Godown was responding to yet another Adachi news conference Wednesday during which he released a security videotape showing officers at a Richmond district apartment building March 1 conducting a search for drugs. Superior Court Judge Gerald Sandoval dismissed the case Wednesday afternoon, saying the videotape appeared to discredit the officers' written and oral testimony in court. The officers said they had obtained consent to enter an apartment unit from the tenant whom they later arrested for possession of marijuana. Adachi told reporters at a hastily held news briefing that the videotape showed police illegally barging into the building.
Adachi criticized the police department, saying this most recent case proves that police misconduct "is not confined just to one group of rogue officers operating in the Tenderloin." He said it is a "systemic problem" within the department.
Adachi was referring to some 80 criminal cases which have been dismissed by judges or dropped by the district attorney because of charges of police misconduct, mainly in residential hotels south of Market Street. Eight officers are now under investigation for conducting what may have been illegal searches. The FBI is the lead agency in the probe.
Adachi has held a continuing series of news conferences since the first case was revealed earlier this month.
Godown said he wants the public "not to believe everything you hear from the public defender."
