Charges tossed for 2 accused in private investigator’s death
San Francisco prosecutors dropped murder charges filed against two men previously accused of a robbery that led to the death of famed San Francisco private investigator Jack Palladino, according to the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, which represented one of the men.
Citing a lack of evidence, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office dropped charges of robbery and murder against Lawrence Thomas and Tyjone Flournoy, for Palladino’s death, which happened when he was taking pictures of suspicious activity while sitting in front of his house on Page Street in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood on Jan. 28, 2021.
The case fell apart when a witness who reported seeing the men try to rob Palladino recanted their account of the incident and after no physical evidence could be found linking either man to the camera.
“The prosecution did the ethical thing in dismissing these charges, as none of the physical evidence corroborated the early assumptions reported by an unreliable witness,” said Deputy Public Defender Kleigh Hathaway, who represented Thomas.
According to court records, Palladino, an oldtime private eye, went outside with his camera to photograph a suspicious car cruising up and down his street, which had been closed to through traffic during the pandemic.
Prosecutors, under former District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s administration, claimed Flournoy grabbed the camera and tried to wrestle it from Palladino while Thomas gunned the accelerator, and that Palladino was dragged 40 feet before Flournoy finally let go. Palladino, prosecutors previously claimed, hit his head, went into a coma and died days later.
Palladino’s camera was recovered and it contained a picture of the suspect vehicle, including the license plate. A manhunt ensued and Thomas, who lives in Pittsburg, and Flournoy, of San Francisco, were arrested a few days later and held without bail.
At a pretrial hearing, a defense attorney argued that Palladino was the instigator — and that as they drove away from the scene, Palladino yelled and hit their car with his hand before falling and hitting his head.
The witness also admitted that he did not actually see what he reported to have happened, as recorded in the court record.
Still a Superior Court Judge ruled that there was enough evidence for a trial to go forward, and it was set for September 2021. But a backlog of cases, due largely to COVID-19 safety protocols, delayed the trial for 18 months.
“When the witness recanted, the case was reevaluated, and after determining we could no longer meet our burden of proof, we were ethically obligated to dismiss this case,” said Randy Quezada, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office.
“It is always our goal to prosecute cases ethically, fairly and impartially,” he said.
On Jan. 31, more than two years after the incident, the prosecutor made a motion in court to dismiss the charges. Thomas was freed that night and Flournoy soon after.
“Our defenders did the crucial work of scrutinizing the state’s evidence, which led to a just dismissal,” said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju, “but there are hundreds of people, like these two men who just spent two years in jail, suffering the injustice of waiting for their day in court.”
Palladino, who was 76 at the time of his death, was an attorney who preferred the action of investigations, back in the day when TV characters like Joe Mannix and Frank Cannon made the trade glamorous.
Usually hired by attorneys to find or disprove information and help build a court case, Palladino worked on the kidnapping of Patty Hearst and the Peoples Temple mass suicides at Jonestown. Hells Angels leader Sonny Barger and Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton were clients. Palladino also worked on behalf of John DeLorean, the sports car inventor who was charged with trafficking cocaine to support his company.