Prosecutor fights back against State Bar misconduct charges

A San Francisco County prosecutor, accused of misconduct for allegedly concealing evidence in a Solano County homicide case, is accused in a State Bar trial of pressuring a coroner into listing a 2012 death as a homicide and then not disclosing that meeting to the defendant's attorney.

Defense attorney Alfred Giannini, who represents San Francisco County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Ganz, said the coroner, Susan Hogan, was forced out because of incompetence. And he called on Solano County Undersheriff Gary Elliott Thursday to bolster his argument.

But State Bar attorneys maintained Hogan was forced out because she would not issue autopsy reports and give testimony consistent with the prosecutors' theory that Solano County resident Jessica James' death was a homicide.

The six counts of prosecutorial misconduct against San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Andrew Ganz -- who was a Solano County prosecutor at the time -- centers around a January 2013 meeting he had with a medical examiner and did not disclose to the defense attorney representing the man charged with killing James.

Hogan told Ganz she would not list the cause of death as a homicide. But she later testified she never met with prosecutors and "thought the manner of death was most likely a homicide."

Hogan resigned in lieu of termination in 2013 after her work on the case following an investigation by the Solano County Sheriff's Department.

"Is it fair to say that if Dr. Hogan was fired because she was incompetent, defense attorneys who had cases where she did autopsies would be interested in the reasons for her termination?" State Bar attorney Melissa Murphy asked Elliott.

"I think that's a fair statement," he replied.

"So allowing her to retire would allow you to escape that?" Murphy said.

"If you're suggesting that the reason we allowed her to retire was because we were concerned about prosecuting cases, that isn't true," he responded. In the matter of Andrew Ganz, 14-0-2363, (State Bar Ct., filed April 11, 2018).

Meenha Lee, the attorney who represented defendant Michael Daniels, learned of the investigation into Hogan's work and alleged prosecutors were hiding it because she did not want to testify that the cause of James' death was homicide.

Solano County Superior Court Judge Dan Healy, who presided over the case, heavily criticized prosecutors for not revealing the meeting Hogan had with them about the autopsy.

The "three deputy district attorneys and two police officers, all advocating for a position contrary to Dr. Hogan's, in and of itself suggests an effort to intimidate, regardless of who organized the meeting," Healy wrote in an order on discovery.

"The fact that not one of these five persons have any forensic medical training but nonetheless are trying to convince a doctor to change her mind about forensic evidence, is in and of itself both troubling and absurd," Healy added.

Charges against Daniels were ultimately dismissed.

Ganz said he did not disclose the meeting with defense attorneys because there was "nothing new."

The coroner "simply used different wording to express the same idea" and thought she would include details of the meeting in the autopsy report if it was important, Ganz testified Wednesday.

"There was nothing that needed to be corrected or added based on what I observed," Ganz said. "I didn't believe I was withholding anything."

But State Bar attorneys pushed back on that characterization because Hogan, at the 2013 meeting, disputed the prosecutors' theory that James was asphyxiated with a sock and did not have enough evidence to list the death as a homicide.

Under cross-examination, the undersheriff said the county seized her work computer because she mentioned the possibility of writing a book. Hogan later settled a civil suit with the county.

In a contentious hearing Wednesday, Giannini also criticized San Francisco County Public Defender Jeff Adachi for filing another charge of prosecutorial misconduct against Ganz last week in superior court.

"This is an ambush, plain and simple," Giannini said. "There are due process rights."

San Francisco County prosecutors allege Carlos Argueta committed first-degree murder in 2015.

State Bar Court Judge Patrice McElroy ruled against allowing Adachi's allegations into the case against Ganz.