The District Attorney’s Office dismissed its case today against police shooting victim Richard Everett, a homeless man who was wielding a knife in the Tenderloin in August, after one of his police shooters declined to testify.
San Francisco Police Department officer Russell Lucia was one of two officers who shot Everett, 54, with a firearm after a standoff with police. Everett sustained five gunshot wounds, according to the Public Defender’s Office.
In an evidentiary hearing today, midway through Everett’s trial, Lucia appeared with his attorney and pleaded the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self-incrimination, and refused to testify before jurors. Lucia, a patrol officer at Tenderloin Station, has been employed with the SFPD for four years.
Prosecutor Negad Zaky said that, without Lucia’s statement, the case became “difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
A resident saw Everett brandishing a knife on Jones Street on Aug. 28 and called 911. The caller told the police dispatcher that Everett had threatened people and had been pepper-sprayed by a passerby.
When officers arrived, they encircled him and quickly pulled out their weapons. After more than 10 minutes, during which the officers shouted contradictory commands, Everett picked up his belongings and appeared to be leaving the scene. In response, multiple officers in quick succession shot at him with bean-bag rounds and real guns.
It is unclear why the loss of Lucia’s testimony derailed the case entirely. Everett was charged with brandishing a deadly weapon to resist arrest, possessing a dirk or dagger, and resisting or delaying a peace officer.
“Obviously, we tend to disagree about how [his testimony] would have affected the case,” Zaky told jurors after the case was dismissed.
Just last week, the District Attorney’s Office began the trial with an attempt to exclude mention of the shooting from the trial altogether. The DA’s office claimed that all three of Everett’s charges were offenses that occurred prior to his being shot by police, deeming the five gunshot wounds “irrelevant.” Prosecutors held that that the third count of resisting arrest only pertained to Everett’s interaction with Officer John Quinlan, who first responded to the scene and did not shoot Everett.
Superior Court Judge Teresa Caffese rejected the motion to exclude mention of the shooting, and evidence related to the shooting was allowed during trial.
Lucia’s refusal to testify may indicate that he felt that his testimony could have incriminated him in a future investigation: The District Attorney has an open investigation regarding the shooting, and the police department’s Internal Affairs investigation is still open, according to a recent update from the department’s Firearm Discharge Review Board.
Veteran public defender Matt Gonzalez told Mission Local that he could not recall a prior instance in San Francisco in which a police officer pleaded the Fifth. Veteran defense attorney and former prosecutor Randy Knox said the same — and added that he could not recall an officer pleading the Fifth anywhere.
“The officers had the intent to use force from the beginning, once they arrived and yelled the words ‘red light, red light,’ which means ‘get ready to use force,’” said Public defender Nuha Abusamra in an interview, adding that Everett acted in self-defense and that “Black and Brown people are constantly the subject of police brutality.”
Everett is one of five people shot by police in San Francisco in 2023.
Abusamra said officers broke police department policies in their handling of the incident: They pointed weapons at Everett before securing the perimeter of the scene, and got too close to Everett. Video of the incident also shows that as officers surrounded him on Jones Street, they gave conflicting commands to Everett about whether he should drop or could keep the knife.
After the dismissal, most jurors gathered in the hallway at the courthouse with the prosecutor and defense attorney, sharing their thoughts about the case and asking questions.
One juror noted that officer John Quinlan, the first police officer on the scene, testified that informing a clearly confused Everett that officers may shoot him would have been a form of police escalation. The juror likened this testimony to a “mic drop” moment.
Another juror noted: “Pointing a shotgun at his face isn’t gonna help at all … makes it very difficult to communicate.”
When the eight remaining jurors were asked if they believed Everett was lunging at officers or trying to leave the scene, none could answer definitively.
Everett, who was homeless when he was shot and has been between the hospital and jail since late August, is expected to be released today, though it is unclear where he will go.
“We are hoping to connect him to our social workers, to get him reintegrated back into society,” said Abusamra. “He continues to suffer physically from the horrific experience of being shot multiple times. Physically and mentally.”
Additional reporting by Joe Eskenazi.
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Of course, if he hadn’t been waving a knife around at people, or had put it down as soon as the police arrived, whether they told him to or not, none of this would have happened. On the other hand, I am aware that Mission Local has to stick to its narrative that the SFPD and DA are nearly always wrong, and the “homeless”, especially if they are black or brown, are nearly always right, and typically victims, too. As for the Public Defender saying, “We are hoping to connect him to our social workers to get him reintegrated back into society”, yeah sure. I’m going to win the Lottery, too—any day now!
Hey, genius —
I’m sorry the actual events that took place at trial didn’t comport to your worldview but we’re kinda obligated to cover the former and not the latter.
Best,
JE
When your rules say “please keep your comments short and civil,” it’s difficult to understand why the editor needs to sarcastically respond to the comments (“genius”). Shorty, yes. But civil? Of course, editorial may not agree with the comments, but the message to the reader seems to be “don’t comment unless you agree with the publication’s “worldview?”
SB —
Good-faith intellectual arguments made in a non-condescending manner are always welcome, regardless of your point of view. Bad-faith, condescending, dopey comments are a waste of everyone’s time. Hope that clears everything up.
JE
Mr. Douting,
The cops are usually right in cases you don’t hear about and wrong in those that you do.
They need to exchange a couple of dozen of their younger officers with Tawain and Rome and Tokyo and Istanbul and places they have earthquakes and are Sister Cities.
Kinda like a Peace Corps structure and they send a couple of dozen of theirs and over a few years we’ll have our own San Francisco International Mutual Aid Corps.
Basically it is the old Choice …
Revenge or Reform
What’s my goal ?
Well, I spent 40 years working in a variety of settings for incarcerating or otherwise isolating Middle School aged kids and …
Reform works and Revenge only makes it worse.
Numbers don’t lie.
But then, Joe O’Donoghue used to always say when I’d give him a state:
“Figures don’t lie but liars can figure.”
Where was I when I interrupted myself ?
The comments section is often where the truth is told. Too bad the SFChron has chopped their comments page. (yeah, there was a lot of repetitive rubbish; but there was still some pearls the Chron won’t publish)\
Kudos Missionlocal.org
For the most part, the Reader Comment section in the SF Chron is akin to a huge black hole that vicious dogs have fallen into, howling and snarling constantly. It’s full of the most willfully ignorant people who, unfortunately find their way to the comments section in Mission Local all too frequently.
**
Say it with money.
I’m a poor man and I still give 10% of my monthly income on Katie Porter and Wikipedia and Mission Local and Manny’s and an online dating service that has gone dry.
ML is, like, ten dollars from reaching this year’s modest fundraising goals (they get some matching funds) so you be the one that pushes them over the top.
Is the District Attorney going to take Lucia at his word that he committed crimes and launch a criminal investigation?
Red light red light means don’t shoot!!! Like a red traffic light it’s means stop. It’s usually followed by less lethal…meaning a bean bag gun is going to be used. This alerts near by officers that a “bang” will be heard when the less lethal round is fired and to not confuse it with a lethal round.
“Pointing a shotgun at his face isn’t gonna help at all … makes it very difficult to communicate.” Whoever said this I’m sure it wasn’t Brooke Jenkins. But then, maybe the objective is not to communicate.
Who’s running for Mayor ? X DA ? Only in a sane world…Happy Holidays,maybe next year.
Eleni,
You went to the two best defense lawyers in town instead of the Ivory Tower lookers-on.
Matt took on the likes of Donald Trump as President and there’s a book in here somewhere succeeded in a ‘Not Guilty’ by fact it was an accident when Zarate picked up that wrapped gun on the Pier and it went off and Trump has had his revenge as the innocent Jose Zarate is still in prison in Texas.
Randy Knox defends some of those rare high profile government officials unjustly accused of corruption or worse and was Treasurer of Matt’s 2003 run for Mayor for which there was a really cool party (Greens are always cool) at 111 Minna to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Matt for Mayor.
I was his ‘Propaganda Minister’ and will forever relish the memories.
Oh, cops taking the Fifth ?
I do recall once when David Waggoner was defending Tony Hall in front of the Ethics Commission (yes, actual trial) and Waggoner got the Prosecution’s Star Witness to take the Fifth Amendment.
Crooked Commission still fined Tony fifty bucks or something.
Same with Matt.
Last case they took from 2003 was for Matt and Michelle Monaghan sure kept good books for Randy Shaw.
Elect our Police Chief.
None of these guys plead anything on orders of Chief Scott.
They take orders from the SFPOA.
Which explains a lot.
Cops, DA sartorial choices continue to be clown shoes and ass hats; mayor enables the fashions.
DA declined to give the officer Letter of Exoneration so that leaves him open for a criminal charge or IA charge. BS. There were a dozen other officers they could have called.