When narcotics officers appeared at a Castro home shortly after 7 a.m. on Jan. 11, they had permission from a judge to search for “proceeds” from an illegal marijuana grow. The SFPD and DEA found no piles of marijuana money at 243 Diamond St., one of six addresses raided simultaneously in San Francisco that morning. Instead, they found Clark Freshman, who rents the penthouse at the two-unit building. Freshman, a UC Hastings law professor and the main consultant to the television show Lie to Me, was put into handcuffs while in his bathrobe as agents searched, despite Freshman’s insistence that they had the wrong place and were breaking the law. “I told them to call the judge and get their warrant updated,” he says. “They just laughed at me — I guess that’s why they’re called pigs.”
A furious Freshman has pledged to sue the DEA and the SFPD for unlawful search and seizure of his home. SFPD offered no comment other than reiterating they had a warrant from Judge Richard Kramer to search 243 Diamond. But Peter Keane, dean emeritus of Golden Gate University’s School of Law, says there appears to be a problem. “There’s been cases like this in the past where police have a warrant to search [a single residence], then they get there and it’s a multi-unit building and they search the whole building. In those cases, people have sued and collected substantial settlements. I think whomever is representing the government better get out his checkbook.”
“I’ve been on the fence for years about the legalization of drugs … and now I’m a victim of this crazy war on drugs,” says Freshman, who pledged to sue until “I see [the agents’] houses sold at auction and their kids’ college tuitions taken away from them. There will not be a better litigated case this century.”
When police execute search warrants in the Castro, the doors is not the only thing being rammed. Har har.
…and that would be because he’s going to get his money-grubbing mitts on the entire settlement, instead of just most of it, as usual?
I just love lawyers.
#2 What’s the problem? If the cops were following good procedures they won’t have anything to worry about.
I had this guy in my taxi. He’s an unpleasant, self-absorbed, arrogant prick who callously profits from the police state with the crime drama he “inspired”.
If this sort of mistake has to happen to anybody, at least this is poetic justice.
Rather than force them into poverty, these agents should be rewarded for the restraint they showed by not pistol whipping Freshman and gagging him with “something”.
Do we want law professors who attack agents rather than focus on structural failings and corrupt lawmakers? Maybe we should send Clark Freshman to Juarez to sort out the drug problem and remove these agents from the no-win situation we’ve created for them.
“A bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes…” — Douglas Adams (apparently having attended a Clark Freshmen law school lecture)
#2–Reagan==he is “a” lawyer who is also the victim of well established police violation of court orders. Why shouldn’t he get most if not all of the settlement?
I’ve often wondered what with “all the lawyers” why there aren’t more lawsuits on the day to day outrages that happen all the time: no rebates on computer parts, scams on home repairs, bad motor vehicles smog repairs etc. You’d think enough lawyers would get hit by these things in their “consumer” capacity and would mount lawsuits because it is “so easy” for them to do it==but evidently they don’t UNLESS they are “an unpleasant, self-absorbed, arrogant prick who callously profits from the police state with the crime drama he “inspired”. Every tool has a use.
#5- Bobbo
I guess I’m not clear why agents’ kids losing college tuition at tax-payer expense is a service I should be grateful for. My point was this guy is an idiot who can’t even understand which way to point his own weapon. If on the other hand Freshman were talking about organizing to educate and reform the police state…then I would agree this “tool” has become useful; I might even re-evaluate my former impressions of his character and utility.
You police state apologists crack me up.
Uncle Sam busts down your door by mistake, so you should say “Thank you sir may I have another?”
You degrade the man for standing up for his rights – when was the last time you stood up for anything?
A couple points and comments..
In the area I live COPS have CONTRACTS. If fired they have recourse, and can SUE.
What happened in the past, with the BLACK Professor returning Home, and being arrested at his own home, ON CAMPUS?
ID you SUE public offices, WHO PAYS? YOU DO.
Ready…IANAL but I believe both parties have to agree to an NDA. For some reason I doubt this guy will take that deal.
Assuming he’s got the easy case portrayed here, he’s got the upper hand in any negotiations and my guess is he plays this out for the thrill of embarrassing the SFPD and DEA. At least I hope so.
Love the motivational poster!
Did I give man the ability to reason? I’m sure I did but I guess I screwed up that as well. Meh, it is what it is.
# 6 mickleby==very reasonable response. Wrong, but very reasonable. lets parse:
#5- Bobbo
I guess I’m not clear why agents’ kids losing college tuition at tax-payer expense is a service I should be grateful for. /// Don’t you view that as mere puffing? But, if the agents were found monetarily liable and lost their kiddies college education funds, how would that be a taxpayer expense? I think you are mixing too many issues together.
My point was this guy is an idiot who can’t even understand which way to point his own weapon. /// How so? Where “is” he pointing his weapon and where should it be pointed? If the weapon is his lawsuit–thats what the lawsuit is all about?
If on the other hand Freshman were talking about organizing to educate and reform the police state…/// educate and reform the police state?? Haw Haw! What do you want?–Daisey’s in their gun barrels? I think the cops call that “assault” and can shoot you for that. What other than suing the shit out of everyone responsible will get ANY attention at all==and then only for a week or two until they do it again?
then I would agree this “tool” has become useful; /// Yes. Throughout History, its been the oddballs and miscreants driven by their own demons that have brought changes needed but not demanded by the masses.
I might even re-evaluate my former impressions of his character and utility. /// I’m sure you have him nailed on his character. But his utility–yes. His actions are all for your own benefit. If you give him a ride in the future==thank him and refuse the tip.
Assholes have rights, too. In this case, I’m rooting for the asshole NOT in uniform.
If this professor is like most people in the Castro District, (on which I would place a large wager), then he is one pissed off bitch with testerone. You have never seen a pissed off person until you have dealt with a pissed off gay guy with credentials.
You apologists for the police are missing the entire point apparently.
We are living in a police state…whether you want to admit it or not.
You cannot video police…you cannot talk to them…you cannot defend yourself, yet we see, time after time after time again…cases where the police have exceeded their authority!
The Feds can even get your supposedly PRIVATE cell phone records without a warrent! and on and on….etc, etc.
I hope this guy sues the DEA out of existence and sues each and every one of the cops and agents into the poor house!!
The line MUST be drawn somewhere…or else it could be YOUR HOUSE NEXT!!!!
Sometimes, it takes an arrogant asshole, with the power and knowledge to get a job done. (which see, George Patton, Alfred Hitchcock, Tommy Dorsey, David Sarnoff just to name a few)
I hope he wins. But more importantly, I hope that he makes a media circus out of the trail so that it gets mucho publicity. Milking the cops and/or government coffers is only part of the job. The rest is making the “masses” pay attention for the nanosecond that they are capable of it.
I’m guessing the SFPD budget will be bankrupt in a few months.
Argue all you want.
You’re still fucked until they seize some congress-persons home and it gets out onto the internet.
The key is right in the first paragraph. It’s even in the first sentence. In fact it is the second word of the article quotation. Do you not see it? ”Narcotics.” The law calls marijuana a narcotic. Schedule I. When we as a society use the wrong word for something, there is no end to the grief & hilarity which ensueth.
Law professor will fill his family’s coffers at SF’s expense—& have fun doing it. Society at large will continue to use the wrong word for green weed. Nothing will be learned.
#3 chris
I don’t care about the cops here, one way or another. It appears they made a mistake and the taxpayers are going to pay for it. So be it. I was just wondering, why would this lawyer’s best litigated case this century be his own case – and not my case?
😀
#5 bobbo
Please see above explanation. Of course he’s going to get all of the settlement. I was just wondering, in the lawyer’s handbook, does it say you’re supposed to save your best work for yourself and just do ‘normal’ work for all of your other clients?
As for your sensible questions, the answers are beyond this mere mortal.
At least our public agents stopped a kid from smoking a spliff.
At least our public agents got next year’s budget justified, creating more jobs and buying more toys for perpetrating more of the same.
My opinion on the war on drugs is this:
Legalize it, tax the shit out if it, kiss the drug enforcers and the drug runners goodbye, and lets the chips fall where they may on the new flatter ground.
I don’t even take Aspirin™®, so I’m just trying to stop from getting hit by a stray bullet.
msbpodcast, “I don’t even take Aspirin™®”
Just wait until you are older…
War is a racket, including and especially the war on drugs.
I’m guessing the DA’s big mistake was to write on the warrant the address of the whole building without being specific as to the unit.
The cops are evidently taught — by the DA — to run through this technicality with a freight train.
The judge wrote a warrant for a multi-occupancy unit but pretended not to notice the Constitution’s specificity requirement.
The cops are in on it, the DA is in on it, the judge is in on the action. They all stand to personally benefit from their bad behavior in terms of their career opportunities.
I hope and pray the law prof rips the town a new asshole so big and painful that the citizens impeach the judge, and impeach the DA, and lay off 50% of the cops.
The remaining 50% of the cops can go back to doing useful work other than the failed war on drugs.
The WOD is a huge business. It employs thousands, and has a budget in the billions.
Follow the money! It will never end!
But, It will really be a ‘show’ when this gets in to court!
It would make a great reality TV show!
WOW! I can’t wait!
#22–Reagan==please don’t “make up” your own facts/issues just so you can disagree with it. You “almost” admit what you actually said is wrong, but for clarity: when a lawyer represents himself in an action in which he was also the victim==indeed he should get ALL the settlement/award money. No other action makes any sense at all.
Now, if what you want to argue with is the fact or the assumption that this very same lawyer will fight harder for his own case than he will for cases where he is just the lawyer THAT is totally unrelated to what you have said twice now. Focus. Use the right words/concepts for what you want to argue.
On the second/manufactured argument, I have 3 responses: 1: who says?
2: When representing himself, the lawyer has a client who has presented all the facts and returns all the phone calls. This always helps any case go better.
3. Yes, people often work harder in their own interest than they do for others EVEN when getting paid for it. Some other people are just the opposite. People are funny that way.
In # 25 God, Allah and other monikers said: “Just wait until you are older…
Hell man, I was born in 1953. How much older do you want me to be?
I know our gummint doesn’t want me to get any older
They’d be happier if I died last year when I qualified for Social Security Disability.
If the guy had been a republican, this would have been Obama’s fault! As it is, seems to me that the DEA budget is a good place to start cutting. Most of the DEA agents are pretty hard to distinguish from the folks they are supposedly chasing!
The cops made a big mistake.
I don’t see the officers at the scene being responsible for the error, so suing them is HOPEFULLY as waste.
The person that requested the warrant made the error BURN that person.
Actually I have no sympathy for the guy, he comes off as a despicable asshole.
The older I get, the less I like cops. Seriously. I really don’t like law enforcement officers at all any more.
Especially when they hassle people who are not a threat to the safety of others.
I, however, pride myself on being a threat to the safety of others.