San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi released yet another videotape today depicting questionable, if not criminal, San Francisco police conduct. The video, shot last December 30, apparently shows plainclothes officers entering the Jefferson Hotel, on Eddy Street in the city's Tenderloin district. Among the activities that never made it into police reports related to their visit to the hotel: officers throwing a man against a wall, and officers leaving a resident's room with a bulging dufflebag that was never entered into evidence. Matt Gonzalez, the public defender's chief attorney, said the fact that police reports didn't match up with details recorded in the video suggests officers committed perjury.
Adachi's office has released a series of surveillance videos from single-room-occupancy hotels in the city that contradict officers' reports and sworn testimony about arrests. The videos have led to dozens of cases being thrown out of court and prompted the Police Department to shut down its Central Station plainclothes unit pending an investigation of the cases. The department said today the latest video case has been referred to its internal affairs unit as a high-priority investigation.
Here's the latest video, which the Public Defender's office uploaded to YouTube: