The potentially fatal attack on a legendary private detective in San Francisco may have been solved by an unlikely person: Jack Palladino himself.
City police on Sunday identified two suspects now imprisoned in the violent robbery that took place Thursday afternoon, 24-year-old Lawrence Thomas from Pittsburg and 23-year-old Tyjone Flournoy from San Francisco.
The breakthrough in the case came at least in part thanks to the victim – photos from his camera that the suspects tried in vain to steal, his family said.
Palladino, 76, remained unconscious but got the good news during a visit from his wife and fellow detective Sandra Sutherland on Saturday night.
“I said, ‘Guess what, Jack, they’ve got the bastards, and it was all your job,’ ‘Sutherland told The Chronicle on Sunday.
Palladino, whose clients were political heavyweights and Hollywood celebrities, remained in serious condition with a serious head injury in a San Francisco hospital. Sutherland said he had been taken off life support and was only breathing, but was not expected to survive more than a few days.
“Jack’s hard to control,” she said. “But I really think this is it.”
Thomas was put in prison on Friday night; Flournoy was taken into custody in Reno on Saturday and taken to San Francisco prison on Sunday morning.
Both men were arrested on charges of the same crimes: attempted robbery, aggravated kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy, false incarceration and elder abuse, as well as reinforcements for allegedly causing serious bodily harm to Palladino. They had yet to be charged.
Palladino’s storied career spans clients from former President Bill Clinton – who hired the couple in 1992 to quell rumors of his extramarital affairs – to a 14-year-old boy who won a multimillion-dollar civil settlement against Michael Jackson. for alleged assault.
Just before the attack, Sutherland said, her husband had removed his reading glasses, picked up his camera, and walked out the door of their yellow Victorian house on Page Street’s 1400 block.
“He went out to take pictures of people doing mischief in the neighborhood,” Sutherland said.
While Palladino was firing shots, the men sitting in a car apparently saw him, Sutherland said.
“They shot him (in the car) and tried to get the camera, but couldn’t,” she said. “Because Jack wouldn’t let go.”
Palladino was dragged, fell and hit his head, said his stepson Nick Chapman. He said his stepfather was briefly conscious while on the street, but soon passed out.
Sutherland said she did not know what her husband’s photos showed, but police “found that evidence very helpful in arresting these two people.”
Records indicate that Flournoy was one of four men arrested by San Francisco Police late last year in connection with the murder of 33-year-old Ronisha Cook, who was fatally shot in Block 500 of Ellis Street on December 19, 2019. Loin.
City prosecutors charged two of the men – Gary Owens, 39, and Robert Huntley, 31 – with murder and told police that more evidence was needed to charge Flournoy and the fourth suspect, prosecutor Chesa Boudin said on Sunday. . Flournoy was released.
“We’ve brought murder charges against the people we think we can prove were the actual shooter and the driver of the car,” Boudin said. “At the time of the arrests, we asked the police to continue to investigate the two passengers in the car, including Mr. Flournoy.”
San Bruno police arrested Flournoy and two other men on February 21, 2019, on suspicion of breaking into a car. The status of that case in San Mateo County was not immediately clear on Sunday.
Boudin said his heart went out to Palladino’s family, and praised the police for resolving the case so quickly.
Boudin, a prosecutor who has vowed to use his post to combat mass imprisonment, has recently been intensively scrutinized over an accident that left two deaths on New Year’s Eve, and whether his office could have done more to prevent it .
Palladino didn’t count himself among such critics, however, Sutherland said.
“I’m a supporter of Chesa Boudin, and so is Jack,” she said. “And I’m sure he will do the right thing.”
Palladino and Sutherland – who have both worked extensively on criminal defense teams – believe in restorative justice and that there is systemic racism in law enforcement, Sutherland said. Both issues were central to Boudin’s campaign and policies.
The couple spent decades researching from their home. Among their other clients: Don Johnson, Kevin Costner, Robin Williams, Huey Newton, Snoop Dogg and car maker John DeLorean.
Although the detective had almost retired from his wife last week, he had one last case to close, Chapman told The Chronicle.
Sutherland said she certainly won’t work on the defense team for her husband’s cause, but she saw a cruel irony in which they attacked the victim.
She recalled the 1979 death of James Martin MacInnis, a prominent San Francisco attorney who was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. Chronicle columnist Herb Caen weighed in at the time, Sutherland recalled, noting that it was “really bad luck” that the driver killed the only person who could have gotten him.
Likewise, if anyone could have gotten the suspects in her husband’s case, it would have been Palladino, Sutherland said. “He never tried.”
Megan Cassidy is a staff writer at San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @meganrcassidy