Gun case dropped after judge rules officers illegally searched man

It's the second time in a month that such action has taken place regarding police

In the second such dismissal of its kind in the last month, prosecutors dropped a felony charge after a federal judge ruled San Francisco police lacked standing to search a man in a 2019 investigation where a firearm was found inside a vehicle, court records show.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen led to felony charges being dismissed last month against a San Francisco resident whom authorities described as a “high ranking” member of a Southern California-based gang. In his 20-page ruling, Chen found that police were given a vague description of “a Black male in a black jacket” and used it to illegally search the defendant and two others inside a vehicle.

“The mere fact of a Black male in a black jacket — with no indication that he was in a car, about to enter a car, or even in the parking lot — is insufficient to amount to reasonable suspicion in the absence of any predictive information,” Chen wrote, adding that police had been called to a report of 100 people involved in a fight but what they found — three men in a Honda Civic in the general area — was “inconsistent” with the 911 caller's report.

The 911 caller reported seeing a large fight, adding that three people appeared armed and were looking for trouble. In court papers attempting to justify the search, federal prosecutors wrote that police had observed “three males matching the descriptions in a Honda Civic that was preparing to depart the parking lot” where the fight occurred, and that the defendant gave police a false name, justifying his arrest. A firearm was found under a seat inside the Honda, they wrote.

The defendant had been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and faced up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted.

The defense attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Elisse LaRouche, argued in a motion to suppress the search that “where a substantial number of people share a specific characteristic — like their ethnic appearance and a black jacket — that characteristic possesses little-to-no probative value for purposes of a reasonable suspicion analysis.”

It is the second time this month that prosecutors have thrown out a case over accusations of SFPD conducting an illegal search. Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney's office dismissed federal gun possession charges just 10 days after a defense attorney accused the officers of conducting an illegal search based on an illegal arrest, in a case where the officers allegedly lied to the defendant about having a warrant in order to detain him.

In February 2021, a federal judge gutted a gun case by ruling San Francisco officers violated the Fourth Amendment during a search of a Mercedes. Last May, a Richmond rapper's gun charge was dismissed days before a hearing where a federal judge was to rule on a motion accusing Richmond police of an illegal search.

Last year, federal prosecutors dropped more than a dozen current and pending prosecutions involving officers who were implicated in a massive criminal probe targeting law enforcement in Pittsburg and Antioch. In that still-ongoing investigation, at least eight officers from Antioch and two from Pittsburg were accused of a range of crimes involving dishonesty, including violent civil rights violations, fraudulently obtaining college degrees for incentive pay, and accepting bribes. In a separate but related move, Contra Costa prosecutors dropped an estimated three dozen cases.