State Bar files charges against prosecutor

The State Bar has accused a San Francisco County prosecutor of suppressing exculpatory evidence and dishonesty in a murder case he handled several years ago.

Andrew Michael Ganz, a San Francisco assistant district attorney, is facing disciplinary charges for the alleged misconduct from 2012 to 2014 while he was a Solano County prosecutor.

Ganz was the assigned prosecutor in a murder case in which Michael Daniels was accused of suffocating his girlfriend, Jessica Brastow, in a Vallejo hotel room in August 2012. People v. Daniels, VCR218954, (Solano Co. Sup. Ct., filed Sept. 23, 2013).

Ganz and other members of the prosecution team met in January 2013 with Dr. Susan Hogan, a pathologist, to discuss her findings about the case.

"Dr. Hogan provided detailed and specific information and reasons as to why the prosecution's theory as to the manner of death was unsubstantiated and she would not list the manner of death as a homicide," the bar's April 11 notice of disciplinary charges stated.

Ganz "intentionally failed to disclose to [the] defense both the exculpatory evidence from his meeting with Dr. Hogan on January 10, 2013 and the fact that the meeting even occurred," the charges state.

During a November 2013 preliminary hearing, Hogan falsely testified that she had not met with the prosecution team concerning the Daniels case and said that the manner of death was likely a homicide.

Ganz was present in court for Hogan's testimony, but did not correct her comments, according to the bar. He later encouraged the defense to accept a plea bargain.

In February 2014, the court reviewed Hogan's personnel records in response to a motion and learned that she had attended a meeting with Ganz and others about the Daniels case. The judge revealed that information on the record.

The next day, Ganz sent an email to defense counsel acknowledging he should have provided information about the Hogan meeting to the defense, but he did not provide Hogan's statements from the meeting, according to the bar. In the matter of Andrew Michael Ganz, 14-O-2363, (State Bar, filed April 11, 2018).

Solano County Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Healy issued an order in March 2014, concluding that the prosecution failed to provide discovery to the defense in a timely manner in the case, including not disclosing the meeting with Hogan.

Healy wrote that Ganz's insistence he did not violate his discovery obligations by failing to provide exculpatory evidence discussed with Hogan "suggests a prosecutorial attitude either incapable of or disinterested in maintaining the minimum ethical standards that all prosecutors are sworn to uphold."

Though Healy rejected the defense's request for the murder case's dismissal, the defendant was ultimately acquitted.

Ganz referred a Monday request for comment to his attorney, Alfred F. Giannini of Belmont. Giannini did not respond to requests for comment.

Max Szabo, a spokesman for San Francisco County District Attorney George Gascón, said Monday, "We are aware of the State Bar's filing, and we will be monitoring the developments of this case."