San Francisco police seize multiple phone records of independent journalist Bryan Carmody

The San Francisco Police Department has acknowledged the need to uphold press protections after police raided the home and office and detained independent journalist Bryan Carmody in May 2019.

The Associated Press reported that the city’s Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $369,000 settlement with Carmody in March, deeming the raids “a shameful moment for the city.”

As part of the settlement, SFPD agreed to send a “department bulletin” advising officers of journalist protections with regards to police searches and subpoenas. San Francisco News reported that the city and police department have also approved revisions to departmental orders and new training measures to ensure such violations do not happen moving forward.

Ben Berkowitz, one of Carmody’s attorneys, told the AP, “The city’s agreement to these terms means that all law enforcement employees are to be properly trained on California’s Shield Law and the procedures necessary to protect the rights of a free press to report on government actions without fear of unconstitutional surveillance or interference.”

The city of San Francisco has agreed to pay $369,000 as part of a settlement after police raided the home and office and detained independent journalist Bryan Carmody in May 2019.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the settlement claim goes to the city’s Board of Supervisors for approval on March 3, 2020, and then to the full board for another vote.

The San Francisco Police Department had obtained five search warrants — three separate ones for his cellphone records and one each for the raid of his home and office — in its attempt to find the journalist’s source of a leaked police report. All five warrants were later deemed illegal, rendering any information from the raid or phone records unusable.

Unsealed applications for the warrants show police did not inform judges that Carmody had a valid press pass issued by the police department, Courthouse News reported.

The First Amendment Coalition funded a legal team to unseal the warrants, and its executive director told the Chronicle that it was only proper for the city to compensate Carmody after what happened. “It is heartening to see that Bryan is going to receive some recompense for this outrageous violation of his rights,” David Snyder said.

At least two other lawsuits from the raid are still pending, and the city’s Department of Police Accountability also has an ongoing investigation into the Carmody warrants, according to Courthouse News.The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the settlement claim goes to the city’s Board of Supervisors for approval on March 3, 2020, and then to the full board for another vote.The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the settlement claim goes to the city’s Board of Supervisors for approval on March 3, 2020, and then go to the full board for another vote.

A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled Friday, Aug. 16, 2019, to quash the fifth and final search warrant police obtained against freelance journalist Bryan Carmody, according to 48 Hills, a San Francisco-based news site.

While this was the final warrant to be ruled on, it was the second issued in the San Francisco Police Department’s attempts to discover the identity of Carmody’s sources for information leaked about Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s death in February.

Four other warrants—two additional ones for Carmody’s cellphone records and one each for searches of his home and office—were previously quashed by other superior court judges.

According to the First Amendment Coalition, whose board member Thomas Burke represented Carmody in the hearing, Judge Joseph Quinn did not rule on unsealing the warrant.

Three San Francisco superior court judges all ruled on Aug. 2, 2019, that warrants to search the home, phone and office of Bryan Carmody were invalid because of his career as a journalist, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

Judge Gail Dekreon, ruling on the home search warrant, also said at the hearing that she was not told Carmody had a current San Francisco press pass, according to the Examiner.

Judges Christopher Hite ruled on the phone search warrant dated April 16, and Judge Victor Hwang ruled on the office search warrant.

A total of five search warrants were obtained as part of the investigation into Carmody’s confidential sources. Two of those warrants culminated in an early-morning raid on May 10 of the freelance journalist’s home and office. One phone records warrant, dated March 1, was previously quashed in July by San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Rochelle East.

A hearing for the fifth and final warrant, also for Carmody’s phone records, is scheduled for Aug. 16.

The most recent rulings nullify the warrants in question and unseals their contents, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, making any evidence collected unusable by investigators.

On Thursday, July 18, 2019, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Rochelle East quashed a search warrant used by San Francisco police to search Bryan Carmody’s phone, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Three more hearings are scheduled over the next few weeks, the Chronicle reported, including one on another warrant for cellphone surveillance as well as the searches of his home and office. A fifth hearing on another cellphone warrant is not scheduled.

Thursday’s ruling bars investigators from using any evidence that was obtained with the March 1 order, ABC7 News reported.

"Any information that the police department received as a result of that warrant is to be destroyed, they have to submit an affidavit to me that that was destroyed and it means they can't use any of it," said Tom Burke, Carmody's attorney.

ABC7 News said that in the hearing a sergeant testified he didn't know Carmody was a journalist, and the judge confirmed investigators did not disclose that Carmody was a journalist when seeking the phone records warrant.