The raid on Carmody's home and office drew wide First Amendment-related attention in the Bay Area over the weekend. And it added a new twist to the intrigue that surrounded the death of Adachi, who had built up a high profile as a public defender in the 16 years he'd held the office.
The only elected public defender in California, Adachi was known as an watchdog on police misconduct. His death, on Feb. 22, at the age of 59, was attributed in early reports to a heart attack.
Then more information came to light.
On Feb. 24, ABC 7 published a story after it said it obtained a police report and photos about Adachi's death, which included unflattering details about Adachi's last hours. The story reported that he had been with a woman named Caterina - not his wife - and that he was found unresponsive in an apartment with "an unmade bed, empty bottles of alcohol, cannabis gummies, and two syringes that may have been left by paramedics."
The publication of those details, which did little to illuminate the nature of Adachi's death and more to call into question his character, prompted some to wonder if the police department was retaliating against Adachi, even after his death.
"It's curious that we're reading leaked details about another 'woman,' the renting of an apartment, and entirely unnecessary mentions of alcohol, cannabis, and syringes," SFist noted at the time. "Certainly the incident ought to be investigated, as any death should, but the information coming out makes it seem like Adachi's decades-old battles with law enforcement - on behalf of defendants and otherwise - may continue even after his passing."
Tim Redmond, the editor of the San Francisco news site 48 Hills, called the local coverage "repugnant," noting how disliked Adachi was by many police officers in the city in a post he wrote at the time.
"Where do you supposed those came from? Why do you suppose they wound up with the sensation-driven TV stations?" he wrote of the provenance of the police report. "The photos have been widely publicized with no context at all. There are photos of 'an unmade bed' - a salacious innuendo with no relevance."
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/A-r ... 838421.phpSF Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s death caused by cocaine and alcohol use, autopsy finds
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/ ... 710124.phpAdachi died on February 22, 2019 in an apartment in the company of a female identified only as "Catalina" in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. [32][33] The San Francisco medical examiner concluded: "The cause of death is acute mixed drug toxicity with cocaine and ethanol, with hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease as a contributing factor.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Adachi#Death