Bryan Carmody Biography
Bryan Carmody is a 49-year-old freelance videographer in San Francisco who was recently arrested for obtaining and selling a police report that detailed the final moments of well known Public Defender Jeff Adachi. The police are currently investigating who leaked the confidential police report on Adachi as part of a criminal probe. A Judge signed off on search warrants which justified the search by stating officers were investigating “stolen or embezzled” property.
Bryan Carmody told the Los Angeles Times that officers banged on his door Friday and confiscated dozens of personal items including notebooks, his cellphone, computer, hard drives, and cameras. A judge signed off on search warrants, which stated officers were investigating “stolen or embezzled” property, the newspaper reported Saturday
San Francisco Police defend raids of Bryan Carmody’s properties over journalist’s sale of leaked documents related to Jeff Adachi death – CBS News https://t.co/gxorkTfDIt pic.twitter.com/6vUsgokqST
— San Francisco Info (@SFinformer) May 16, 2019
Authorities said the raid came during an ongoing probe into who leaked a confidential police report about the Feb. 22 death of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi.
Carmody said investigators had asked him a few weeks earlier to identify the source that provided him with the report. The reporter said he politely declined.
While he was shackled, officers got a second warrant to search his newsroom, where police seized a thumb drive, CDs and, inside a safe, the leaked police report about Adachi’s death, the Times said.
Carmody, 49, said he has not shared the name of his source with anyone, and no markings on the document could be traced to the person who provided it.
taking a sledgehammer to the gate of his house and seizing his computers, phones and other devices.
Their goal: to uncover the source of a leaked police report in the possession of freelance videographer Bryan Carmody.https://t.co/U3EzFnkoDi— Pbrowning02 ?? (@pbrowning02) May 14, 2019
The Police held him in handcuffs for 6 hours as they searched his home
TwitterBryan Carmody has led away from his home in handcuffs. This image was captured by Bryan’s security camera.
After police officers broke down his door with a sledgehammer, they handcuffed Bryan for 6 hours from 8:22 a.m. to 1:55 p.m while they searched his home and collected his personal belongings. The search warrant said the SFPD officers and FBI agents were there investigating “stolen or embezzled” property.
Bryan is a legal gun owner, which may have been the cause of him being handcuffed the entire time. But the Los Angeles Times reported that the guns were in a safe at the time of the raid. Also, officers took off their bulletproof vests during the raid due to the heat, showing they were not scared of gunfire from Bryan or anybody else.
Police officers obtained the second warrant for his newsroom while he was cuffed.
After being raided, Bryan Carmody says he will not reveal his source
Despite the police raiding his home and confiscating between $30,000 – $40,000 worth of his equipment, Bryan has remained steadfast to his commitment not to reveal his source. He said he has not shared the name with anybody and the document the police confiscated has no markings that would help them identify the person.
My home and business were raided by the SFPD and the FBI today. This is part of a campaign to make me divulge a confidential source. I will not. https://t.co/qa7uNjy4wy
— Bryan C. Carmody (@bryanccarmody) May 11, 2019
The police claim that the person who leaked the report may have been bribed to do so. When asked if he paid his source anything for the report Carmody responded, “No, not even a cup of coffee.” Carmody and his lawyer believe the cops are trying to pressure him into giving up his source. “It’s designed to intimidate,” said his lawyer, Thomas Burke. “It’s essentially the confiscation of a newsroom.”
Bryan Carmody has set up a GoFundMe page to fund his legal defense
The police confiscated all of Bryans equipment, about $30K – $40K worth during the raid, which left him unable to do his job. Bryan is a freelance videographer that relies on his equipment to generate income. He is currently trying to get his equipment back from the SFPD but they have been unresponsive
His friend Aaron Lee set up a GoFundMe for Bryan to raise money for new equipment. On the page, they describe Bryan as “an independent journalist who has covered news in Northern California for nearly three decades.” adding, “Over the last three decades, Bryan’s content has been aired on every national news network, cable news outlet, and nearly every local T.V. station in America.”
Same to all this. Bryan Carmody’s harassment of me and other reporters was repugnant and inexcusable, but so is this raid. https://t.co/2Wsh17IbaT
— Vivian Ho (@VivianHo) May 11, 2019
My home and business were raided by the SFPD and the FBI today. This is part of a campaign to make me divulge a confidential source. I will not. https://t.co/qa7uNjy4wy
— Bryan C. Carmody (@bryanccarmody) May 11, 2019
Bryans friends are asking for “$10,000 to replace equipment that was taken during the raid, help Bryan get his business up and running again, and prepare for his legal defense.”
They have exceeded their initial goal and raised $11,331 total.
10 Fast Facts You Need to Know
- Jeff Adachi, 59, died in February in San Francisco from a heart condition
- He had cocaine and alcohol in his system and had been out for dinner
- Police found him in a rented apartment, alone, after a woman called Caterina called 911
- She said they’d been out to dinner but that he became ill and collapsed
- When police got to the apartment, she had fled and Adachi was unresponsive
- There were marijuana gummies, alcohol bottles and syringes at the scene
- Photos of it were leaked to a reporter and published by multiple news outlets
- Now, there is an investigation in to who shared the incriminating photographs
- Adachi was known to target corrupt cops and some say the photos being leaked were proof of his years-long feud with the police department
- Journalists across the United States came to his defense
San Francisco Democrat Politicians Back Likely Unconstitutional Police Raid On Journalist Bryan Carmody Done In Effort To Find Out The Name Of His Confidential Source https://t.co/WcbmbJWLfC
— Bob Garcia (@1reddragon696) May 16, 2019