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Trial Attorneys Wanted

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The SF Public Defenders office seeks attorneys for entry level trial positions to join its team of exceptional attorneys and support staff. Candidates must be highly motivated to do trial work and passionate about criminal defense. Strong research, writing and communication skills are required. California Bar membership is also required. Salaries range from $101, 504.00 to $177,814.00 with benefits. Diverse and multilingual candidates are encouraged to apply. The Public Defender is an equal opportunity employer.

Interested applicants should fill out an online application and submit documents to this link:

http://www.jobaps.com/SF/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1=PEX&R2=8177&R3=900456

Unique SF Program Aims to Keep Troubled Kids in School

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Unique SF Program Aims to Keep Troubled Kids in School

By Laura Dudnick, SF Examiner

This fall, a 16-year-old boy entering his junior year at Lincoln High School — who two years ago was arrested for allegedly stealing a cellphone — will fulfill his dream of playing on the school’s football team after lifting his grades to a C average.

Another boy, who in early 2012 was arrested for allegedly assaulting another student at school, graduated from high school in December with plans to go to community college in spring.

Both teens, following their arrests, quickly found themselves struggling to navigate the deep waters of the legal system and in even more trouble at school. So how did they manage to find a different path?

That was due to the Legal Educational Advocacy Program, which at the time of the boys’ arrests was a new addition to the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.

The program — now in its third year and believed to be the only one of its kind in California — provides an education attorney and social worker for students who enter the justice system to keep youths from dropping out of school.

‘The support they need’

“Our aim is to improve kids’ education outcome to reduce re-offending,” said Lauren Brady, the program’s education attorney. “A lot of these kids experience an enormous amount of failure in school up to the point where they get to us. We build a plan to get students the support they need.”

And their efforts are working, according to the Public Defender’s Office. Of the more than 250 youths who have gone through the program since its inception in January 2012, fewer than 13 percent have offended again, and 80 percent demonstrate improved school attendance, Public Defender Jeff Adachi said.

“Fifty percent of the 1,000 or so kids that come into the [San Francisco] juvenile justice system are there because of incidents that occur on school grounds,” Adachi said. “For many kids it’s a matter of getting the support they need” in school, he said.

Each day, Brady and LEAP’s social worker, Marc Babus, travel from court to juvenile hall to schools to advocate for students and ensure their educational needs are being met, specifically by representing them at school disciplinary hearings and individualized plan meetings.

“It makes a huge difference to have a person on the ground in the schools who is a constant presence, who can troubleshoot and make linkages, and address issues as they come up and before they even become problems,” Brady said.

Brady and Babus have worked with students at 14 public middle schools, as well as all of the San Francisco Unified School District’s 18 high schools, to “provide a whole picture to judges [and] court officers about what education issues are for the students,” Brady said.

And judges take note of the increased efforts in a student’s education.

Keeping students in school is the best way to help them get out of the juvenile justice system, said Judge Patrick Mahoney, a former presiding judge of juvenile and family court in San Francisco.

“It has addressed effectively what has been a long-known need for students to be successful in getting out of the juvenile justice system,” Mahoney said. “What was different [about the program] was kind of concentrating on one of the most important elements of success for students — how they’re doing in school.”

Winning students’ trust

On a given day, Babus rides his bike to up to four schools after checking to see which of his students have court appearances. He’s developed positive relationships with them, though he said most were distrusting at first.

“Usually it takes a couple of court appearances before they really believe that I am who I say I am, that I’m there for [them], that I’m their advocate,” Babus said. “A vast majority learn that I’m on their side, they have a good attitude after that.”

In addition to working with students, Brady and Babus also provide community education and training to parents, guardians and other system partners, and participate in committees and other activities that aim to eliminate system gaps.

Adachi introduced the program in The City to help combat what’s often referred to as the school-to-prison pipeline, in which a student’s likelihood of being incarcerated later in life is correlated with being suspended, expelled or dropping out of school.

The majority of students in the program — at least 90 percent — are minorities, and about 80 percent are male, Brady said. Minorities also have the highest dropout rates in the SFUSD.

Initially funded by a three-year grant from the Department of Justice, the program’s funding will run out in December. Adachi is seeking money from The City to continue and expand the program by adding a paralegal, which would bring the annual cost of the program to nearly $200,000.

The City has agreed to fund at least $122,333 — enough to cover an education attorney and social worker — and the Public Defender’s Office is planning to make its case before the budget committee today for an extra $73,137 to finance a full-time paralegal, spokeswoman Tamara Barak Aparton said.

As the program’s future is ironed out, Brady and Babus are plugging away through the summer. Most students in the program are in summer school, which means Brady and Babus continue to ensure clients are taking the right classes and receiving appropriate credit, and conducting visits to students’ homes and schools.

The pair is also working with the San Francisco Achievement Collaborative Team, which provides integrated treatment and education at Civic Center High School for substance-abusing youths in the juvenile justice system.

The program has been touted on numerous occasions for its success.

It was selected to receive the Mayor’s Fiscal Advisory Committee’s Managerial Excellence Team Award in March, and was also named 2014 Program of the Year by the California Public Defenders Organization.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/unique-sf-program-aims-to-keep-troubled-kids-in-school/Content?oid=2832497

Cyclist Cleared in Pedestrian Accident

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San Francisco, CA — The case against a cyclist who struck a jaywalker in Noe Valley was dismissed after a jury voted overwhelmingly for his acquittal, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi announced today.

Prosecutors on Wednesday dismissed a misdemeanor reckless driving charge against 20-year-old John Kewin, said Kewin’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Tammy Zhu. On June 10, a San Francisco jury voted 11-1 to acquit Kewin, who faced up to a year in jail if convicted.

Kewin, a college student and avid cyclist, was cited Sept. 23, 2013 following the mid-day crash on 24th Street between Castro and Noe streets. The female pedestrian, who was not in a crosswalk, was knocked unconscious and suffered facial injuries. Kewin, who was wearing a helmet, suffered minor injuries.

Three witnesses to the crash took the stand in the weeklong trial, providing conflicting testimony.  A motorist testified that Kewin appeared to be adjusting his path to avoid the pedestrian and unavoidably struck her when she suddenly changed course. A cyclist, however, testified that Kewin was riding too fast and swerving.  The third witness did not notice the bicycle before the collision.

The pedestrian who was injured also took the stand, testifying that she was crossing 24th Street to check her parking meter and was struck after deciding to turn around and head back to the curb. The stretch of 24th Street where the incident occurred is flat and does not have a bike lane.

Two character witnesses, Kewin’s boss and friend, testified that Kewin is a cautious cyclist who takes safety seriously.

Kewin stayed at the scene of the crash and cooperated with police.

“The evidence in this case was clear: It was an accident, not a crime,” Zhu said.

Dismissing the case was the right thing to do, Adachi said.

“Mr. Kewin is a law-abiding cyclist who was cited based on the word of a single witness who was wrong about what really happened. His public defender worked tirelessly to present all the facts of the case to build a complete picture of what happened that day, and the case was dismissed after 11 jurors agreed with her,” Adachi said.

San Francisco Students Celebrate National Summer Learning Day with Jeff Adachi & Community Leaders

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San Francisco, CA 6/20/14– Hundreds of San Francisco youth and their families will be joined at City Hall by Mo’ Magic sponsors Supervisor London Breed and Public Defender Jeff Adachi, as well as supporters including several city leaders, district leaders, and State Senator Leno, to celebrate National Summer Learning Day. The largest National Summer Learning Day gathering in California, this event will honor the district, city, and non-profit partnerships that make summer learning programs across the city and state a reality. The event will include a festival of summer learning in Civic Center Plaza led by the summer learning program Mo’ Magic.

This event is one of many planned throughout California to recognize National Summer Learning Day, and is being held alongside events in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, Fresno, and many other communities.

A vast body of research shows that students who lack access to quality summer learning opportunities risk suffering “summer learning loss”–this term refers to an actual loss in academic skills and knowledge during the summer months that sets students back academically. Research shows that high-quality and engaging summer learning programs prevent summer learning loss and strengthen students’ social and academic skills, work habits, attitudes, and readiness to learn.

National Summer Learning Day is aimed at showing parents, educators, and decision-makers that summer learning is critical to closing the achievement gap between children from low-income families and their peers. Events across California will highlight the growing number of communities and districts that are investing in summer programs to ensure that all children learn and play throughout the summer.

“More than half of the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities,” said San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who founded the Mo’ Magic program to steer youth in the Western Addition away from the juvenile justice system. “San Francisco is a city of incredible innovation but also suffers from extreme income inequality. Low-income kids in San Francisco are less likely than their wealthy peers to graduate from high school, enter college, or take advantage of the economic boom in their hometown. Investing in summer learning means providing opportunities for all young San Franciscans to continue to learn and succeed.”

“I’m honored to sponsor Mo’ Magic’s National Summer Learning Day event,” said Supervisor London Breed. “Excitement is growing across the state to build summer learning programs that help kids learn all year long, and San Francisco is a leader in the movement.”

“National Summer Learning Day reinforces why summer matters and why high-quality summer learning programs are so important,”said Sheryl Davis, the Director of Mo’ Magic.“This is a terrific opportunity for students and city leaders to celebrate summer learning. Our students are demonstrating how much they value summer programs, and city leaders can participate in summer activities with the children.”

“San Francisco is committed to providing high-quality summer learning programs across all of our neighborhoods, and we’re excited about the partnerships between the City, school district, businesses and nonprofits that make these opportunities available for our City’s youth,” said Mayor Edwin Lee. “Let’s make sure our youth keep learning this summer!”

In San Francisco, the city and school district lead a citywide partnership that involves parents, nonprofit providers, and other stakeholders all working to increase the availability to and quality of summer learning programs. The partnership, called the San Francisco Expanded Learning Collaborative, focuses on policy but also practical resources like an online searchable database of summer programs, located at www.SFKids.org, to help families understand their options.

“Our city is amazing and unique in that many public and private organizations collaborate to ensure children and youth are supported with high-quality summer learning environments,” said Maria Su, Director of the Department of Children, Youth & Their Families. “DCYF strives to foster these collaborations through strategic city-wide planning and is proud to say there has been an increase in summer program slots for 2014!”

This year, State Superintendent of Schools Tom Torlakson and the Summer Matters Campaign helped develop legislation that will update how California allocates over $120 million in federal after-school program dollars via the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program so that more students have access to year-round learning. SB 1221, authored by State Senator Loni Hancock, was passed by the State Senate on May 28th and is now being considered by the Assembly Education Committee.

“An investment in summer learning is an investment in our youth and their future. That is why I support SB 1221, which will boost grants for year-round educational programming,” said Senator Mark Leno. “Summer learning programs, such as those provided by Mo’ Magic in San Francisco, are vitally important for students to succeed in school.”
During the press conference on the steps of City Hall, Hydra Mendoza, Education and Family Services Advisor to Mayor Edwin Lee, will presenta proclamation for National Summer Learning Day to Jennifer Peck, executive director of the Partnership for Children and Youth and chair of the Summer Matters Campaign. “This celebration showcases the great work happening in San Francisco, and mirrors other fabulous summer learning events that are happening across the state. We’re excited that so many school and city leaders understand the importance of children learning year-round,” said Peck.

Following the press conference, children and their families will be able to participate in fun and engaging summer learning activities in Civic Center Plaza, such as sports, arts and crafts, science, and reading. In partnership with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, the San Francisco Public Library will be hosting Imagination Playground, as well as have a book mobile at the event. In addition, corporate sponsors LinkedIn and Facebook will have volunteers assisting with activities, such as surveys and a photo booth.

“Facebook is committed to supporting the academic success of local students. We proudly support Mo’ Magic and National Summer Learning Day and their efforts in encouraging students to prepare for the coming school year,” said Susan Gonzalez, Director of Community Engagement at Facebook.

“We are thrilled to support Summer Learning Day for San Francisco children,” said Katie Ferrick, LinkedIn Senior Manager of Community Relations. “This is a great opportunity to support our nation’s youth to continue to learn this summer and ultimately help build our future leaders.”

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Why Audrie’s Law is Bad for California

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Why Audrie’s Law is Bad for California

By Jeff Adachi and Roger Chan

Huffington Post

There is an old adage among judges: Hard cases make bad law. Often, when a terrible crime happens, there is a rush to pass a new criminal law to redress the tragedy. The case of Audrie Potts, the impetus for Senator Jim Beall’s Senate Bill 838, is indeed tragic. But SB 838, which creates a mandatory minimum term of confinement that is unprecedented in California’s juvenile justice system, is not the answer.

Mandatory minimum sentences are one-size-fits-all sentencing schemes common in adult criminal systems. Designed to prosecute kingpins and crime bosses, they are inherently punitive and intended to exact retribution for crimes committed by an adult. We know from science and from real life, however, that youth are different than adults, and are more amenable to treatment. As the U.S. Supreme Court stated, “[F]rom a moral standpoint it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor’s character deficiencies will be reformed.”

Importing mandatory minimum sentences from the adult system would undermine the rehabilitation and treatment goals of California’s juvenile justice system in place for more than 50 years. Currently, when determining sanctions for youthful offenders, juvenile court judges weigh the severity of the young person’s offense, the impact on the victim, and factors such as mental illness or intellectual disability. The judge who sees all this evidence is in the best position to fashion appropriate consequences for juvenile crimes. Requiring judges to impose a mandatory minimum sanction eliminates this important judicial discretion that is a cornerstone of our system of juvenile justice.

Mandatory minimum sentencing schemes, moreover, do not reduce crime. They drive up incarceration rates without enhancing public safety. Most importantly, they exacerbate already shameful racial disparities throughout the adult and juvenile justice systems.

There have been significant improvements in California’s juvenile justice system since the atrocities and abuses in state facilities in decades past. The reforms have been driven by a scientific understanding of adolescent development and evidence-based practices. These reforms have been based on rehabilitative not retributive goals. SB 838′s mandatory minimum sentencing scheme would reverse this trend to the detriment of our youth and communities.

SB 838 is before the Assembly Public Safety Committee on June 17. We need to be smart on crime, and not let a single tragic case make us compromise the integrity of our system of justice for all youth in California.

Jeff Adachi is the public defender of San Francisco. Roger Chan is the executive director of the East Bay Children’s Law Offices.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-adachi/why-audries-law-is-bad-for-california_b_5501057.html

When a Juror Lies During Voir Dire

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When a Juror Lies During Voir Dire

Jeff Adachi

Daily Journal Op-Ed

In his legal thriller “The Runaway Jury,” author John Grisham tells a fictionalized account of a stealth juror who connives his way onto a jury in a tobacco litigation case in order to influence the outcome for his girlfriend, whose parents died from smoking.While this plotline made for a gripping movie, the consequences of such dishonesty for the criminally accused can be devastating.

For one accused of a crime, a just verdict depends on the honesty and objectivity of the jurors.The foundations of our legal system and the Constitution recognize this simple truth. It is spelled out in the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees an impartial jury. It is protected by safeguards on both sides of the justice system, such as peremptory challenges, challenges for cause and voir dire. It has been upheld by the Supreme Court as a fundamental right.

So what happens when, after a conviction, it is revealed that a juror concealed material facts or lied about his or her past?

As early as 1933, Justice Benjamin Cardozo, writing for a unanimous Supreme Court, declared that a juror who lies his way into the jury room is not a juror at all. “If the answers to the questions are willfully evasive or knowingly untrue, the talesman, when accepted, is a juror in name only.” Cardozo continued, “His relation to the court and to the parties is tainted in its origin; it is a mere pretense and sham.”

California courts have also recognized the fundamental importance of juror honesty. One of the first California cases to consider a juror’s concealment of material facts is People v. Blackwell, decided in 1987. Blackwell, who was charged with killing her husband, presented a battered-wife defense based on a long history of abuse at the hands of her alcoholic husband. During voir dire, Juror R denied any experience with alcoholism or physical abuse in her family. After Blackwell’s conviction, it came to light that Juror R had been abused by a former husband who became violent when drinking and that she believed the defendant should have handled the problem without resorting to violence.
Blackwell’s new trial motion argued that Juror R’s failure to reveal her prior experiences proved bias. The 1st District Court of Appeal agreed and reversed Blackwell’s conviction, finding that the juror was intentionally dishonest when she falsely answered a specific, unambiguous question.

 

 

The other seminal case was decided by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1998. In Dyer v. Calderon, the federal appeals court reversed the defendant’s four murder convictions because a juror had falsely answered that she and her relatives had never been victims of a crime or accused of a crime. It was later discovered that the juror’s brother had been shot and killed six years earlier and that her husband had been arrested and jailed on a rape charge before trial.

Writing for the court, Judge Alex Kozinski observed that “an irregularity in the selection of those who will sit in judgment casts a very long shadow. A perjured juror is as incompatible with the truth-seeking process as a judge who accepts bribes.” The 9th Circuit held that even though the juror had claimed she was fair, her bias should be implied from her intentional concealment. As Kozinski explained, “the individual who lies in order to improve his chances of serving has too much of a stake in the matter to be considered indifferent. Whether the desire to serve is motivated by an overactive sense of civic duty, by a desire to avenge past wrongs, by the hope of writing a memoir or by some other unknown motive, this excess of zeal introduces the kind of unpredictable factor into the jury room that the doctrine of implied bias is meant to keep out.”

Two recent California decisions addressed similar claims of juror misconduct, with two very different results.

In In re Boyette (2013), the state Supreme Court upheld a conviction in a death penalty double-murder case in which a juror who had denied having any criminal history was later found to have suffered several criminal convictions.

The juror in Boyette stated in a juror questionnaire that he had never been arrested or convicted of a crime. The juror presided as foreperson of the jury that convicted Boyette and sentenced him to death. On a habeas hearing, the defense discovered that the juror had been convicted of a felony 30 years earlier, had been arrested for robbery 20 years earlier and had served six months in jail on a drunk driving case 10 years before the trial.

Since the juror’s misconduct was discovered years after the conviction, and no findings on this issue had been made by the trial judge, the Supreme Court assigned a referee to hold a hearing to determine if the juror had deliberately lied. That referee found that the juror believed his 30-year-old conviction had been expunged and that he misunderstood the question as to the other arrests and conviction and thus did not deliberately conceal his criminal history. The Supreme Court, which called the juror’s claims “dubious,” said it was bound by the referee’s findings and denied relief.

Given the facts of Boyette, I cannot fathom how the referee found excusable the juror’s failure to disclose his criminal history. There are few questions more straightforward than “Have you ever been accused of a crime?” It is incredible to believe that any person with a long and memorable history of arrests would fail to mention any of these accusations. Advocates trying to reverse convictions based on juror misrepresentations should not be dissuaded by Boyette, however, as that case is dependent on the referee’s incredulous findings.

People v. Pizarro (2013) resulted in a far different outcome In Pizarro, a sexual assault and murder case that had been tried twice before,Juror No. 9 failed to reveal several criminal convictions on voir direand had conducted Internet research, reading an appellate decision about the defendant’s two prior trials for the same charge, which had been reversed by the courts. The trial court had denied the defendant’s new trial motion. However, the Court of Appeal reversed, finding that “investigating the case on his own made a mockery of the trial process.” The Court concluded, “We view that juror’s behavior in this case as criminal.”
Where Boyette stumbles, Pizarro succeeds by acknowledging the central role juror honesty plays in our fundamental rights. The Court of Appeal rejected the prosecution’s contention, based on People v. Carpenter, that the evidence of Pizarro’s guilt was “truly overwhelming” and therefore any juror misconduct was harmless. In Carpenter, the Supreme Court held that juror misconduct claims of extraneous influence were subject to a harmless error analysis.

“Actual bias does not require a showing of prejudice before a verdict will be set aside, because a defendant is entitled to 12 unbiased jurors, not 11, regardless of whether an unbiased jury would have reached the same verdict,” the court wrote.

In other words, using a harmless error analysis to test juror misconduct and allowing a verdict to stand because of overwhelming evidence of guilt is inconsistent with the guarantee that jurors be impartial and free of bias.

The Court of Appeal urged the Supreme Court to reconsider its Carpenter decision. “We believe that harmless error analysis should not apply to cases of juror bias, whether actual bias or inherent bias,” the court wrote. “The test of whether a juror was influenced by the extraneous information should not be limited to the situation where it caused the juror to cast a different vote than the juror would have cast if the extraneous material had not been considered.

 

When a juror lies on voir dire examination, the very heart of our justice system is undermined. We empower jurors with great power, and that power brings with it grave responsibility. Those who deceive their way into the jury box should not be trusted with our lives and liberty.

Jeff Adachi has served as San Francisco’s elected public defender since 2003.

Puffed Up Marijuana Case Fizzles

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Puffed Up Marijuana Case Fizzles

San Francisco, CA— A good Samaritan who offered a pinch of marijuana to soothe a stressed out stranger only to have his compassion repaid with felony charges was acquitted following a jury trial, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi announced today.

After three hours of deliberation, a jury on Wednesday found Stetson Qualls Jones, 24, not guilty of possession of marijuana for sale and sale of marijuana. If convicted, Qualls Jones faced up to three years in state prison, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Ariel Boyce-Smith.

Qualls Jones’ ordeal began Feb. 5 while hanging out with friends in the “Hippy Hill” area of Golden Gate Park. The group was socializing and smoking marijuana when Qualls Jones thought he recognized a man approaching the group and waved him over. Upon closer inspection, Qualls Jones realized the man was a stranger, but welcomed him regardless. When Qualls Jones invited him to smoke with the group, the man declined, asking instead if he could buy marijuana.

Qualls Jones testified that he told the man that he did not sell marijuana. The man appeared agitated and stressed out, so Qualls Jones reached into his personal stash, pinched off a small amount of marijuana, and handed it to the man, who turned out to be a police decoy.

Qualls Jones, who lives a communal lifestyle and frowns upon capitalism, testified that he refused the $20 the man offered him in exchange for the marijuana.

After the interaction, Qualls Jones was swarmed by five to six police officers, who were conducting a sting operation. Police found a bag of less than 1 ounce of marijuana in his jacket pocket. Police testified they found the $20 under a blanket where Qualls Jones was sitting.

Qualls Jones spent four days in jail before being released by a judge.

During the trial, Qualls Jones testified that he considers marijuana to be medicine and feels it should be freely shared instead of bought and sold.

Under questioning from Boyce-Smith, two police officers admitted they were receiving overtime pay in exchange for the buy-bust operation. One of the officers also acknowledged on the stand that his department receives federal grants for the stings.

“Despite conducting a well-funded operation, police did not bother to gather any corroborating evidence. There wasn’t a single photograph taken or a single witness interviewed, despite the fact that Mr. Qualls Jones was sitting with six other people in a public park,” Boyce-Smith said.

Throughout the trial, Boyce-Smith repeated a rhyme that captured the frailty of the case: “He didn’t accept a dime/they made up this crime/while they were getting paid overtime.”

In 2006, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance making marijuana offenses the police department’s lowest priority. However, public marijuana sales are not included in the policy.

Qualls Jones was found guilty of possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana, an infraction, and fined $25.

Adachi said Qualls Jones never posed a risk to public safety.

“A tremendous amount of city resources were wasted in a manufactured case against a man who was minding his own business,” Adachi said. “San Franciscans have been very clear about marijuana enforcement and I am not surprised a jury rejected this case.”

 

Mourner Cleared of Mission District Attack

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Mourner Cleared of Mission District Attack

San Francisco, CA— A mourner falsely accused of attacking a woman at a Mission District memorial vigil has been acquitted, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi announced today.

Jurors deliberated less than 45 minutes Tuesday afternoon before finding Sergio Escobar, 28, not guilty of one count of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Alexandra Pray. He faced up to a year in jail if convicted.

Escobar, a San Francisco husband and father who works for a moving company, was arrested Oct. 20, 2013 on 16th Street near Rondel Place in the Mission District. He had been attending a community vigil marking the one-year anniversary of a friend’s fatal shooting in the area.

The complaining witness, a 34-year-woman who did not know Escobar and was not part of the event, approached mourners and asked if they had seen a man named Raven. What happened next was the subject of dispute.

The woman told police Escobar responded to the innocent query by punching her in the face and was later among a group of people who kicked her as she lay on the ground.

At the three day trial, however, witnesses that included a police officer and two violence prevention workers contradicted the woman’s story.

According to Escobar and witnesses, the extremely intoxicated woman repeatedly approached a group of women at the vigil to badger them about Raven’s whereabouts. The mourners insisted they did not know Raven and shooed her away.  After becoming aggressive in her pestering of the group, a fight broke out between the woman and several female mourners. Escobar testified he was innocently eating a pupusa during the fight—a claim corroborated by two witnesses, including the woman who distributed the Salvadoran treats at the vigil.

Workers from the San Francisco Violence Intervention Project, which was manning the event, quickly broke up the altercation and escorted the intoxicated woman away from the area.

The woman, injured and enraged, returned a short time later with her companion Raven. She pointed at the women and identified them as her attackers. Raven, who witnesses testified was jumping up and down with clenched fists, advanced toward the female mourners. A group of men, including Escobar, surrounded Raven in order to protect the women, witnesses said.

Escobar testified that Raven took a swing at him. Escobar then shoved Raven in self defense and stepped over him when he fell to the ground, he said.

A police officer investigating a traffic incident nearby was alerted to the confrontation and arrested several people, including Escobar and Raven. Escobar spent the night in jail before making bail.

The anti-violence workers who took the stand corroborated Escobar’s version of events, testifying that the complaining witness was injured in a fight with other women, while Escobar was involved in a separate scuffle with Raven.

The police officer who investigated the incident also took the stand, admitting that he could not identify the person he briefly spotted from a distance lying at Escobar’s feet. The officer further testified that he did not witness any of the chaos, which had just ended as he arrived.

On the stand, the complaining witness denied being heavily intoxicated, insisting she had only three sips of vodka prior to the confrontation. She testified that being punched by Escobar was her sole memory of the night.

The jury concluded the complaining witness had been beaten up, but not by Escobar.

“The jurors found Mr. Escobar and the independent witnesses very credible,” Pray said. “It simply didn’t make sense that Mr. Escobar, a man with no history of violence, would coldcock a strange woman for no reason.”

Adachi said the case illustrates the many problems with eyewitness memory.

“This was a classic case of eyewitness misidentification. Research tells us that intoxication, stress and trauma all contribute to mistaken eyewitness identification, something that is responsible for more wrongful convictions than all other factors combined,” Adachi said. “Fortunately, Mr. Escobar’s public defender was able to show that he was innocent.”

‘Unlikely Coalition’ Takes on Achievement Gap

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San Francisco—In a city with the most rapidly growing income inequality in America, an unlikely coalition will unite Thursday to help close the
achievement gap between children of San Francisco’s haves and have nots, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi announced today.

The group, which includes supervisors from the city’s wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods, tech giants and grassroots organizations, is sponsoring a fundraising reception to support a five-week literacy summer camp where nearly 200 Western Addition youth attend classes at Convent & Stuart Hall. The program, which is provided through the San Francisco Public Defender’s Mo’ Magic Program, combats summer learning loss with educational field trips, books and mentorship opportunities.

The event, More than Magic, will be held Thursday, May 8, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the General’s Residence in San Francisco’s Fort Mason. Tickets are $100 and are available through Eventbrite at morethanmagic2014.eventbrite.com

“More than Magic” is co-sponsored by Supervisor London Breed, who represents the Western Addition, where she was raised by her grandmother in public housing; and Supervisor Mark Farrell, whose district—where he also grew up–includes tony Seacliff, Pacific Heights and the Marina. They are working collaboratively to ensure Western addition children and teens have summer experiences similar to kids from wealthy neighborhoods.

“Research has consistently shown that students lose academic skills during the summer break and that the rate of that decline is directly tied to family socioeconomic status,” said Mo’ Magic Executive Director Sheryl Davis. “Two-thirds of the academic achievement gap in reading and language has been attributed to summer learning loss.”

A Brookings Institution study released in March showed the gap between San Francisco’s rich and poor residents is widening more quickly than any other U.S. city.

“Normally, the story of income inequality is one of ‘us and them,’” said Adachi, whose office provides legal representation to San Francisco’s poorest residents. “In this case, neighborhoods that are often at odds about crime are working jointly to break the school to prison pipeline by providing opportunities to youth.”

Facebook is the title sponsor for the event. Additional sponsors include Recology, Google, PG&E, Conway Family Foundation, Lennar Urban, the San Francisco Police Officers Association, Wasserman Media Group, Safeway, BOMA, LinkedIn and Webster Tower and Terrace.

Breed and Farrell will speak at Thursday’s fundraiser, along with Chief Attorney Matt Gonzalez of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.

Mo’ MAGIC is a collaborative of service providers working together to support children and youth in San Francisco. Over the last eight years Mo’ MAGIC has convened over 50 service providers and helped create opportunities for youth to grow in the Western Addition.

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BMAGIC Celebrates 10 Years

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By Rob Nagle

San Francisco Examiner

The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office is celebrating the 10-year anniversary Friday of a program they founded to help address the root problems of juvenile crime.

The Bayview Hunters Point Mobilization for Adolescent Growth in Our Community, or BMAGIC, was created with the intention of intervening in youth crime before it begins, spokeswoman Tamara Barak Aparton said in a statement.

The program addresses issues such as poverty, education and lack of summer programming and has been an advocate for families in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhoods.

The program has been responsible for handing out more than 32,000 backpacks stuffed with school supplies for students in grades K-12. It also has provided 900 teens with formal winter dances, granted access to 4,325 kids to the Literacy is Freedom book fair, which provides free books and reading events, and more.

BMAGIC will be celebrating its anniversary at All Good Pizza at 1605 Jerrold Ave. from 6 to 9 p.m., Aparton said. Admission to the event is $10, which includes two drink tickets. Public Defender Jeff Adachi will be on hand, as well as state Sen. Mark Leno and representatives from the offices of Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Assemblyman Phil Ting, and BMAGIC executive director Lyslynn Lacoste, as well as those families and youth who have benefited from the program.

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