Criminal Trials

Yoshiaki Nagaya, Japanese Diplomat, Admits to Beating His Wife

The Japanese diplomat based in San Francisco who was accused of beating his wife repeatedly during their two-year-marriage appeared in court today where he reportedly pleaded no contest, which is the same as pleading guilty for felony cases. Yoshiaki Nagaya, 33, was has been charged with two count ... More >>

Frederick Dozier Jr., Mission Rapist, To Be Sentenced Today

It's the moment the Mission District community has been awaiting: the sentencing of Frederick Dozier, Jr., the 31-year-old man convicted of attacking and violently raping three women last year. Dozier, a former San Francisco school district employee, was convicted last month on 25 counts of kidnap ... More >>

Menace to Society: Why Many Young Black Men are Accused of Being in Gangs

Wilfredo Reyes Arrested in North Carolina in Connection With Bologna Family Murders

Authorities in North Carolina today arrested Wilfredo Reyes, the alleged MS-13 gang member who was in the car with Edwin Ramos the night Tony Bologna and two of his sons were murdered in June 2008.From the start, Ramos, who was convicted of first degree murder in May, claimed that Reyes pulled the t ... More >>

Binh Thai Luc Pleads Not Guilty to All Charges of Murdering Ingleside Family

Binh Thai Luc, the suspect accused of killing five people at an Ingleside home on March 23 appeared in court today where he pleaded not guilty to all charges. Decked out in an orange sweatshirt and orange pants with a chain belt cuffing his hands at his waist, Luc, 35, slowly shook his head as Judg ... More >>

DNA Lab Cover-Up: SFPD to Investigate Claims in Secret Court Records

Hate Expectations: Police and Prosecutors Are Quick to Claim the Presence of Racism — but Juries Are Not So Sure

Roberto Acosta, MS-13 Snitch Convicted of Lying to Government, Seeks New Trial

The snitch wants a new day in court. ​The MS-13 snitch who provided federal agents with information that led to the mega-indictment of the transnational gang -- and recorded alleged murder confessions that will be allowed as evidence in an upcoming Superior Court trial -- wants a new trial of his ... More >>

Secret Court Transcript Reveals Concerns About 'Deliberate Attempt' to Mislead Crime Lab Auditors

​Judge: "It's always the coverup that makes the things worse than the problem to begin with"The San Francisco Police Department and District Attorney's Office are both implicated in allegations that a deliberate effort was made to conceal defects at the city's troubled forensics lab from state in ... More >>

State Appeals Court Upholds Judge's Order Unsealing Secret DNA Lab Memo

​A panel of state appeals-court judges has upheld a San Francisco Superior Court judge's order last month that District Attorney George Gascón release a secret memo describing problems with DNA analysis at the San Francisco Police Department crime lab.The decision appeared to remove the last barr ... More >>

DNA Lab Memo at Center of Legal Battle in Gruesome 1976 Murder Case

AFP/Getty ImagesRockne Harmon​A secret internal memo criticizing DNA analysis procedures at the San Francisco Police Department crime lab has become an issue in prosecutors' efforts to obtain a conviction based on DNA evidence in the grisly rape and murder of a San Francisco woman in 1976.San Fran ... More >>

Crime Lab Confidential: DA and SFPD Withheld Damaging Memo About DNA Lab Failings

A Rat's Life: MS-13 Snitches Run Wild While Turning State's Evidence

Maurice Caldwell, Man Wrongfully Convicted of 1990 Murder, to be Set Free

Maurice Caldwell, almost a free man. ​A man whose 1991 murder conviction was overturned by a San Francisco judge in December will be set free after the district attorney dismissed the charges on Friday. After 20 years in prison, Maurice Caldwell will likely walk out a free man next week. Superior ... More >>

Prosecutor Apologizes for Handling of Crime Lab DNA Scandal

​A prosecutor in the office of District Attorney George Gascón apologized last week to defense lawyers for his failure to turn over potentially exculpatory documents indicating that a mix-up of DNA samples took place at the San Francisco Police Department crime lab in 2008.Assistant District Atto ... More >>

High-tech Thieves Jury Rigged Gas Pumps to Steal Customers' Identities

​A pair of MacGyver-esque identity thieves has pleaded guilty to implanting devices in gas pumps that stole customers' checking-account information, a scheme that state officials say brought in $90,000.The California Attorney General's office announced today that the men -- David Karapetyan and Zh ... More >>

SFPD crime lab's DNA evidence could be tainted by concealed mistakes

Exclusive: Prosecutor Says DA Is Sitting on His Report Critical of Crime Lab

Rockne Harmon​DA's Office Denies Memo's Existence, But Prosecutor and DNA Expert Says He Wrote It in MarchOne of the nation's foremost DNA experts says he wrote an in-house report for the San Francisco District Attorney's office criticizing the DNA unit of the San Francisco Police Department Crime ... More >>

Obstruction of Justice

A kidnapping victim watched his case linger needlessly in court 
for years. In S.F., he has company.

Grinding Justice: Operation Streamline Costs Millions, Tramples the Constitution, Treats Migrants Like Cattle, and Doesnít Work

Steven Petrilli Found Guilty of Officer Nick-Tomasito Birco's Murder

SFPDOfficer Nick-Tomasito Birco, killed in 2006​A somewhat bizarre trial four years after the death of San Francisco Police Office Nick-Tomasito Birco yesterday resulted in the murder conviction of one of his accused killers, Steven Petrilli. The 24-year-old was found guilty of first-degree murder ... More >>

Facial Profiling

Will face-recognition technology get an accused killer off the hook?

Judge Blames D.A. Kamala Harris for Crime-Lab Scandal

D.A. Kamala Harris has some explaining to do​A San Francisco Superior Court judge has blamed San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris for the debacle that has grown out of misconduct at the San Francisco Police Department crime lab, saying Harris' office ignored its constitutional obligation ... More >>

Wife-Beating Cops Can Keep it a Secret? Public Defender Not Pleased.

Public Defender Jeff Adachi, pictured at a press conference last month​Public Defender Jeff Adachi said this afternoon that he has serious misgivings about District Attorney Kamala Harris' appointment of a private attorney to review which cases of police officers' criminal misconduct should be dis ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

A Lack of Conviction

As D.A. Kamala Harris campaigns to be attorney general, her success rate in felony trials has dropped below that of any big-city prosecutor in California.

S.F. Cops' Criminal Pasts Could Overturn Convictions

This kind of behavior needs to be reported to a defense attorney. In San Francisco, it hasn't been. ​The District Attorney's office -- already reeling from cocaine-skimming crime lab tech Deborah Madden and her cohorts tossing narcotic evidence into an "unsecured cardboard box" -- now has a new pr ... More >>

Reality TV Contestant Jamal Trulove Found Guilty of Murder

Jamal Trulove, who enjoyed a brief bout of celebrity as an unsuccessful contestant on the VH1 reality TV show I Love New York 2 in 2007, was found guilty of first-degree murder in San Francisco Superior Court this afternoon.Jamal Trulove, a.k.a. 'Milliown'​Trulove, known on the show as "Milliown," ... More >>

Breaking: Prominent S.F. Private Investigator Indicted For Allegedly Scaring Off Witness

A San Francisco private investigator who works with criminal defense attorneys has been indicted on a felony count of dissuading a witness, a charge stemming from his alleged efforts to scare off a star witness in an attempted murder case last month.Steve Vender, in a 2007 SF Weekly photograph​Ste ... More >>

Jury Convicts Attempted Murderer Despite Disappearance of Victim Allegedly Scared Off By Private Investigator

​A San Francisco jury convicted Phil Pitney, 19, of attempted murder Thursday, even after the victim he shot at was a no-show for the entire trial -- apparently because he was threatened by the defense attorney's investigator.The Chron reported last week that Steve Vender, a private investigator w ... More >>

S.F. taxpayers may be struck with the legal tab for a failed Ingleside murder case

Fatal Attraction: Illicit Affair Allegedly Behind 2006 SF Infanticide

Three years ago Linda Woo, then 40, woke her two children, wrapped them in blankets, and placed them inside a Subaru Outback owned by a man who had recently broken off a six-year-affair with her. Also in the car had been placed a lit barbecue grill -- which Woo had bought along with a carbon monoxid ... More >>

Leader of Down Below Gang blames PTSD for killings

Marjorie Knoller case inches forward

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

Alleged S.F. Road Warrior Omeed Popal to Face 35 Felony Counts

District Attorney Files Criminal Charges Against Supervisor Ed Jew

Let It Bleed

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

Bait and Snitch

Lying under oath, threatening witnesses, revealing the names of federal agents -- it's just another day on the job for one of the DEA's paid drug informants

Law of the Bungle

Sara Jane Olson's attorney would like to say a few words about how her San Francisco co-counsel handled the high-profile case

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.

Killer, Junkie, Liar, Thief...

... so why not lawyer? How our political elite tried and failed to get a law license for sister-killing Eben Gossage.

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?

"Fairfield Wives" Saga Continues

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

Cothran

Cothran

Trial by Liar

The snitches mumbled, stumbled, equivocated, and perjured themselves The jury found Bernard Temple -- the man prosecutors believed to be a bloodthirsty assassin for drug dealers -- not guilty of murder.

Will the Soul-Jacker Go Free?

State prosecutions against alleged gang assassin appear to disintegrate

Waste Case History

Where Crime Pays

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