  Albert Johnson was exonerated for a crime he didn't commit, but not before spending over a decade in prison. Why guiltless people get jailed -- and how to stop it.

  October 29, 2003

• Case Study: Clifford St. Joseph

  Testimony by an escaped inmate helped convict St. Joseph of murder.

  October 29, 2003

• Kamala's Karma

  She's smart, she's experienced, and she's running for DA. But she's Willie Brown's ex-girlfriend, and her opponents are trying to crucify her for that.

  September 24, 2003

• Prosecutors' Patience Wears Thin With Levada, Mahony

  June 25, 2003

• The Dilemma of Sara Jane Olson

  With an October trial in the offing, prosecutors had every intention of proving that Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson was a domestic terrorist who helped plant bombs under police cars 26 years ago.

  September 19, 2001

• Smoke and Smearers

  Potheads distort the record -- and endanger the justice system -- as they try to recall the Marin DA

  February 14, 2001

• The Prosecution Rests ... and Rests

  After nearly 2 1/2 years, the embezzlement case against a Fire Department supervisor has still gone nowhere, and no end is in sight

  October 11, 2000

• Girl Problems

  The juvenile justice system is ignoring delinquent girls -- and creating a social time bomb

  July 19, 2000

• Officer Down

  Steve Landi was a hero at 101 California and a cop to his bones. Why is the SFPD trying so hard to get rid of him?

  June 7, 2000

• "Fairfield Wives" Saga Continues

  Mormon doctor's conviction for sexual penetration with foreign object upheld; allegation of juror misconduct headed for court

  January 26, 2000

• For Pete's Sake

  Why giant corporations like PG&E bankrolled a juvenile crime initiative

  January 12, 2000

• Benign Neglect

  There's a pot of money available to investigate real estate fraud, but Terence Hallinan isn't using it

  November 24, 1999

• Cothran

  June 16, 1999

• Cothran

  May 12, 1999

• Letters

  May 12, 1999

• Cothran

  March 24, 1999

• Bunco Squad

  Police brass can't account for a rogue vice operation

  March 3, 1999

• Letters

  January 6, 1999

• Cothran

  December 30, 1998

• Policing the Vice Squad

  Investigations launched into money collected from massage parlor workers

  December 16, 1998

• Cothran

  December 16, 1998

• Wages of Vice

  Police find a way to make money by busting massage parlors

  December 2, 1998

• Cothran

  October 7, 1998

• The Housing Authority's Dirty Dozen

  Twelve convicted drug dealers and other major felons have recently been employed by the San Francisco Housing Authority. But are there even more criminals on the public payroll?

  July 22, 1998

• The Great Bank Thievery

  The city and state say the Bank of America stole hundreds of millions -- even billions -- of dollars from the government. But didn't San Francisco finance officials know what was going on? And shouldn't B of A executives be under criminal investigation?

  December 31, 1997

• The Grid

  December 17, 1997

• Duck! You're in Wine Country

  Why do police in bucolic Santa Rosa kill more citizens per capita than cops in crime-ridden cities like San Francisco and New York?

  September 17, 1997

• The Grid

  January 1, 1997

• Waste Case History

  October 23, 1996

• Where Crime Pays

  Is the DA's Office bungling the biggest pollution case in Bay Area history?

  October 23, 1996

• Where do Bad Children Go?

  S.F. officials are tilting toward more community-based rehab for youthful offenders -- if they can put the lid on internal bickering that's given new meaning to the term "juvenile justice"

  October 2, 1996

• The DA's Svengali

  Earlier this year, the District Attorney's Office was flirting with farce. Then Terence Hallinan called in David Millstein.

  September 4, 1996

• Deadbeat Heaven

  Parents who refuse to pay child support don't have much to worry about in California. Or, for that matter, San Francisco.

  June 12, 1996

• Payback

  Liberals mount a comeback in the juvenile justice system

  December 6, 1995

• Hallinan's Right Cross

  The narrow bandwidth of San Francisco politics makes most elections a contest between liberals. The DA's race, which pitted prosecutor Bill Fazio against centrist Arlo Smith and progressive Terence Hallinan, promised to change all that. But when Fazio zig

  December 6, 1995