San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi, 59, dead

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SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi, a prominent police advocate and staunch supporter of the bail reform, died Friday night, officials said. He was 59 years old.

Adachi was dining in North Beach when he was hit, according to a press release from the Public Defender's office. According to preliminary information, he was traveling at the time of his death. The cause of death has not been determined, but one source told KGO-TV, a partner of the news agency, that Adachi had died of a heart attack.

The mayor of London Breed confirmed the death of Adachi in a tweet.

"I am saddened to announce that San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi has passed away tonight," she said. "San Francisco has lost a dedicated public servant and our communities have lost a champion."

Adachi, son of Americans of Japanese descent interned during World War II, became the only elected public defender of the state. He has overseen the representation of more than 23,000 people each year, charged with minor misdemeanor and criminal offenses. .

"I consider that the public defender is not just a watchdog, but the only watchdog to guard against misconduct on the part of police, prosecutors and judges," Adachi said in a statement. interview in 2017 with the Bay Area News Group. "If you have zealous representation, it's the best protector against abuse."

Prior to his election in 2002, Adachi had worked as an assistant public defender in San Francisco for 15 years and in private practice for two years. He has personally led more than 150 jury trials, according to his office, including many serious cases of crimes and homicides.

Adachi oversaw the defense of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an undocumented immigrant evicted five times who was charged with the shooting of Kate Steinle in 2015 on a city port, causing a national firestorm on the police policy. ;immigration. The lawyers in his office analyzed the policy and focused on the facts of the case, obtaining an acquittal on the counts of murder for Garcia Zarate.

Adachi also seemed comfortable pronouncing a final argument in a sober audience room that he drew crowds at demonstrations around the city. Following the election of President Trump, he launched a new client advocacy initiative in the Immigration Court.

In a statement, Breed pointed out that "Adachi" has always defended those who had no voice, had been ignored and neglected and who needed a true champion ".

"He was engaged not only in the fight for justice in the courtroom, but was also a staunch defender of criminal justice reform," she said. "Jeff has paved the way for progressive policy reforms, including reducing recidivism, ending cash bonds and defending undocumented and unrepresented children."

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón expressed similar sentiments.

"Jeff was a passionate advocate who always fought for what he believed in," Gascón said in a tweet. "He represented the underserved and gave his career to public service."

Adachi's parents were Americans of Japanese descent living in California who had been displaced from one end of the country to the other during the Second World War. His father was at Gila River camp in Arizona and his mother at Rohwer camp in Arkansas, where they had been imprisoned with their families for four years. .

When Adachi grew up in Sacramento, his parents never spoke of the experience, he remembered during the interview. He only learned the history of internment when his third grade teacher mentioned that Japanese had been locked up during the war. Adachi did not believe it and engaged in an argument that pushed him to get fired from school for the day. That afternoon, his mother sat down to tell him the story.

"I was like, what crime did you commit, were you found guilty? And she was like, no, it was just because we were Japanese, "he said. "I was in third grade, so you do not know what to think. But it stayed with me.

"I see my role as a public defender as a position to try to provide legal aid that my parents have never had," he added.

In high school, he was involved in the movement to obtain compensation for the US-Japanese internees. He then attended Berkeley University and obtained his law degree from Hastings University in 1985.

Adachi was the outsider of his election as public defender in 2002, when he narrowly defeated Kimiko Burton, the child of a prominent political family that had the support of most San Francisco leaders. He has been re-elected four times since and was also elected mayor in 2011, finishing sixth on a group of 16 candidates. Adachi lost this election against Ed Lee, who also died of a heart attack in December 2017.

Adachi is survived by his wife Matsuko and daughter Lauren.

Even though he ran an office of 93 lawyers, Adachi also pursued his passion in filmmaking and directed four films – including a documentary on one of the cases of his office presented at the Castro Theater at the International Film Festival. San Francisco movie in 2017, thus fulfilling the dream of his film. .

"It's a bit like a trial job," Adachi said of filmmaking, "except that you have to use visual aids and find different ways to tell the story."

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