8/18/2019 SFPOA Demands Gascon Include Witnesses Press Release

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For Immediate Release: March 30, 2016Contact: Nathan Ballard (415) 464-6779

SFPOA DEMANDS THAT D.A. GASCON

ALLOW TESTIMONY BY AFRICAN-AMERICAN POLICE OFFICERS AT

GASCON’S BLUE RIBBON PANEL

Union Attorney Asks If Gascon Fears Contradiction Of His

 Broad-Brush Condemnation Of Police Officers

 Attorney Also Asks If Gascon Fears First-Hand Account OfCambridge Dinner Where Gascon Disparaged African-

 Americans

SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the San Francisco Police Officers’ Association (SFPOA) released a

letter from its attorneys (attached) that demands that African-American police officers beallowed to testify before District Attorney George Gascon’s handpicked Blue Ribbon Panel. 

In a letter to the panel, the union’s attorney Gregg Adam notes that other than Chief Greg Suhr,

Gascon’s panel has only allowed one officer to testify: Sgt. Yulanda Williams, a vocal critic ofthe department. The letter criticizes the exclusion of other African-American officers who hold

different views and asks: “how can you really hold your Panel out to be fair and impartial if yourefuse to allow the testimony of Sgt. Tracy McCray, Inspector Clifford Cook, and Former

Commander Leroy Lindo, three African American officers who dispute Sgt. Williams’s skewedviews about the Police Department?”

The union also asks why Gascon’s panel is barring Gary Delanges, a former union president,

from testifying: “Why are you refusing to let Mr. Delagnes testify? Is it because Mr. Gascon isafraid of hearing testimony that will contradict his broad-brush condemnation of the

Department? Or is it because Mr. Gascon is afraid to let the panel hear a firsthand account of thedinner in Cambridge where Mr. Gascon used racially inflammatory language?”

On March 2, 2016, Delagnes submitted a sworn declaration that says Gascon made multiplestatements disparaging African-Americans during an April 2010 dinner in Cambridge,

Massachusetts. Delagnes’ testimony was confirmed in sworn statements by two other witnesses:Martin Halloran, the union’s current president, and Chris Breen, a retired San Francisco police

officer.

Gascon has refused to comment in any detail on the Cambridge dinner. He initially issued

8/18/2019 SFPOA Demands Gascon Include Witnesses Press Release

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through a spokesman what Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr., described as a “non-denial denial.” (SanFrancisco Chronicle, March 6, 2016.) After a week of silence, Gascon acknowledged attending

the dinner, but issued a denial that lacked any detail.

Mayor Brown said that Gascon should have asked a prosecutor from another county convene the

Blue Ribbon Panel. (San Francisco Chronicle, March 6, 2016.)

Superior Court Judge Quentin Kopp (ret.) demanded that Gascon recuse himself from his own

 panel. In a February 17, 2016 letter to Gascon, the judge accused Gascon of a conflict of interest.Kopp said that by handpicking the Blue Ribbon Panel, Gascon has created the “perception that

you are investigating yourself” because Gascon was chief during some of the time period beingscrutinized by the panel.

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