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Law enforcement officials and jurists are used to working on one side of the criminal coin. But it is not unheard of for them to suddenly find themselves on the other side of that same coin. This truth came home to San Mateo County District Attorney Franklin Swart in 1923 when proceedings were brought against him by a local resident.
As reported in the Redwood City Tribune in July 1923, Swart was under fire by the father of a dead young man who thought his son's case had not been given the legal attention it deserved.
Jose Antonio Azevedo said that one night in Half Moon Bay, his son Joseph had quarreled with two men (Manuel Bernardo and Ferdinando Facchini) at the Beach Inn Cafe in Half Moon Bay. Joseph left the establishment pretty intoxicated and began walking along the bluffs and cliffs by the ocean. Nothing was known further until his body was found floating in the waters near the shore. Bruises on the body made the coroner decide that Joseph had slipped off one of the cliffs and fell into the churning ocean. The official cause of death was drowning.
His father, Jose, wasn't satisfied with that. He pointed out that Joseph could easily have been followed by Bernardo and Facchini and was beaten to death as the victim of a homicide. He urged a local Justice of the Peace named Lamb to pursue legal remedies against Bernardo and Facchini.
Lamb apparently spoke to Swart about the situation, and the outcome of that meeting was clear: Lamb told Jose that it would be "useless to issue" formal paperwork against the two men if Swart said, which he had, that he wouldn't prosecute if the legal process went forward. Apparently, Swart was satisfied with the coroner's decision.
Jose lodged a formal complaint against Swart, who he felt was not doing his job and accused of "protecting" the two men.
Swart commented that "he has no fear of the outcome of proceedings brought against him in the Superior Court…." He said that after a thorough investigation, there was insufficient evidence to bring charges against Bernando and Facchini. He went on to tell The Tribune that "Azevedo naturally feels keenly the death of his son, but I am sorry to state that it would be impossible successfully to carry out a prosecution in this case."
The Tribune is silent about what happened next. Still, it can be inferred by the fact that Swart went on to have a long career as district attorney that Acevedo's efforts went nowhere and that he had to grudgingly accept the fact that, in his opinion, his son would never see justice.
