Text by Sarah Phelan
Photos obtained by the Guardian depict de la Plaza, and the bloody trial around his apartment following his killing.
Last Friday, I got an email from Hugues de la Plaza’s ex-girlfriend Melissa Nix, in which she claimed that preliminary findings by the Office of Citizen Complaints into her complaint about the SFPD’s investigation into the June 2007 death of her ex-boyfriend Hugues de la Plaza found the following:
· Homicide gave de la Plaza’s death a low priority for investigation
· There was a lack of coordination among SFPD command staff around the investigation.
· The crime lab, medical examiner and homicide unit failed to cooperate in a proper and timely manner.
· The homicide officer charged with investigating the case failed to record required monthly updates on the investigation in the case’s chronological summary.
· The lack of chronological updates also constituted a failure in supervision on the part of the homicide officer’s superiors.
Reached by phone, Nix admitted that she was on the East Coast, hadn’t had a chance to read the report herself, but was not entirely satisfied with its findings, and plans to appeal by requesting an investigative hearing.
Nix said she also believes the OCC will be interested in new information involving DNA that “further calls homicide’s conduct into question.”
“I disagree with the fact that there was no finding of misconduct,” Nix said. “And I question the cursory form letter the OCC sent me after I sent a 17-page list of my concerns.”
I called OCC’s executive director Joyce Hicks on Friday in the hopes she would confirm the content of OCC’s report, but was told she wouldn’t be in until Monday. And now it’s 4 p.m on Monday, and Hicks hasn’t called…sigh.