Due to a lack of evidence, prosecutors in San Francisco have dismissed all charges against two men accused of murdering renowned private investigator Jack Palladino two years ago. Palladino, whose clientele included presidents, corporate whistleblowers, and Hollywood moguls, died outside his home on February 1, 2021, after suffering a head injury in a drive-by attempt to steal his camera, according to San Francisco police at the time.
The 76-year-old guy fell and struck his head, but not before photographing the two passing men. Police utilized the photographs to locate and arrest the men.
Jack Palladino, private investigator, August 12, 1982 Getty Images photograph by Eric Luse/San Francisco Chronicle.
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office said in a statement that the district attorney’s office dismissed the case Tuesday when a witness revealed he never saw one of the individuals in the passenger seat attempt to steal the camera through the car window. Additionally, the suspect’s DNA was not located on the camera, according to the agency.
“The prosecution did the ethical thing in dismissing these charges, as none of the physical evidence corroborated the early assumptions reported by an unreliable witness,” said deputy public defender Kleigh Hathaway, who represented the driver.
District attorney’s office spokesperson Randy Quezada stated that the office’s mission is “to prosecute cases ethically, fairly and impartially.”
The dismissal has disappointed the Palladino family, according to Mel Honowitz, a longtime family friend and attorney. He stated that circumstantial evidence demonstrated conclusively that the individuals sought to steal Palladino’s camera, which led to his death. He stated that there was no video of the time Palladino made contact with the males.
Honowitz stated, “There’s no question in our minds, and it’s our opinion the two defendants were in fact the killers of Jack Palladino,” “We understood the district attorney’s judgment. We are not necessarily in agreement.”
Palladino was yelling at them through the window and hitting the car with his hand, according to Hathaway’s client, she added. Palladino lost his balance and fell, according to the office.
The public defender’s office highlighted the large trial backlog at San Francisco Superior Court that has put suspects in jail pending trial by dismissing the case. The scheduled trial date was September 2021.
Both males were freed from a San Francisco jail, according to the records.
Palladino was a colorful character whose distinguished career extended over 40 years. Clients included Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, which recruited him to frustrate women who claimed to have had sex with the future president and who were coming forward with allegations.
He was also the investigator for the family of a 14-year-old child who accused Michael Jackson of assaulting him and received a multimillion-dollar settlement from the entertainer. In this instance, Jackson was never charged with a crime.
Former cigarette firm executive and whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and former automobile executive John DeLorean were two of his most renowned clients.
In the Wigand case, Palladino revealed a concerted attempt by Big Cigarette to slander the former Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp. executive after his charges that tobacco products were laced with chemicals to make them more addictive became public. Palladino subsequently portrayed himself in “The Insider,” a 1999 film based on the case.
For DeLorean, he discovered that the former General Motors CEO had been framed by authorities, who had accused him of trafficking millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine in a failed attempt to save his bankrupt DeLorean Motor Co. DeLorean was found not guilty.
»Murder case against legendary private investigator Jack Palladino has been withdrawn«