Last week’s confrontation between San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s security guard and Tony Phillips, which quickly escalated into violence and a criminal case that has consumed the city, started with a misunderstanding caused by the mayor, according to Ivan Rodriguez, a lawyer representing Phillips.
Phillips, who faces felony charges after the March 5th incident, had no idea who Lurie was when the mayor got out of his car at Larkin Street and Cedar Street in the Tenderloin and told him to clear out, Rodriguez told Gazetteer SF.
Phillips also had no idea that the man who shoved him to the ground moments later was a police officer guarding the mayor. The security officer who accompanied Lurie that day, and was seriously injured in the incident, was a San Francisco police officer dressed in civilian clothes, Rodriguez said.
“Imagine two guys roll up on you,” Rodriguez said. “Two people in suits come up on you and say, ‘Hey, move along.’” According to Rodriguez, Phillips and his companion, Abraham Simon, “were in their right to say, ‘Who the hell are you?’”
The conflict was also entirely preventable if Lurie had simply stayed in his car, Rodriguez asserted. While the conflict has sparked a discussion about civil rights and policing, it has also raised serious questions about the mayor’s judgement.
“I don’t know that it’s the mayor’s role to play king for a day, you know, acting as some foot soldier or something like that, asking these individuals who are there just minding their own business to get out of there, to move along,” Rodriguez said. “That action taken by the mayor definitely put his security detail in danger, where their safety was compromised.”
Rodriguez’s understanding of the events is based on a police report, video, and information provided to him by the office of District Attorney Brook Jenkins as part of normal information sharing in the criminal case Jenkins is prosecuting against Phillips. Rodriguez has also spoken to Phillips, who was released from jail yesterday by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Sylvia Husing, who concluded that Phillips was assaulted by the officer.
Mayor Lurie asked his security detail to stop his vehicle so he could talk to Phillips, Rodriguez said. During the incident, which has been covered widely, Phillips grew argumentative, though not initially combative, Rodriguez said, citing the police report and video. About two minutes after Lurie first engaged the men, his officer can be seen pushing Phillips to the ground. After being pushed again by the officer, the two men “get into essentially a wrestling match,” Rodriguez said.
“I think the officer was just put in a position, unfortunately, by the mayor, and in an unsafe position where he initiated this aggression with Mr. Phillips, and this all sparked,” Rodriguez said. “It was all just a very senseless confrontation, in my opinion, that should have never happened, and could have been avoided had the mayor not done what he did by getting out of the car and going up to these folks there and telling them to move along.”
Asked for a response to Rodriguez’s arguments, Lurie’s office referred Gazetteer SF to the mayor’s explanations for his actions reported in previous stories. In his most extensive response so far, the mayor told the Chronicle that it’s his job “to lean in.”
Rodriguez said he is undertaking his own investigation of what happened. He previewed a defense to the two felonies Phillips is charged with: resisting and assaulting a police officer. If Phillips didn’t know the man he fought with was a police officer, he can’t be charged with resisting or assaulting one, Rodriguez said.
Phillips, who is homeless, also faces two misdemeanor charges for unauthorized housing and violating a “stay away” order issued in a different case that applies to the corner of Cedar where he lives in a tent. Mission Local, which broke the initial story about the conflict, has reported that Phillips has a longer history of criminal charges.
According to Rodriguez, Phillips was actually the victim. “In this case, he was the one that was assaulted.”
Rodriguez also added that his client is in good spirits. “He’s happy to know that what actually happened in the case is coming to light.”
Phillips is scheduled to return to court Thursday for a hearing, where Rodriguez is expected to be appointed as lead attorney for all of his client’s pending cases.
Editor's note: This story was corrected to clarify that Phillips’ “stay away” order applies to the corner of Cedar and Larkin streets.
