As an SF resident this story is incredibly embarrassing but I am writing about it because there needs to be more than local pressure on the SFPD to actually do something. Drudge reported this earlier today though he unsurprisingly misrepresented what happened. (Link appears to have gone away.)
Story below.
It seems that on New Year's Eve, the Yale men's a cappella group, Baker's Dozen (18 members strong!) attended a party in San Francisco hosted in their honor by a fellow Yale student. The party was being held at the student's parent's house. Those parents are two highly decorated SFPD police officers, one retired and one on disability leave.
Some young men crashed the party and were, reportedly, upset that the women at the party were paying more attention to the singers than them. When the singers launched into an impromptu performance of the Star Spangled Banner, things got ugly. According to local news station KGO (ABC) which was the first to report on this eight days after it happened:
The trouble started at midnight after The Baker's Dozen sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Witnesses say a few local young men didn't appreciate the attention the Yale students were getting, made fun of their conservative dress and began taunting them and making threats.
Leanna Dawydiak, Hosted Party: "They had something here special that these other fellas obviously didn't have and that irritated them."
Witnesses say 19-year-old Richard Aicardi was the most aggressive.
[Baker's Dozen member and most seriously injured victim] Sharyar Aziz: "'You're not welcome here,' he called a few members of the group, whether it was fag or homo, very, I would say, juvenile taunting."
Aicardi took out his cell phone and called in reinforcements.
Reno Rapagnani: "He said, 'I'm 20 deep, my boys are coming.'"
One of the vehicles that brought the attackers was captured by surveillance camera at a church across the street. As The Baker's Dozen left the house, they were ambushed -- five, six, seven assailants attacking each member.
Some more details from KGO's follow up today:
The trouble began when some Sacred Heart graduates crashed the party, and by many reports, became jealous at the attention the young men from Yale were receiving. They repeatedly tried to start a fight.
Sharyar Aziz: "We even told them, 'What are you trying to prove?' We have nothing to prove. We're not looking for a fight, this is borderline ridiculous."
Nineteen year-old Richard Aicardi, wearing a Santa hat at the party, called in reinforcements and a nearby surveillance camera caught one vehicle that brought some of the attackers. They ganged up on the members of The Baker's Dozen as they trickled out of the party.
Sharyar Aziz: "It just kind of seemed like forever while I was on the ground, getting kicked and assaulted."
Sharyar Aziz's jaw was broken in two places. He had to be rushed back to New York for reconstructive surgery. His jaw is wired shut.
Other members of the group suffered black eyes, scrapes, a severely sprained ankle and a serious concussion.
(The school referenced, Sacred Heart, is a local Catholic school that is rivals with another Catholic school, Saint Ignatious. The kids hosting the party were alumni of St. Ignatious and it is believed that at least some of this was about high school rivalries.)
So police were called, not too surprisingly. But gee, things sure do get weird at that point.
Police arrived and the dispatch sheet obtained by the I-Team shows they detained Sacred Heart graduates Brian Dwyer, Marino Peradotto, James Aicardi and Michael Aicardi. They apparently did not detain their brother, Rich Aicardi. Police let all the suspects go.
Dean Johnson, ABC7 Legal Analyst: "Police can arrest anytime that they believe have probable cause to believe a felony was committed."
Former San Mateo County prosecutor and ABC7 legal analyst, Dean Johnson, explains.
Dean Johnson: "They should have let the suspects sit in jail overnight and if these suspects are entitled to bail, if they're essentially good kids who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, if they have no records, if they're no danger to society, the judge on the afternoon arraignment calendar can sort all of that out later."
It especially troubles Johnson that the police failed to take photographs of the injuries. The couple who owned the home where the party took place took these pictures. And it bothers him that police failed to interview the victims.
In discussing the case for the first time, [Police Chief Heather] Fong said officers who went to the scene detained four individuals and tried to talk to others. But, Fong said, witnesses could not tie the four individuals to the beating, and officers released them.
A dispatch log of the incident, which summarized communications by Richmond station police officers who responded to the scene on 15th Avenue near Lake Street, suggests that at least some of the officers present dismissed the incident as minor.
"All parties want no PD (Police Department) action ... No injuries,'' it says, according to sources familiar with the log.
....
"When the facts are there and we have individuals providing information specifically saying this person did this, then we ... act. But those individuals weren't there for the officers to interview," Fong said.
....
The log of the police communications was made as two seriously injured victims -- Sharyar Aziz Jr., who suffered a broken jaw, and an unidentified man -- were on their way to San Francisco General Hospital. Police who interviewed them there said neither man could identify the attackers, police reports show.
Police investigators didn't even bother to photograph the injuries to The Baker's Dozen. The couple who held the party that night took pictures.
They couldn not identify the attackers? Really?
But members of The Baker's Dozen tell the I-Team they did identify the suspects and were available just a few doors down the street and that the police knew that.
To be a little fair, police did eventually open a real investigation. But check it out:
The follow-up investigation into the incident got off to a slow start.
It was not until Jan. 5 that police investigators began to conduct interviews in the case, authorities say. In that time, members of the singing group had left the city.
....
there continue to be delays in police interviewing the singers.
"It just seems to be taking a lot of time. They assigned inspectors, and they were off for two days. They (the singers) were still in San Francisco for a couple of days. What does that look like? Maybe I'm missing something.''
He said that he pushed the department to investigate and that his wife, a police sergeant who is on disability, took photos of the injuries to the singers.
He gave the photos to police, but on Wednesday he said the police were not satisfied with just obtaining the digital photos. He said the investigators instructed his lawyer to give them the camera.
"He wanted to know what they wanted the camera for,'' Rapagnani said. "There was no answer -- they said something like, we can't give our secrets.''
Rapagnani said he had asked the department's special investigations unit to be brought in but was told that the case did not warrant it.
Now authorities want the Yale students -- who have left San Francisco and will soon be back in school -- to return to the city to identify their attackers.
But dad Aziz said arranging their return won't be easy.
"The kids are scared s -- less of coming back to San Francisco,'' he said. "I'm just really frustrated.''
Now, 10 days later, investigators are demanding that the young men pay their way back to San Francisco to be interviewed. One investigator told a parent, "the kids are affluent, so they can afford it." The Baker's Dozen's attorney says it's ridiculous.
[Victims' lawyers] Whitney Leigh, Gonzalez & Leigh Law Firm: "The notion that the police should now put the burden on the families or on these kids to fly back to San Francisco, a place they're now afraid to come to frankly, doesn't seem to make any sense to me."
What about that accused kid Richard Aicardi and his brothers, who the heck are they?
[T]he 19-year-old son of the staggeringly wealthy local physician Eileen Aicardi....
[and...]
The couple who hosted the party wonder whether the authorities are moving slowly because of the family involved. Rich Aicardi and two of his brothers who were involved in the incident are the sons of prominent San Francisco pediatrician Eileen Aicardi.
Good to have friends in high places, I suppose.
What does Mayor Gavin Newsom think? You know, the one famous for marrying gay couples. Spokesman Peter Ragone:
"What often happens in these circumstances is that there's more than one side to every story."
Indeed.