case was that under California law, obstruction of justice required that there be an active conspiracy of persons who agreed to subvert justice, not merely an individual or set of individuals acting on their own. Hallinan originally claimed such a conspiracy but phone and office logs established that there could not have been any significant collusion. Hallinan publicly called for the law to be amended to allow individuals to be charged for independent actions. Later in 2003 and throughout 2004, most of the senior officers, including Sanders, pursued legal appeals to clear their names of the underlying factual claims regarding the obstruction. Sanders and several others were eventually cleared by courts. Sanders took early retirement, which he claimed was from the stress from the investigation. Criminal court cases in the original beating against Fagan and Lee were resolved in 2004 and 2005. Lee was found not guilty on November 21, 2004 and Fagan was found not guilty on March 28, 2005. Many officers were charged by the Office of Citizen Complaints for misconduct in the incident. In March 2007, Inspector Paul Falconer and Lieutenant Henry Para successfully challenged their misconduct charges in a closed hearing of the Police Commission. They were exonerated of all the charges brought against them. In March 2007, many of the officers charged by the Office of Citizen Complaints made deals, with the San Francisco Police Commission, for time off. At the end of the hearing, one police commissioner stated that it appeared that none of the officers charged had done anything wrong. Civil On June 12, 2006, a civil jury found Fagan and police officer Matt Tonsing liable for damages suffered in the beating and awarded plaintiff Jade Santoro $36,500 in damages. The jury found for Tonsing but against Fagan and awarded Snyder $9,500. The jury completely exonerated Lee, and Snyder was ordered to pay both Lee's and Tonsing's defense costs. A federal court dismissed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of San Francisco in 2006, a decision upheld on appeal in July 2008, on the basis that the plaintiffs had not shown at trial that any police policy or practice was to blame for the officers' conduct. References Further reading (Transcript from broadcast) External links Fajitagate Timelinefrom Mapreport.com 2000s in San Francisco Politics of San Francisco San Francisco Police Department Scandals in California