San Francisco District Attorney's Office

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

Slim’s Bouncer Beatdown Update: Security Guard’s Lengthy Criminal Record

Public Defender: First Norteño Convicted for Violating Gang Injunction a Dubious Victory in City's Battle with Street Gangs

Earlier this week, the San Francisco District Attorney successfully tried the first case against a Norteño gang member for violating the city's gang injunction, which bans members from hanging out in a "safety zone" in the Mission. A brainchild of City Attorney De ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Earlier this week, the San Francisco District Attorney successfully tried the first case against a Norteño gang member for violating the city's gang injunction, which bans members from hanging out in a "safety zone" in the Mission. A brainchild of City Attorney De ... More >>

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Fajita the Night

Were the cops really innocent of assault, or is our DA's Office just lame?

Letters to the Editor

Week of 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?

Hey, Man, Got Any ID?

Why the Legislature shouldn't extend the city's medical marijuana identification system statewide

Letters to the Editor

Cleaning Up the Cash; A Group Hug; Burning Bush; Correction

Now, the Emphatic Colonic News

Chevron to Turks: Bay is pristine! GOP to pot doctor: Good job! Tenants to landlords: You're illegal! Potheads to supervisors: Like, wow -- a sanctuary!

Dog Bites

Details, Details; Problem Is, It's Hard to Read in the Dark; PG&E Strikes Back

The Land of Blood & Money

Foreign workers coming into the country for high-paying tech jobs often bring wives with them. When these women are beaten and abused, they have nowhere to run.

Benign Neglect

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

Angel of Theft

A high-flying New Age company is grounded amid allegations that its main financial backer embezzled $4.5 million from UCSF

Letters

A high-flying New Age company is grounded amid allegations that its main financial backer embezzled $4.5 million from UCSF

Perverted Justice?

Or is a new law that puts sexual predators in long-term psychiatric lock-up really -- and finally -- justice for perverts?

Dog Bites

Or is a new law that puts sexual predators in long-term psychiatric lock-up really -- and finally -- justice for perverts?

The Art of the Steal

Harcourts Gallery was at the center of S.F.'s serious art scene for decades. Now, with serious money missing, the gallery's at the center of a criminal investigation.

SF Gov InAction: The Supes Have SUCH Good Intentions This Week That One of These Laws Just HAS to Work!

Monday, Aug 17 11 a.m. - Public Safety Committee A lot's happened to the Public Safety Committee since the last time I wrote about it -- and there's one thing I just don't understand. Ross Mirkarimi used to be the chair of the Public Safety Committee, and he was exceptional at pulling the many t ... More >>

Dwindling Dollars in Attorney General Race May Not Be Due to Recession

Do I have any money? Not for you!​Guess what? Jackie Speier isn't running for Attorney General. Who knew? Now that we've gotten that out of the way, on to the article. We thought it was interesting last week when the campaign of San Francisco District Attorney -- and would-be AG -- Kamala Harris s ... More >>

Faux S.F. Doctor Timothy Andersson Hit With 51 Felonies for 'Dangerous and Unecessary' Procedures

​ He had no license to practice medicine in California or the United States, and no affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco, as he claimed. But 66-year-old Timothy Andersson (who also went by Dr. Tanweer Ahmad Syed) saw scores of patients in ... More >>

Accused Child Porn Professor to be Arraigned Today

Kenneth Kyle​Kenneth Kyle, the Cal State East Bay professor arrested earlier this month at San Francisco International Airport on child porn charges, will be arraigned this morning at San Francisco's Hall of Justice. The 47-year-old is facing felony charges of child pornography possession and chil ... More >>

Social Networking Site Tagged.com Slapped With $650K Fine By S.F.

Don't push that button!​A B-reel social networking site known as Tagged.com has been hit with a $650,000 fine from the San Francisco District Attorney's office for sending tens of millions of e-mails that duped recipients into unwittingly sharing private information.District Attorney Kamala Harris ... More >>

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.

New Hamsterdam: A silver lining in S.F.'s crime-lab fiasco?

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.

Kamala Harris' Failure to Report Cops' Criminal Backgrounds Now Fodder in AG Race

"I'm here to attack the issues, not another candidate."​San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris' failure to disclose the criminal backgrounds of cops testifying in cases her office prosecuted "calls into question ... whether she has the judgment necessary to be California's next attorney gen ... More >>

An Odd Political Pitch For 'Auntie Kamala'

Meena Harris, left, with Auntie Kamala, is not 12 years old​As we round third in the primary election season, candidates making that mad dash toward home are liable to whatever it takes to make it. So you're going to see some very odd ads in the next week or so (though maybe not as odd as this ad ... More >>

Kamala Harris' Alleged Stalker Pens Epic 44-Page 'Press Release'

​It came in a manilla envelope with three American flag stamps, entitled "Important Pre-Election Press Release." Return address: David Bavineau (ecstatic), County Jail 4, 850 Bryant St. Over at SF Weekly, we tore the thick envelope open with no small amount of anticipation. Bavineau, as some may r ... More >>

No Murder Charges for Alleged Pink Saturday Shooter Ed Perkins

​The San Francisco District Attorney's office moments ago sent out a press release stridently announcing that alleged Pink Saturday shooter Ed Perkins, arrested by police for the alleged murder of Stephen Powell, will be hit with weapons charges. Left unsaid -- but easily inferred -- is that Perki ... More >>

City Attorney Dennis Herrera to S.F. Employees: No Campaigning on City Time

Whatever you do, don't say "I gave at the office..."​Dennis Herrera, who not long ago announced plans to move his operations down the hall from the city attorney's office to that of San Francisco mayor, has issued a warning to city workers feeling particularly enthusiastic about his or anyone else ... More >>

Head Case

Experts say ex-football players with head injuries often end up in the criminal justice system. Former USC lineman Chris Brymer is exhibit A.

LGBT Suicides: Aiyisha Hassan, Daughter Of Marin Non-Profit Executive Director, Takes Life

Aiyisha Hassan​The rash of young gays and lesbians committing suicide has now struck the country's LGBT capital here in the Bay Area: Aiyisha Hassan, a 20-year-old Marin County native who identified as lesbian, killed herself on October 5. Hassan was a former student at Howard University in Washin ... More >>

Isaac Espinoza's Sad Legacy

Isaac Espinoza, 1974-2004​Most of us never met Isaac Espinoza, but we owe him more than we can say. In 2004, the 29-year-old decorated cop was pointlessly gunned down by David Hill, a young man with a lengthy criminal history.  Espinoza repeatedly turned down cushier beats than Bayview. His d ... More >>

DA Kamala Harris' Office Has ID'd at Least 76 Police Employees With Problem Backgrounds

D.A. Kamala Harris​The San Francisco District Attorney's office has so far notified Public Defender Jeff Adachi in writing of 76 police department employees with criminal or disciplinary backgrounds requiring disclosure.The letters come in response to a judge's order that D.A. Kamala Harris move q ... More >>

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 >>

DNA Lab Fallout: Lawyers Ask Judge to Dismiss Rape Cases Over Sample Switch

​Two San Francisco defense attorneys are asking that their clients' rape cases be dismissed because of a DNA sample mix-up -- and its subsequent concealment -- at the San Francisco Police Department crime lab in 2008.The cases may be the first to be directly affected by the latest lab scandal, whi ... More >>

A Timeline of Problems at the SFPD DNA Lab

​Through reporting over the past month, SF Weekly has uncovered multiple instances of scientifically and ethically questionable conduct by DNA analysts at the San Francisco Police Department Crime Laboratory. Our findings focus on two lapses in particular: the destruction of records of a potential ... More >>

'Skyscraperman' Dan Goodwin Climbs Into Court

Does this look like trespassing to you?​Dan "Skyscraperman" Goodwin lived up to his nickname in September when he methodically scaled the Millennium Tower in two hours and 15 minutes. Any 54-year-old man who does his hair like "Spider Dan" is seeking attention -- whether he scales tall buildings o ... More >>

Will Federal Crime Lab Reform Affect California?

​Perhaps not, according to an interesting report published yesterday by California Watch.Kendall Taggart writes that some of the foremost advocates for reforming the field of forensic science within California are skeptical as to whether new legislation proposed by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy will imp ... More >>

Top State Forensic Analyst under Fire for Defending Disgraced NC Crime Lab

​The top forensics official at California's Department of Justice has come under attack for public statements defending controversial practices at a crime lab in North Carolina.Jill Spriggs, chief of the DOJ's Bureau of Forensic Services, appeared before a panel of North Carolina legislators a few ... More >>

AG's Office Warns of Gang-and-Drug Armageddon If State Budget Passes

Kamala Harris​As lawmakers prepare to finalize the state budget today, another government agency has joined the chorus of groups declaring that spending cuts in the plan will be disastrous: the office of California Attorney General Kamala Harris.Harris, who has been on the job in Sacramento for si ... More >>

Dennis Peron, Local Pot Guru, Cleared of Criminal Charges

Free and pissed​Dennis Peron has said it all along. For decades, the Castro District resident -- one of the fathers of the American medical cannabis movement  -- has maintained that marijuana is medicine. And for just under a year, Peron has been insisting that he's innocent of narcotics and ... More >>

DA Candidates Call for Release of Secret Crime Lab Memo, Citing SF Weekly Cover Story

​Contenders in this year's election for San Francisco District Attorney have called on current DA George Gascón to release an internal memo that criticizes procedures for analyzing DNA evidence at the San Francisco Police Department Crime Laboratory.The memo, the existence of which was first reve ... More >>

Man Faces Child Endangerment Charges After Child Eats Pot Cookies

​Contenders in this year's election for San Francisco District Attorney have called on current DA George Gascón to release an internal memo that criticizes procedures for analyzing DNA evidence at the San Francisco Police Department Crime Laboratory.The memo, the existence of which was first reve ... More >>

San Francisco's "Crime Family:" Edwin Parada's Relatives Face Charges for Same Mortgage Scam

Carlos Parada, allegedly part of "crime family"​District Attorney George Gascón is calling them San Francisco's own "crime family:" Two relatives of Edwin Parada -- who faces trial for allegedly duping Latino immigrants into a home mortgage scam -- now face charges of pushing the exact same scam ... More >>

Dick Cheney, You're Under Arrest!

Scary mask​Say what you want about Codepink -- we can always count on its members to keep it real and, well, colorful. Remember when the activist group glitter-bombed former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty as he signed books in San Francisco? And because they never miss an opportunity to show their sh ... More >>

Judge Unseals Secret Court Records Detailing Alleged DNA Lab Cover-Up

Rockne Harmon co-authored a controversial internal memo on crime lab problems​A judge unsealed court records today detailing a whistle-blower's allegations that police and prosecutors might have been involved in an orchestrated effort to mislead auditors about the state of the San Francisco Police ... More >>

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

Rockne Harmon co-authored a controversial internal memo on crime lab problems​A judge unsealed court records today detailing a whistle-blower's allegations that police and prosecutors might have been involved in an orchestrated effort to mislead auditors about the state of the San Francisco Police ... More >>

SF State Contract Fraud: Investigation of Alleged Corruption Continues

Robert Shearer​In August, when we wrote about an investigation into potential contract corruption at San Francisco State that could potentially cost the cash-strapped university hundreds of thousands of dollars, the California State University police told us they were in the "final stages" of the ... More >>