Justin Pritchard, Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- If the district attorney doesn’t decide to drop felony coverup charges against the police chief and much of his command staff, their defense attorneys plan to ask a judge Tuesday to do it for him.
Terence Hallinan reportedly spent the weekend reviewing evidence that might support a grand jury’s indictment of Chief Earl Sanders and six top commanders of conspiring to obstruct a police investigation into an assault allegedly involving off-duty officers.
As of Monday afternoon, the district attorney hadn’t decided whether to pursue the broad conspiracy case at trial _ as he vowed to do after the indictments shocked the city _ or prosecute a more limited case against the three officers accused in a drunken brawl over a bag of steak fajitas.
Sanders’ attorney, John Burris, said Monday he will offer the motion Tuesday, and that lawyers for the six other commanders also likely would seek a dismissal _ unless Hallinan does so first.
“If he does an objective, professional analysis, then he will dismiss,” Burris said. “If you don’t do that, then it’s really more of a political decision. That’s like ‘damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.”
All 10 have pleaded innocent. Sanders, who suspended the other indicted officers without pay, has gone on paid medical leave and relinquished control of the department’s daily affairs.
If Hallinan does press on with the conspiracy charges, it will show that he cares more about getting re-elected in November than sound legal judgments, Burris said.
After initially vowing to go to trial on the conspiracy charges, Hallinan has suggested in the last few days that he’ll drop the broader case if he can’t find enough evidence in his review of the 1,300-page grand jury transcript.
Burris said the judge would likely set a date for the motion to dismiss, which could be heard in several weeks.
The scandal has shaken the department’s leadership and amplified public calls for reform of a department criticized for allegedly stonewalling investigations involving alleged police misconduct.
Reacting to reports that Hallinan may ditch the charges, a citizen watchdog group on Monday reiterated its claims that regardless of this alleged coverup, the department’s actions stink when it comes to other incidents of police-involved violence.
“You don’t back away from the issue when you have so many other cases with the odor of coverup,” said Van Jones, an attorney for Bay Area PoliceWatch. “There is a systematic pattern of coverups, not with respect to beatings, but with respect to shootings.’
Jones cited three cases dating to 1998 in which officers - either on duty or off - shot and killed San Franciscans.
A police spokesman said he knew family members were frustrated in the cases, but department investigators are working diligently.
“The investigations tend to take a great deal of time because the department wants to be absolutely sure of its findings to make a determination if in fact the officers were at fault,” said spokesman Dewayne Tully. “It’s not as if these incidents are dead.”