Morning Splash: Adachi Charges 'Systematic Misconduct' by SFPD; Oakland Gang Injunction Funding Continued

For the second time in a week — and the fifth time this year — San Francisco’s public defender released video that he claims shows police officers violating a suspect’s constitutional rights and improperly handling evidence. “We have a pattern of illegal searches and seizures,” Public Defender Jeff Adachi said Tuesday. “Why are the officers removing personal property? … You tell me. That's the answer we're waiting for.” The latest recording shows officers entering and later leaving the Julian Hotel on Feb. 25, 2011 with items that Adachi claims were never booked into evidence.

Gang injunctions in both North Oakland and the Fruitvale district won the support of the city council Tuesday night. In a 4-to-3 vote, the council decided to continue funding both efforts, which have cost the city about $760,000, mostly in staff time.

Now that Bay Bridge drivers have grown accustomed to navigating the S-curve, another shift is coming. Over Memorial Day weekend, Caltrans will move the eastbound lanes of the bridge slightly to the south as they land in Oakland, as part of an effort to speed completion of the new east span.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón said Tuesday that he has assigned a prosecutor to establish his neighborhood-courts program at the Mission and Bayview police stations, expressing optimism that the new approach will cut costs and recidivism rates in those communities. Gascón said he expects the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Prozan, to handle 150 misdemeanor and infraction cases a month at each station.

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr announced his new command staff Tuesday, reassigning his immediate predecessor to a civilian post and restoring the former head of operations who had been stripped of the post by former chief George Gascón. Besides moving or demoting several key figures in Gascón's command staff, most notably former acting chief Jeff Godown, Suhr laid off three civilians - including the supervisor over discipline, Jerry Tidwell - in what was billed as a $1 million cost-saving restructuring.

Accused triple killer Antoine Mackey testified Tuesday that he didn't kill or help kill anyone, including journalist Chauncey Bailey, while working at Your Black Muslim Bakery in summer 2007. Mackey said that Devaughndre Broussard -- the man who confessed to killing Bailey and said Mackey helped -- was angry with him for having sex with women in whom he also had an interest, and so implicated him in the shooting deaths. Mackey's testimony was an unexpected turn in the trial and came on the day jurors had been told to instead expect closing arguments in the trial that has lasted about two months.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Board of Directors on Tuesday agreed to increase the rates for both one-fifth of a mile of driving and one minute of waiting time by 10 cents, to 55 cents each. But the board put those changes on hold until it can consider a proposal to increase the “flag drop” fee, charged at the beginning of each taxi ride, by 40 cents to $3.50.

...While working Californians will earn an average of $4,000 more over the next two years, those earning over $200,000 a year, and/or selling a bunch of stock, will account for most of the $6.6 billion increase in tax revenue, according to new budget estimates. "It looks like the upper-income taxpayers are having a greater gain in their income than previously anticipated," said Brown's budget director, Ana Matosantos, explaining the unexpected windfall.

Hundreds of San Jose city workers gathered in the cold rain at City Hall plaza Tuesday night, protesting a city budget that demands cuts to staff, pay and perks. Waving signs and chanting, "They say cut back, we say fight back!" the protesters rallied, then marched from the plaza to the council chamber, where Mayor Chuck Reed and the council had scheduled an evening meeting to discuss the 2011-12 budget. The 300 or so protesters -- mostly city employees and union members, some faith leaders and community members -- are fighting proposed budget cuts that will slash neighborhood services, reduce library and community center hours, cut funding for youth programs including gang prevention, and lay off police and firefighters.

Unlike former presidential contender John Edwards, who fathered a child by a woman working on his campaign, Schwarzenegger's affair with a household helper was never witnessed by disgruntled aides who might have reason to drop a dime. Neither does there appear to have been any public or campaign money involved in whatever it took to keep Schwarzenegger's paramour out of the news.

Fabian Núñez isn't looking for public sympathy. He knows he doesn't deserve it. The former Assembly speaker and his family are anguished over the conviction of his 22-year-old son for voluntary manslaughter. But Núñez knows his pain doesn't approach the heartache felt by the family of Luis Santos, the college student killed in a fight involving Esteban Núñez in October 2008.

From sunglasses with lenses that look like bicycle wheels, to cocktail specials with names like "Stage 4 Road Rash Bloody Mary," there was no shortage of Amgen enthusiasm -- or its accompanying kitsch -- in downtown Livermore on Tuesday night. In an effort to ramp up interest in the 82-mile course, merchants are exploiting their creativity via novelty foods, beverages and other items.

The 18-year-old Rohnert Park driver who killed a 2-year-old child and seriously injured her mother when she struck the pair as they walked in a crosswalk now faces a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge, Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch said Monday. Kaitlyn Dunaway, a freshman at Sonoma State University, was text messaging on her cell phone when she struck Calli Murray and her mother Ling Murray, who were crossing Snyder Lane, Ravitch said.

When LinkedIn, the Mountain View social network for professionals, last week set the price range for shares in its initial public offering at $32 to $35, some pundits thought the company was playing things safe. Maybe LinkedIn listened: On Tuesday, the company hiked the price at which it expects its shares to debut to $42 to $45. That nearly 30 percent increase means the startup could be worth more than $4 billion. LinkedIn is expected to set its final share price Wednesday and begin trading Thursday.

Unita, the only female falcon to be born earlier this year on the 18th-floor ledge of City Hall, has died.
She was 40 days old. "It takes equal measures of luck, skill and strength to survive out there," said Glenn Stewart, a biologist with the UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, who monitors the peregrine falcons born in the Bay Area. "This was purely bad luck."