Almost at the same time the Chronicle posted that the seven people arrested in the witness intimidation case have been freed, H Brown gets an email from the defense attorney Eric Safire describing the rest of the story, and possibly why these people have been freed, which isn’t mentioned in the Chronicle, yet. This is likely to get posted on H Browns blog shortly
The San Francisco legal newspaper, The Recorder, has an update, making some points consistent with the Chronicle article, and the following email
Hi Harold,
You don’t know me, but your FB picture display an image of a thougtful man, so I hope
you would consider reserving Judgement until all the facts come out at trialThose known so far are as follows:
1. Three other witness to the shooting, one of which was right next to the shooter at
the time, have eliminated my client as the shooter. The DA failed to call those
withnesses at the PX and defense usually waits to present evidence until trial.2. Surveillance videos uncovered by the chief police inspector depict images of the
alleged assailant that do not match the description provided by the witness from Texas.
The inspector aknowledged this inconsistancy during his testimony at the PX.3. I filed motions to compel the police and DA to hold a non suggestive lineup. At such
a lineup the witness would be behind a two way mirror and not viewed by the defendant or
anyone else. The DA opposed this procedure and the motion was denied.4. prior to the witness testifying on Tuesday, I disclosed to the court that I would
like to have several men matching the description of my client and made by the witness,
(Black guys with gold teeth) in the court room in an attempt to have the ID made in
Court by the witness less suggestive… If the only Black guy with gold teeth in the
room is my client, she surely would be inclined to make the ID. The DA objected as he
claimed the tactic was designed to intimidate the witness. I assured the DA and the
court that my intent was to even the playing field ANd NOT to intimidate anyone…Again
I asked for the lineup procedure. The Judge considered the matter and allowed me to
have the men in the Court room…Nothing tricky or sneaky was done…full disclosure.5. After the men stood up the DA asked the Judge to detain them as he claimed the
procedure was intimidating. The Judge denied the request and allowed the men to leave as
gentlemen, which they did. The Judge implictly found no intimidation.6. The police were waiting in the hall and arrested all eight.
7. Insofar as I know, only one of the 8 had one single prior conviction.
8. THe supposed Gang involved here has not been registered with the city attorneys
office and no one has been documented as a member of this alleged gang. Nor have any
of the eight, nor my client been served with any gang injunctions.Criminal defense is not popular, but if you or anyone close to you believed you were
wrongfully accused, I think you would want someone to fight as hard as was safe and
within the law, as they could.I believe that’s what I did, and have done over the past thirty years.
I’m not sure why I took the time to respond, but again your photo depicts what looks
like a thoughtful man.Best, E
questions that I still have about this….
I was under the impression because of the news articles, that the
‘alleged gang members arrested for standing up in the courtroom’ were
somehow related to the defendant, like they were friends of the killer
who showed up to intimidate the witness
but now it sounds like the defense attorney got a random group of
black people with gold teeth to show up, in order to cast doubt on the
ability of the witness to identify, which basically is his job
Now, if those seven arrested were not gang members, and not related to
the killer, and didn’t know the killer…….then that means the
prosecution, the DA’s office, royally screwed up, because that means
that they themselves had labeled ‘black people with gold teeth’ as
gang members, simply because they had gold teeth, and were black
which basically proves his point, that people can be prejudicial, solely based on how people look, including the DA’s office
I mean, if that’s the case, then people should be calling for Kamela
Harris head on a platter, not Safire