Journalist Detained by Feds for SIX HOURS After Refusing to Hand Over Source

[Swordsmyth]

A freelance reporter from San Francisco said he was detained by law enforcement for six hours after his home was raided and he refused to hand over the name of the source for a recently-published story.
“Bryan Carmody, a freelance reporter in San Francisco, awoke Friday to the sounds of someone trying to break into his house,” according to (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-reporter-declined-to-reveal-his-source-then-police-showed-up-at-his-front-door-with-guns/ar-AABev4M#page=2) a Washington Post report.
He allowed 10 San Francisco Police Department officers into his home, who searched through all of his property. Two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials were also present. The gaggle of law enforcement officers, whom Carmody said treated him “like I was some kind of drug dealer” demanded that he turn over a source from a recently-published story which included a confidential report about the death of a local public defender.
He declined to offer up his source, as he had done two weeks earlier when police dropped by to question him. The reporter said he was handcuffed and taken into police custody for six hours – a fact verified by a certificate of release from the police department.


“I’m smart enough not to talk to federal agents, ever,’ Carmody told The Post. “I just kept saying ‘lawyer, lawyer, lawyer.'”
A First Amendment attorney who spoke with The Post said the proper course of action would have been to subpoena the reporter, not raid his house and detain him.
“Carmody says his ability to work is now crippled by the seizure of his electronics,” according to the report. “A search warrant and affidavit he distributed noted that police took at least at least four tablets, seven computers, 10 hard drives, a dozen phones, two cameras, reporters’ notebooks and a thumb drive from his home.”

More at: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/journalist-detained-by-feds-for-six-hours-after-refusing-to-hand-over-source/

[Danke]

A freelance reporter from San Francisco said he was detained by law enforcement for six hours after his home was raided and he refused to hand over the name of the source for a recently-published story.
“Bryan Carmody, a freelance reporter in San Francisco, awoke Friday to the sounds of someone trying to break into his house,” according to (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-reporter-declined-to-reveal-his-source-then-police-showed-up-at-his-front-door-with-guns/ar-AABev4M#page=2) a Washington Post report.
He allowed 10 San Francisco Police Department officers into his home, who searched through all of his property. Two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials were also present. The gaggle of law enforcement officers, whom Carmody said treated him “like I was some kind of drug dealer” demanded that he turn over a source from a recently-published story which included a confidential report about the death of a local public defender.
He declined to offer up his source, as he had done two weeks earlier when police dropped by to question him. The reporter said he was handcuffed and taken into police custody for six hours – a fact verified by a certificate of release from the police department.


“I’m smart enough not to talk to federal agents, ever,’ Carmody told The Post. “I just kept saying ‘lawyer, lawyer, lawyer.'”
A First Amendment attorney who spoke with The Post said the proper course of action would have been to subpoena the reporter, not raid his house and detain him.
“Carmody says his ability to work is now crippled by the seizure of his electronics,” according to the report. “A search warrant and affidavit he distributed noted that police took at least at least four tablets, seven computers, 10 hard drives, a dozen phones, two cameras, reporters’ notebooks and a thumb drive from his home.”

More at: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/journalist-detained-by-feds-for-six-hours-after-refusing-to-hand-over-source/

6441

[Dr.3D]

Breaking into people's homes is a good way to get shot.

[enhanced_deficit]

Game changer and rule breaker.
We picked up this freedom tactic during our freedom project in Iraq if I'm not mistaken.

[timosman]

In bold language, police union calls for San Francisco chief to resign after flip-flop on journalist raid

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/05/25/san-francisco-police-chief-apologizes-to-mayor-and-city-for-raid-on-journalist-mayor-calls-for-investigation/


May 25, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Police Officers Association Saturday called for Chief of Police William Scott’s resignation, after the chief did a major flip flop and said that a raid on the home of freelance journalist Bryan Carmody earlier this month was improper and apologized for it.

“It is time for Chief Scott to go. “There’s no other way around it,” said association president Sergeant Tony Montoya Saturday, in a statement to the union’s current and former members that pulled no punches.

Chief Scott, Montoya said in the statement, “followed every twist and turn of the investigation” and “knew every element of the investigation and directed the investigation.”

The police chief, Montoya said, “has clearly either come down with the most debilitating case of amnesia or is flat out not telling the truth about his direct involvement and the horribly flawed direction he gave to find the leak of the police report.”

The raid on Carmody’s house outraged free press advocates across the country. In his apology Friday, Scott said “I am specifically concerned by a lack of due diligence by department investigators in seeking search warrants and appropriately addressing Mr. Carmody’s status as a member of the news media. This has raised important questions about our handling of this case and whether the California shield law was violated.”

Scott said Mayor London Breed asked for “an independent, impartial investigation” and that he has turned over “to outsid agencies,” the criminal investigation of how Carmody obtained a police report on the death of city Public Defender Jeff Adachi in February. That decision came after what he called “a top-to-bottom review ” of the matter. He didn’t identify those agencies.

“I am sorry (the raid) happened,” Scott told the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview. “I’m sorry to the people of San Francisco. I’m sorry to the mayor.”

Questions about how police obtained search warrants arose immediately. California has a strong reporter’s shield law that prohibits the seizing of notes and anything showing the identity of confidential sources.

Just Tuesday, Scott labeled Carmody a criminal suspect in an investigation of how the journalist obtained a report on the death of Adachi in a North Beach apartment. Toxicology tests later showed cocaine in Adachi’s system.

In calling for Scott’s resignation, Montoya that by apologizing, the chief had “showed everyone in the SFPD, and all San Franciscans, what his character consists of and it was a pathetic, deceitful and shameful display of self-preservation, finger pointing, and political kowtowing.”

He added, “We all deserve better.”

But he also endorsed the investigation of who leaked the initial report about the death of Adachi, saying in the union statement that it was ” a righteous one and whomever is responsible should be held accountable.”

A spokesman for the police department, Officer Robert Rueca issued a statement Saturday afternoon in response to the call for the chief’s resignation.

“Chief Scott has made it abundantly clear that transparency and accountability are paramount in this criminal investigation. That is why SFPD is seeking an independent, impartial third-party to take over the original criminal case,” Rueca said in an email.

He stated that an additional investigation by the Department of Police Accountability will help provide answers by examining how the case has been handled on all levels, including the command staff through the chief.

Carmody, who does freelance reporting, a job in news parlance called a “stringer,” sold the report to three television stations. Tuesday, Scott said several times at a news conference that Carmody “crossed the line” in obtaining the report from department sources, but didn’t elaborate.

Police raided Carmody’s home and office May 10, trying to knock down a security gate with a sledgehammer. Carmody was handcuffed for hours.

His lawyers said in a statement that the person Scott should apologize to is Carmody.

“Having represented Bryan in this action, we are pleased to see that Chief Scott apologized to Mayor Breed and to the people of San Francisco. We think he owes an apology to Mr. Carmody also,” the lawyers, Ben Berkowitz and Thomas Burke, said.

The raid brought much condemnation on police and San Francisco from press-freedom groups and journalists’ organizations, most of it focused on why two separate judges signed search warrants for Carmody’s home and office despite the shield law.

Much of the affidavit used to obtain the warrants remains sealed because police cited information from a confidential informant in the document.

The Reporter’s Committee for the Freedom of the Press, the First Amendment Coalition and the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists brought a motion in Superior Court on Tuesday to unseal the affidavit.

But Judge Samuel K. Feng declined to take up the matter immediately, pushing it into next month and frustrating lawyers who wanted to speed up the proceeding.

Among the reasons Feng cited for the delay were plans to attend a Dodger’s baseball game in Los Angeles and a comic-book conference.

Check back for updates