Breed alters stance a bit over raid on reporter

Mayor London Breed said Sunday she was “not okay with police raids on reporters,” a shift in her stance on the San Francisco Police Department’s seizure of computers and other possessions from a journalist who refused to identify the confidential police source who leaked him an internal report on the death of Public Defender Jeff Adachi.

However, the mayor stopped short of saying the court-approved raid should not have happened, calling it “legal and warranted.”

Breed’s statement on Twitter appeared to be an attempt to express concern about press freedom without undercutting her police chief. It came amid a national outcry that arose following the May 10 raid on the home and office of freelance journalist Bryan Carmody, who sold the report on Adachi’s Feb. 22 death to three television stations. Cali

fornia journalists cannot be forced to reveal sources under the state’s shield law.

Under pressure to determine who among their own ranks leaked the report, San Francisco police obtained a search warrant and arrived at Carmody’s home with a sledgehammer, handcuffing him for six hours. The event sparked a backlash from media organizations nationwide who condemned the raid as a dangerous infringement on press freedom.

But city officials, including Breed, have been largely ambivalent or supportive of the raid, while slamming police for the leak — a major breach of investigatory protocol apparently intended to tarnish Adachi’s reputation.

In her first statement on the controversy last week, Breed made no mention of the First Amendment issues raised by the raid, saying that police “went through the appropriate legal process to request a search warrant, which was approved by two judges.” Police Chief Bill Scott stood by his officers’ actions.

On Sunday morning, Breed changed course somewhat, saying that although she wanted a “thorough investigation” into the leak, “I am not okay with police raids on reporters. We need to do better.”

“However,” she added, “two judges issued the search warrant, and I have to believe that the judges’ decision was legal and warranted, and therefore so was the search. Whether or not the search was legal, warranted and appropriate, however, is another question . ... And the more we learn, the less appropriate it looks to me.”

Breed said the city needed “a protocol going forward for how to handle investigations that involve members of the media,” suggesting she would advocate for new local laws or policies for police probes involving members of the media. She said, “A free and independent press plays a crucial role in our society, and we have to work harder to honor not only the letter of California’s Shield Law, but also the spirit of it.”

Breed’s position contrasts with that of supervisors Hillary Ronen, Aaron Peskin and Matt Haney, who have criticized the raid. On Saturday, Haney called the search a “direct attack” on the ability of the press to operate without the risk of retribution by police.

“The awful politically motivated leaking of the police report came from inside SFPD. That’s where this investigation should focus — internally,” Haney tweeted. “Knocking down the door of a journalist with a sledgehammer and seizing property is an unacceptable direct attack on freedom of the press.”

Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, who is married to a retired police officer, initially said the raid was justified because Carmody was in possession of an “illegal” report. She later attempted to walk back her original statement, but said she harbored “strong feelings about the morality of Carmody’s actions” and emphasized that she “was not a legal expert.”

Media outlets routinely publish the contents of leaked documents, a practice that is not illegal.

The leaked police reports surfaced days after Adachi’s death from a mixture of cocaine and alcohol that put an immense strain on his already damaged heart. The reports documented some of the lurid-seeming details of his final hours, including photos of an unkempt bed, marijuana edibles and liquor bottles in a Telegraph Hill apartment he was occupying with a woman who was not his wife.

Jeff Adachi leak case For everything you need to know about the death of the public defender and the raid on a journalist: http://bit.ly/The Adachileak

Carmody said he obtained the report the day after Adachi’s death and said he did not pay his source for them. He then sold the report to television news stations, in keeping with standard practices of independent press “stringers” who report on and sell information to news outlets. The Chronicle obtained the report, but did not pay for it or get it from Carmody.

An SFPD spokesman previously said the raid was “one step in the process of investigating a potential case of obstruction of justice along with the illegal distribution of a confidential police report.”

But Carmody’s attorney, Thomas Burke, maintains that the police’s actions were “egregiously overbroad and intrusive,” and he’s filed a motion seeking to quash the search warrants and force the police to return Carmody’s property. Burke has previously represented The Chronicle and its parent company, Hearst Corp., in unrelated legal matters.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Samuel Feng is scheduled to hear the motion Tuesday.