The San Francisco Police Department appears to have violated state and federal laws when its officers searched the San Francisco home of a journalist in an apparent bid to identify a confidential source, 1st Amendment experts said Sunday. The officers carted away phones, computers, tablets and notebooks Friday after using a sledgehammer to try to break through Bryan Carmody’s front gate. Officers also searched his independent news organization, North Bay News, and seized a thumb drive, CDs and a police report about the death of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. Carmody said he suspects the searches were carried out in a bid to identify the confidential source who provided him with the police report. Two investigators visited his home a few weeks ago and “politely” pressed him to disclose the name of his source, but he said he declined. California has a shield law that protects journalists from being held in contempt for refusing to identify their sources, said David Snyder, a lawyer and executive director of the First Amendment Coalition. Advertisement “It’s pretty plainly unlawful,” said Snyder, who noted that the statute governing search warrants expressly forbids police from seizing items covered by the shield law. “They are trying to root out the source, and that’s the core of what California’s journalist shield law protects,” he said. “It’s something you’d expect out of an authoritarian regime, not the city of San Francisco.” Carmody is not the only victim of the Police Department’s questionable searches, according to the Society of Professional Journalists’ branch in Northern California. “An attack on the rights of one journalist is an attack on the rights of all journalists,” the organization’s freedom of information committee said in a statement. “San Francisco’s wrongful actions against Carmody threaten fundamental journalistic freedoms which are vital to a functioning democracy.” A Police Department spokesman defended the searches as part of “a complete and thorough investigation into this leak” and said the raid was “a step in the process of investigating a potential case of obstruction of justice along with the illegal distribution of confidential police material.” The spokesman, David Stevenson, added that judges signed off on warrants to conduct both searches. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Gail Dekreon approved the warrant to search Carmody’s home on Thursday, and Judge Victor Hwang approved the warrant to seize materials from the office of North Bay News on Friday, according to records provided to The Times. It’s unclear what police told the judges to secure the warrants. The affidavits outlining probable cause for the warrants were sealed by the court. Advertisement A spokesman for the San Francisco district attorney’s office said Sunday that their prosecutors were not involved in preparing or signing off on the warrants. When a reporter would not betray his source, police came to his home with guns and a sledgehammer » The investigation has made Carmody a cause celebre of 1st Amendment advocates and renewed concern about press freedoms in a time when freelancers, contractors and independent journalists work with multiple news outlets across a variety of platforms. Carmody was part of a throng of journalists chasing details about the Feb. 22 death of Adachi, 59. He ultimately obtained an incident report that detailed the public defender’s final moments. Advertisement The document, as reported by KGO-TV in San Francisco, said Adachi had dinner with a woman named Caterina, who was not his wife, then returned to an apartment he was using for the weekend. The woman called 911 for emergency medical help, and Adachi was rushed to the hospital. Later that night, officers went to the apartment and found “alcohol, cannabis-infused gummies and syringes believed to have been used by the paramedics,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The city medical examiner would later conclude that Adachi died of an accidental overdose of cocaine and alcohol. Images of the apartment were circulated online by KTVU, a Fox affiliate in Oakland, as well as KGO-TV. Carmody told the Chronicle that he sold the package, which generally includes documents, video and other reporting material, to three TV stations. Adachi’s widow and city officials chastised San Francisco police for allowing the details of a confidential report to get into the media’s hands. Advertisement John Hamasaki, a member of the city’s Police Commission and a defense attorney, said an underlying concern was that the report’s release “was done by Jeff Adachi’s enemies within the Police Department to tarnish his legacy.” As public defender, Adachi cast himself as a police watchdog and champion of civil rights. Hamasaki, who described Adachi as a friend and mentor, said that although he did not appreciate the incident report’s sordid content, he did support outlets like the Chronicle that published details it contained. However, he claimed Carmody’s situation was different. Carmody wasn’t reporting on the document, “but trying to sell it to other news agencies,” Hamasaki argued. “That’s not journalism.” Lucy Dalglish, an attorney and the dean of the University of Maryland journalism school, compared Carmody to a small broadcast wire service, feeding local news organizations with original reporting. Advertisement She said the Police Department’s actions turn on whether its investigators strongly believe Carmody broke into a police station or engaged in other illegal behavior in order to steal the report. “But if all this guy did was receive a copy of a police report, then sorry, that’s a bad search,” Dalglish said. “Publishing something because someone handed you a document is not a violation of the law.” Dalglish, who previously served as director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, pointed to the federal Privacy Protection Act, which prevents law enforcement from searching a newsroom and seizing journalists’ equipment and work product. The statute was passed in 1980 in response to a Supreme Court ruling that dealt a blow to press freedoms. The court ruled that a 1971 search of the Stanford Daily student newspaper’s offices by Palo Alto police was constitutional. Following the Supreme Court ruling, California voters enshrined the shield law’s provisions in the state Constitution. “If you want information from a journalist, what you are supposed to do is issue a subpoena,” Dalglish said. Advertisement<doc-sep>A San Francisco journalist said Sunday authorities knocked down the gate of his home with a sledgehammer, handcuffed him for hours and seized thousands of dollars in electronics after he refused to identify a confidential source. The journalist, Bryan Carmody, said in an interview that the raid occurred Friday — though officers from the San Francisco Police Department first asked him two weeks ago about who provided a police report that revealed details of the death of the city’s longtime public defender, Jeff Adachi, in February. The city’s medical examiner determined that trace amounts of cocaine and alcohol found in Adachi’s system contributed to a heart attack that killed him. Journalist Bryan Carmody said police raided his San Francisco home Friday after he refused to identify a confidential source in the death of the city's longtime public defender, Jeff Adachi. Bryan Carmody Carmody, 49, a freelancer, said he sold the leaked story — which included photos from the apartment where Adachi was found unresponsive — to some local news outlets. After the leak was denounced by elected officials and Adachi’s widow, who called it “despicable,” a department commander apologized and said the leaker would be held accountable. When the officers arrived at Carmody’s home, he said, “They asked me to give them the source. Of course, I declined.” When authorities returned Friday, Carmody said officers had a warrant that appeared to say they were looking for the report, which was described as “stolen or embezzled” property. Carmody said he was handcuffed for seven hours while officers took his equipment and obtained another warrant to search his office. “They took every electronic device that I own — every computer, every hard drive, every digital photograph that I have taken in the last 25 years,” he said. They also took the report, though Carmody said the document did not specify the source who provided it to him. The San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it provided a statement Friday to NBC Bay Area. “Today’s actions are one step in the process of investigating a potential case of obstruction of justice along with the illegal distribution of a confidential police report," it said. The local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists condemned the raid, saying it “shows an alarming disregard for the right to gather and report on information.” The group said it was seeking more information on why the department did not follow California’s shield laws, which protects journalists who refuse to disclose a source’s identity. Carmody said he’s had a good working relationship with the police department for years. Now, he just wants his equipment back. “At this point, they’ve shut down my business completely,” he said. “I don’t have the gear I need to do my job.”<doc-sep>So he stayed handcuffed for the next six hours, he says — a certificate of release from the police department that he distributed says he was in custody from 8:22 a.m. until 1:55 p.m. — as investigators searched his home, then his office, where they found the report in a safe. A search warrant filed in the case notes that it was issued as police investigated “stolen or embezzled property.”<doc-sep>Police raided the home and office of a freelance journalist Friday morning as part of an ongoing investigation into a leaked confidential police report containing salacious details about the death of late Public Defender Jeff Adachi. Freelance journalist Bryan Carmody told the San Francisco Examiner that his home and office were raided by police and FBI agents because he had obtained a copy of the police report, and sold information from that report to the press following Adachi’s death on February 22. The leak drew wide condemnation and prompted members of the Board of Supervisors to call for the police department to investigate and hold accountable the source of it within the department. Two weeks prior, Carmody said that he was interviewed by police officers about where he obtained his information, but refused to disclose his source. Today, Carmody said that police and FBI agents executed a search warrant on his Richmond District home and Western Addition office. They confiscated his cell phones, computers and a copy of the police report from within his office safe. “They have completely shut down my business,” said Carmody, who has operated as an independent stringer for Bay Area and national television stations, including Fox News, CNBC and CBS Evening news. Carmody accused police of “intimidation” to “make me break my [journalistic] ethics.” “I’m refusing to give up my source,” he said. A San Francisco Police Department spokesperson defended their action in a statement Friday, saying that the warrant was granted by a judge and the raid was “part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the leak of the Adachi police report.” “Today’s actions are one step in the process of investigating a potential case of obstruction of justice along with the illegal distribution of a confidential police report,” the statement read. Carmody said that police and FBI agents attempted to enter his home at 8:30 a.m. using “a sledgehammer.” “They were in the process of breaking my gate down at which time I woke up and let them in,” said Carmody, adding that the authorities entered his home with guns drawn and searched “my entire house from attic to garage.” Carmody said that he was detained in handcuffs for more than seven hours and asked to be released several times, but that authorities refused his request. He said he remained in handcuffs as police brought him along with them to his Western Addition office, where they found the police report in a safe. Carmody doesn’t believe that whatever materials were confiscated would lead to identifying the source of the leaked report. Carmody said he sold details of the report as a story package that included “video information” and “off-the record interviews” as “any freelance journalist does.” He said that the package was bought by three media outlets. He would not disclose which outlets. Friends and supporters of Adachi, who dedicated his career to uncovering police misconduct, said the leak was political retribution. Carmody declined to comment on the motivation of the leak. At an April hearing it was revealed that a freelance reporter had allegedly sold the information to media outlets for $2,500 each, but his identity was not disclosed. Public Defender Mano Raju, who succeeded Adachi, said in an email statement that he is “pleased that [Police Chief Bill Scott] and others are keeping their word and working to get to the bottom of it.” “All of our criminal justice and City Hall leaders agree that the release of police reports in this fashion is wrong,” said Raju. lwaxmann@sfexaminer.comJeff Adachi News If you find our journalism valuable and relevant, please consider joining our Examiner membership program. Find out more at www.sfexaminer.com/join/<doc-sep>
The banging jolted Bryan Carmody awake. Outside his San Francisco home Friday morning, the longtime journalist saw a throng of police officers with a sledgehammer, trying to break down his front gate. Carmody told the eight to 10 officers he would only let them in with a search warrant. Police confirmed a judge signed off on their barging into his home. Then the officers drew their guns and scoured his residence. When police left, they carted away his notebooks, computers, cameras, phones and even his fiancee’s iPod from her college days. “I knew what they wanted,” Carmody told The Times. “They wanted the name.” A few weeks before, he said two San Francisco police officers — a sergeant and a lieutenant — knocked on his door and “cordially” asked him to identify the source who shared a confidential police report into the Feb. 22 death of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. “Of course, I politely declined,” Carmody said of the visit from police last month. He had the same response Friday. After police came into his home, officers handcuffed him for six hours as they collected his equipment. A receipt certifying his release from custody confirms he was handcuffed from 8:22 a.m. to 1:55 p.m. The search warrant for his home said officers were investigating “stolen or embezzled” property. It was unclear whether he was handcuffed because of the guns he says he legally owns. Carmody said the guns were locked in a safe, and he said that over the hours-long search, it was evident officers didn’t view him as a threat. At one point, some police took off their bulletproof vests on account of the heat, he said. While he was shackled, officers got a second warrant to search his newsroom, where police seized a thumb drive, CDs and, inside a safe, the sought-after police report about Adachi’s death. Carmody, 49, said he has not shared the name of his source with anyone, and no markings on the document could be traced to the person who provided it. Fellow journalists in the Bay Area and beyond were outraged by the search of Carmody’s home and office. And the incident provided a new wrinkle into the evolving aftermath of the unexpected death of Adachi, who left behind a legacy of championing civil rights. Initial reports said the 59-year-old public defender had been traveling when he suddenly had a heart attack. Carmody remembers his goal as a reporter on the story was to figure out where exactly Adachi died. But soon, salacious details emerged that were difficult to confirm. “There were leaks happening all over the place,” he recalled. He ultimately obtained an incident report that detailed Adachi’s final moments. The San Francisco Chronicle also obtained a copy of the report, but not from Carmody. The document, as reported by KGO-TV in San Francisco, detailed that shortly before his death, Adachi had dinner with a woman named “Caterina” who was not his wife, then returned to an apartment he arranged to use for the weekend. The woman called 911 for emergency medical help, and Adachi was taken to the hospital, where he died. Later that night, officers went to the apartment and found “alcohol, cannabis-infused gummies and syringes believed to have been used by the paramedics,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Photos of the apartment circulated online by KTVU and other outlets. The city medical examiner would later conclude Adachi died of an accidental overdose of cocaine and alcohol. Carmody said he called up his clients and sold the fruits of his news-gathering, which included the police report. He told the Chronicle that he sold the package to three TV stations. Amid a public mourning, city officials chastised police for allowing the details of a confidential report to end up in the headlines. The police launched an internal investigation into the report’s leaking, which led to Friday’s raid at Carmody’s home. “The citizens and leaders of the City of San Francisco have demanded a complete and thorough investigation into this leak, and this action represents a step in the process of investigating a potential case of obstruction of justice along with the illegal distribution of confidential police material,” police spokesman David Stevenson said in a statement Saturday to The Times.