Hugues de la Plaza controversy refuses to die
Sonnez le claxon! (Sound the alarm!) Is Inspector Clouseau headed to SF to investigate the de la Plaza mystery?
Text by Sarah Phelan.
In a sign that the ghost of Hugues de la Plaza swirls restlessly around the city by the Bay---and will keep making headlines until his death is ruled a homicide and resolved--the New York Times ran a story about his case.
In another sign, de la Plaza's ex-girlfriend, Melissa Nix, who attended last week's Feb. 26 press conference looking Betty Paigesque thanks to a long dark mane and a lacy black top, and his handsomely graying father, Francois de la Plaza, continue to assert that Hugues, a French and American citizen, was murdered in his Hayes Valley apartment on June 2, 2007. (All of which suggests, citizens of San Francisco, that de la Plaza's killer is still at large.)
And then there is the fact that the San Francisco Police Department took pains to clarify, the day before this press conference, that the San Francisco Medical Examiner concluded that the manner of De la Plaza's death was "undetermined," in face of claims, made by Nix and Francois de la Plaza, that French investigators have declared that Hugues death was 100 percent a homicide.
On Feb. 25--and the day before de la Plaza's father announced a $100,000 reward (the proceeds of his son's life insurance policy) for information about his son's death, the SFPD issued a press release, stating that they wished to clarify certain public statements about Hugues de la Plaza's death.
"The French police never took over the case with the sanction of the U.S. Department of Justice, as has been publicly stated," the SFPD's Public Affairs department wrote. It is simply policy, through international treaty, to report the case to DOJ. The San Francisco Police Department never declares deaths as homicides or suicides, and has never ruled the death as 'suspicious' as has been publicly stated. It is the Medical Examiner's Office, not the police department, that determines a death as homicide, suicide, or death by natural causes. In this case, the Medical Examiner's Office concluded that the manner of Mr. de la Plaza's death was "undetermined.'"
"Although the Medical Examiner's Office has classified Mr. de la Plaza's death as an "undetermined' death, the police department handles and investigates all 'undetermined' deaths as if they were homicides," SFPD continued.
"It has been reported that the French investigating magistrate concluded that Mr. De la Plaza's death was a homicide. Two of our most experienced investigators have been unable to respond to the French findings because we as yet have not been afforded the opportunity to review those findings, which have been communicated to Mr. de la Plaza's family. A formal request for the French investigative file and their official conclusion is in progress."
"San Francisco investigators continue to investigate the death in an impartial and far from 'lackluster' manner, as was publicly reported. The SFPD anticipates reviewing the French investigative documents once they are received and to continue to work with our French colleagues."
At last week's press conference, de la Plaza's father said that French investigators had concluded that his son's death was a homicide for a number of reasons, including the fact that the murder weapon had not been found and the angle of the knife wounds on his body precluded the possibility of suicide.
"The angle of entrance determines that he could not have stabbed himself," de la Plaza said, through an interpreter.
He also noted that "traces of DNA found in the apartment do not belong to Hugues and might lead us to a suspect, or maybe just a friend. And both his computer and cell phone have been analyzed, but, so far, we haven't reached any conclusions."
Asked if the police told him soon after his son died that they were split on whether it was a homicide or suicide, Francois de la Plaza told the media, "No, they did not tell us that. We were told, 'until we see in person the guy who confesses to doing this crime, we will rule this a suicide.'"
But de la Plaza was careful not to criticize investigators personally.
"I believe they are true professionals, but they do not have the necessary means or funds," Francois de la Plaza said, claiming that during a Feb. 25 meeting, the SFPD had assured him that, henceforth, they will be treating his son's death as a homicide.
Asked for clarification, SFPD's public affair's office simply referred us to their Feb. 25 press release (see above).
But giving credence to Francois de la Plaza's concerns that SFPD investigators are being stretched thin in face of about 100 homicides a year, is SFPD Chief Heather Fong's recent request that a citywide cap on overtime be lifted on investigators in her homicide unit.
"We have requested an exemption," Fong said during the SF Police Commission's Feb. 11 meeting. "Three people are over the limit and are not able to work additional hours without an exemption."
Last year, in face of a growing budget deficit, the Board of Supervisors ruled that city employees cannot work more than 40 hours of overtime, for every two week period in which they work 80 hours of non-overtime, for an annual cap of 624 hours. So Fong's request suggests that the city's 20 homicide investigators, each working in pairs, and therefore handling, on average, 10 cases per team per year, are sorely overextended.
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