Under Oath, DA Investigator Admits Withholding Exculpatory Evidence

Department 27 Turns Into a Circus of Public Defenders

District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s Independent Investigative Bureau (IIB) has been the subject of frequent controversies and issues of integrity.

On January 24, 2022, the Chronicle reported that the DA’s office withheld exculpatory information when they investigated and arrested SFPD Officer Terrance Stangel.  Per the article, the DA’s office allegedly withheld an interview with a witness who confirmed that Dacari Spiers was assaulting his girlfriend before officers approached and Stangel struck him.  Had that information been factored in, it would have explained Spier’s emotional state, required the arrest of Spiers, justified Stangel’s use of force, and of course weakened the not-so-innocent Spiers’ civil suit settlement against SFPD.

But for Boudin to achieve his goal of arresting an SFPD officer, it was essential for him to erase the domestic violence portion of the Spiers’ incident.  Boudin immediately demonized the 911 callers as “Karens” despite the fact they were African American. 

Meanwhile SFPD investigators were scrutinizing the evidence, 911 calls, and trying to contact the witnesses.  When they didn’t get responses from the witnesses, SFPD inquired from DA Investigator Megan Hayashi whether she had made contact.

Yesterday, in Department 27 Hayashi admitted that she lied to SFPD Investigators about her interview with a witness living in Sacramento.  Hayashi said she was told, under the threat of being fired, to remove the exculpatory evidence from the arrest warrant she prepared on Officer Stangel.  Only a week before Hayashi’s warrant, another DA investigator had been fired by Boudin because he resisted removing similar exculpatory evidence on a different case against an SFPD officer. So, firing was a credible threat to the single mom.

Not only did Hayashi violate the agreement between SFPD and the DA’s office that they “shall” share information, but the corroborating evidence that the violent Spiers was amped-up from the DV incident was critical to Officer Stengal’s defense.

In Megan Cassidy’s Chronicle article last night, she said, “Police did not recommend domestic violence charges for Spiers and the district attorney’s office did not charge him.”  True, but by Hayashi keeping SFPD in the dark about her contact with witnesses, it gave SFPD investigators the impression the witnesses were not cooperative and prevented them from pursuing domestic violence charges on Spiers.  Thus, Boudin’s office hampered SFPD and then called Cassidy to tattle.  (Just yesterday, Cassidy wrote two pro-Boudin articles.  Despite her direct line to Boudin, she has told me she refuses to read my articles—confirmation bias.)

In her article, Megan Cassidy also stated, “In announcing the charges, Boudin said Stangel unnecessarily escalated the situation and then “violently (beat) a Black man whom he had no legal basis to even arrest.’”  This was another Boudin lie to Cassidy because the witnesses’ statements created the probable cause and legal basis to arrest Spiers for domestic violence.  

In court yesterday, Lateef Gray one of the heads of Boudin’s investigative unit argued before Judge Teresa Caffese and it appears the judge is going to succumb to the circus of public defenders and treat Hayashi’s lies as immaterial. 

Consider:

1)    If the witness’ interview was so immaterial, why was Boudin’s office so resolute in pressuring Hayashi to lie and hide it? 

2)    What would Boudin have done if an SFPD investigator had withheld information?

Judge Caffese is a former SF public defender, as is DA Rebecca Young who was in court yesterday, as is Lateef Gray, and as is Gray’s wife, Cindy Elias.  Elias sits on the SF police commission and will determine the fate of Stangel’s career, for whom her husband was trying to prosecute yesterday—just a little bit of a conflict.  One must appreciate the irony in that this circus of characters are violating the same ethical and moral rules of conduct that they fought for as young public defenders, all for the sake of a political prosecution of a police officer.

Lou Barberini is a CPA. Is writings and similar author’s writings can be found on the website: GBTBmedia.com