Experts see no crime in reporter’s acts

SAN FRANCISCO — A battle between the press and police is playing out in San Francisco after officers raided a freelance reporter’s home and office seeking to uncover the source of a leaked police report into the unexpected death of the city’s former elected public defender.

Journalist Bryan Carmody did not commit a crime when he acquired and published a police report, said First Amendment expert David Snyder, because a police report is “not a confidential, legally protected document” and its disclosure and publication are lawful.

Snyder said a journalist who participated in unlawfully acquiring information could be prosecuted for a crime, but that was not the case here.

Carmody said he received the report from a source and did not pay for it. Still, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said the journalist “crossed the line,” motivated by profit or animosity toward the late public defender, Jeff Adachi.

An autopsy found Adachi died Feb. 22 of a mixture of cocaine and alcohol, compromising an already bad heart.

Attorney Duffy Carolan, who represents several media organizations siding with Carmody, agrees that the public has the constitutional right to public records.

San Francisco Sgt. Michael Andraychak said Wednesday that the report was not a public record and that state law protects crime reports when “disclosure would endanger the successful completion of the investigation or a related investigation.”

Carmody has not responded to requests for comment, though he posted the hashtag #journalismisnotacrime on Twitter on Wednesday. A Gofundme campaign has raised more than $16,000 for him.