Friends Worry LAPD Overview of Hugues de La Plaza Case Will Reveal SFPD Bungling -- But No Murderer

Hugues de la Plaza

​New San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon continues to prove that he certainly knows how to make a first impression (other than being spotted around town in baggy shorts and flip-flops). Yesterday, the Chronicle reported that Gascon's old boss, LAPD Chief William Bratton, has agreed send a pair of detectives to pore over the SFPD's files on the Hugues de La Plaza case.

De La Plaza, you may remember, is the French dual citizen found stabbed three times in his bloody Hayes Valley Apartment. Despite the fact no knife was present, the SFPD quickly latched onto a suicide theory. The San Francisco Medical Examiner determined the cause of death was inconclusive. Meanwhile, alarmed French officials backed by a federal judge's ruling packed the material evidence back to France -- where the case was emphatically ruled to be a homicide. 

Melissa Nix, an ex-girlfriend of de La Plaza's who has spearheaded what became an international effort to acknowledge this was a murder, said she is gratified by the move. But she is concerned that this is merely a public relations ploy; a 48 Hours piece on de La Plaza is slated to air on national television in November and a French-produced documentary will show in France, Italy, and Belgium next month.

Nix is also concerned that the best possible outcome she and de La Plaza's other friends, family members, and associates can hope for is a repudiation of SFPD missteps on this case and, potentially, new rules or guidelines. The opportunity to catch a killer could well have passed years ago.

"There's a murderer on the loose," she says. "If they want 'closure' [for de La Plaza's survivors] they need to start out with a proper investigation."

As Nix told SF Weekly earlier regarding Gascon's interest in the case, a huge step would be for the police to stop pushing the suicide theory once and for all -- as she claims they are still doing despite police telling de La Plaza's family in February that they now consider this a murder.

Language Gascon used in the Chronicle article is heartening to Nix: ""The goal is to provide closure for the family and find the perpetrator." (our emphasis)

"This is probably a smart move on behalf of the chief of police," she says. "We hope for the best."

De La Plaza's family and friends plan to visit San Francisco next month. Nix said that former District Attorney candidate Bill Fazio has expressed interest in representing them in a negligence case against the city. Whether they employ him to do so will depend on "what Gascon has to say to the family."