[Freethe SF8] Judge delays ruling on dropping of conspiracy charges

[SF-8 case]

Judge Moscone delayed ruling on the dropping of 
conspiracy charges against Herman Bell, Jalil 
Muntaqim and Francisco Torres until Thursday, 
February 28 at 11am – the next scheduled hearing 
in the SF8 case. Defense filings and arguments 
earlier this month asked that the court treat 
these three brothers like the five others, whose 
charges were dropped because of a 3-year statute 
of limitations on conspiracy in California.

The remaining part of the Wednesday hearing 
focused on questions by the defense of a San 
Francisco City Prosecutor and a retired DA 
investigator about evidence missing from the 
files of the 1975 Ingleside investigation. The 
only files turned over to the defense from the 
original investigation contain no police reports, 
no ballistic evidence, no witness interviews or lab files.

The DA’s file did contain some notes – 
particularly important since the notes and 
correspondence referenced other materials in the 
possession of the prosecution. Most notably 
missing were reports of the fingerprint 
comparisons – with negative results, no matches 
to any of the defendants. Also absent is the 
memorandum prepared by then prosecutor Thomas 
Norman stating the reasons for not going forward with the prosecution in 1975.

SF police inspector Joseph Engler who is also a 
leading member of the Phoenix Taskforce – 
comprised of federal, state and local police 
agencies – was also questioned and claimed that 
he was merely a courier who checked the 1975 file 
out from the SF District Attorney, delivered it 
to the US Attorney in January of 2005, delivered 
it to the State Attorney General and then 
returned the file in August 2007 to the SF DA’s 
office. Engler is a chief investigator on this 
case along with Frank McCoy and Ed Erdelatz (both 
retired SF police officers and now re-hired to be 
part of this prosecution). McCoy and Erdelatz 
were present in New Orleans in 1973 when Harold 
Taylor, John Bowman (recently deceased) and Ruben 
Scott were arrested and tortured. Engler started 
investigating this case in October of 2002 and 
travelled with McCoy and Erdelatz over the past 
years investigating the Ingleside case and 
questioned most of the defendants before they 
were charged. Under examination by defense 
attorney Chuck Bourdon, Engler denied knowing 
what was in the file he transported except to say 
that it did not contain any audio cassettes that 
he had hoped to find. He said that he made no 
notations of any kind about the file’s contents. 
Difficult to believe that the SF prosecutors’ 
files would be so incomplete or that one of the 
main investigators on the case (or the 
prosecutors themselves) would not be more curious 
or informed about all the absent case files 
(unless they were exculpatory or it somehow 
suited their prosecution). After all, Engler has 
only focused on this case and these men for the last six years.

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