Free Republic

Although the fajita fight criminal case fizzled out this week with the acquittal of a former San Francisco police officer on assault and battery charges, the scandal spawned by the case had a major impact on the city's Police Department, a San Francisco police commissioner said Wednesday. On Tuesday, a Sacramento jury acquitted former Officer Alex Fagan Jr., 25, of felony charges stemming from a street brawl in November 2002 in which Fagan and two other off-duty police allegedly attacked two civilians over a take-home bag of fajitas. Last November, San Francisco police Officer Matthew Tonsing, 29, and former Officer...

One of the most surprised people to hear "not guilty" Tuesday in the Fajitagate trial of Alex Fagan Jr. was his own attorney, Jim Collins. Late last week, questions coming from the jury deliberations had Collins and everyone else convinced that young Fagan was going down for his part in the off-duty cop brawl on Union Street. Then came a second round of questions that made Collins think they might acquit -- or maybe convict of a lesser charge. But then, Tuesday, after reviewing Collins' cross-examination of one of the victims, the jury composed largely of women came out "not...

SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- A Sacramento County jury acquitted the son of a former top-ranking San Francisco police official of two felony assault charges and failed to reach a verdict on two misdemeanor charges Tuesday, in a trial stemming from an off-duty brawl that turned into a political scandal dubbed "fajitagate." Former San Francisco police Officer Alex Fagan Jr., 25, and two other officers were accused of assaulting Jade Santoro and Adam Snyder in November 2002 after Santoro refused to surrender a takeout bag of steak fajitas. Fagan was acquitted of the twin felony allegations involving Santoro, and a mistrial was...

Sacramento -- As the felony assault trial of former San Francisco police Officer Alex Fagan Jr. began Tuesday, prosecutors and the defense painted two very different versions of an alcohol-fueled brawl more than two years ago sparked by one off-duty officer demanding a passer-by's steak fajitas. Fagan is the last of three officers involved in the early morning Union Street incident to be prosecuted. The San Francisco district attorney failed to convict the other officers. One was acquitted, and charges were dropped against the other. Assistant District Attorney Jerry Norman said Fagan, now 25, was in the thick of a...

A San Francisco jury sided Wednesday with a police officer accused of starting the infamous Union Street fajita fight, clearing him of a felony battery charge and deadlocking in his favor on a felony assault charge. The acquittal of Officer Matthew Tonsing was a significant defeat for prosecutors two years after an alleged off-duty drunken brawl grew into a scandal that engulfed the San Francisco Police Department and led to the since- dismissed indictments of several members of the department's top brass. Tonsing, 29, was charged with felony assault and battery of Jade Santoro, one of two men involved in...

A man who says off-duty San Francisco police officers shoved him to the ground, punched him and dragged him down a street in a chokehold took the witness stand this afternoon to detail the alleged assault in the trial of Matthew Tonsing and David Lee. Former officer Alex Fagan Jr., also accused of participating in the fight, was mentioned often in San Francisco Superior Court today, but his trial has been separated from that of Tonsing and Lee. The confrontation at the corner of Union and Laguna streets in the early morning hours of Nov. 20, 2002 allegedly began when...