By G.W. Schulz
The Chronicle got scooped badly in late September when A.C. Thompson at the Weekly published a feature-length story revealing that the San Francisco Police Department had spied on reporters working out of the press office at the Hall of Justice. (My computer is still giving me a lot of shit, otherwise I’d post the links. Find ’em yourselves, friends.)
The Chron finally followed up on it yesterday with an explanation for why they had failed to do any story previously when they learned that the police department was pulling phone records to see who had leaked a department memo to crime reporter Jaxon Van Derbeken. The memo showed how top brass knew Alex Fagan Jr. – best recognized for his role in the Fajitagate scandal – had a serious temper. Derbeken’s original reporting on the memo surfaced shortly after Mini Fagan and two other off-duty officers clashed with two civilians over a bag of fajitas in 2002.