San Francisco’s surveillance cameras are proving pretty darn effective — for defendants.
Yesterday, prosecutors dropped murder charges against two men after camera footage showed that a 2 a.m. fight on a street corner in the city’s seedy Tenderloin district differed markedly from the violent assault described by eyewitnesses in police reports.
Witnesses had said that a man beat Richard Weiland, 53, to death after Weiland knocked over a woman using a walker. Michael Cooper, 44, and Robert Hannah, 57, were both charged with Weiland’s murder.
As we reported on CalLaw on July 29, Deputy Public Defender Kwixuan Maloof, who represented Cooper, reviewed the surveillance tape and saw a different scene. Cooper walked to Weiland and pulled him away from a group of women, Maloof said, forcing Weiland to fall to the ground. Weiland then stood, took a blow to the face from Hannah, and stumbled into the street and collapsed, Maloof said.
Cooper, who’s now out on his own recognizance, still faces a grand theft charge for taking — and then replacing — Weiland’s wallet as he lay unconscious in the street. Hannah is charged with aggravated assault.
According to the public defender's office, the city's cameras have exonerated defendants on two prior occasions. Sometimes it's good to have Big Brother looking over your shoulder.
— Evan Hill
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