SAN FRANCISCO -- The attorney for San Francisco Police Chief Earl Sanders said Sunday that he may ask a judge to remove District Attorney Terrence Hallinan from the upcoming trial against Sanders and other high-ranking police officers.
If Hallinan were removed -- or recused, in legal jargon -- from the case, the prosecution would then be taken over by the office of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said Sander's attorney Phil Ryan.
"We would like the attorney general to take this case over because of the ethics of the district attorney," Ryan said. "We also think the San Francisco Police Department's ability to keep out streets safe and our prisons filled with bad people will be destroyed unless the state intervenes."
But Ryan said there are disadvantages of having the District Attorney's office taken off the case.
"From a strategic point of view, I'd rather have District Attorney Hallinan because I'll kick his (expletive)."
Sanders and nine officers from the San Francisco Police Department are expected to be arraigned on Tuesday following a grand jury indictment Thursday night on felony charges.
But Sanders said the arraignment could be delayed by legal wrangling.
"I expect there to be an arraignment," he said. "But I've been a lawyer for 32 years and there's too many things that can happen on Tuesday, all of them good for the chief.'"
Events happening on today that could shape the case include an 11 a.m. press conference offered by Hallinan and a noon meeting by the San Francisco Police Commission to decide whether to suspend Sanders during the ongoing criminal proceedings.
Sanders and six other ranking officers are accused of conspiring to obstruct justice in the investigation of an alleged beating of two men by three off-duty officers, including the assistant chief's son, Alex Fagan Jr.
The seven men were booked and released Friday on their own recognizance, while the three officers accused of assault were released on bail.
Attorney general Nathan Barankin said the state's team of attorneys in San Francisco are already leafing through a pile of documents as part of an "abuse of discretion review" requested by Sanders in a heated letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Friday.
In the letter, Sanders wrote "Hallinan's abuse of the Grand Jury (sic) threatens to destroy the department's chain of command, compromise long-standing and proven criminal investigative procedures and practices thereby fatally undermining police credibility."<
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