California public defender Jami Tillotson arrested for protecting client’s rights
San Francisco deputy public defender Jami Tillotson was arrested outside a courtroom in the city’s Hall of Justice after officers say she resisted arrest and interfered with a police investigation. Tillotson says she was just doing her job and advising her client of his right not to be questioned without an attorney present.
“This is not Guantanamo Bay. You have an absolute right to have a lawyer with you when you’re questioned. Ms. Tillotson was simply doing her job,” said San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi at a Wednesday press conference cited by SFGate.
Adachi launched the presser to express his office’s outrage the arrest of public defender Jami Tillotson, which was caught on tape, check out the clip below.
Tillotson was exiting a courtroom in San Francisco’s Hall of Justice with a client accused of shoplifting and a co-defendant when plainclothes San Francisco Police Department Sergeant Brian Stansbury and four uniformed officers approached and asked Tillotson to step aside so that officers could take photos of her client without her present.
Reportedly, the officers wanted to obtain photos for a lineup in connection to a separate case, but never bothered to even explain themselves. Police say Tillotson’s client is a person of interest in that case and was seeking “consensual questioning,” rather than a formal interrogation.
The officers felt that, due to the fact that Tillotson’s client had not been arrested on that specific charge, they were entitled to question the suspect without Tillotson present and ordered her to step aside to allow them to take photographs.
Sergeant Brian Stansbury said that she would be arrested for “resisting arrest” if she did not comply. Tillotson stood firm in her refusal and was arrested.
A fellow lawyer captured the a footage of the incident on video.
Following Tillotson’s arrest, she was left handcuffed to a wall in a cell for an hour while, according to SFist, police questioned and photographed her client without her present.
San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Officer Albie Esparza told SFGate that Tillotson was released an hour later because Sergeant Brian Stansbury was called away to testify in another case.
