SAN FRANCISCO (Northern California Record) — San Francisco attorney and former Solano County prosecutor Andrew Michael Ganz faces suspension following a June 3 California Supreme Court order over his alleged prosecutorial misconduct in a homicide case, according to a recent report issued by the State Bar of California and court documents.
The court handed down a stayed one-year suspension and placed Ganz on two years' conditional probation with the first 90 days spent on suspension.
Ganz also was ordered to pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination and to pay all costs in the matter. Ganz's discipline will be effective July 3, according to an announcement recently posted on the state bar's website.
Ganz was admitted to the bar in California on June 9, 2004, according to his profile at the state bar website. Ganz had no prior discipline before the state bar, according to the decision.
Ganz admitted during a hearing before the California State Bar Court that he made mistakes while prosecuting a murder case against Michael Daniels earlier this decade, according to the state bar court's 49-page amended decision issued in January.
"But in mitigation, he contends, at the time, he had a huge caseload," the amended decision said.
The Daniels case had been his first homicide, Ganz reportedly told the state bar court.
Daniels was accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Brastow, by suffocating her with a sock in a Vallejo motel room in 2012. A superior court jury found Daniels not guilty on all charges in April 2014. Ganz suppressed evidence favorable to the defense in the Daniels case in 2013 and in 2014 but it had not been his intent, according to the state bar court's decision.
"He testified that he does what is right and makes his best effort," the amended decision said. "[Ganz]'s life has been miserable for something he did not intend to do. He submits that a public reproval is the greatest discipline warranted under the facts and circumstances."
Instead of a reproval, the state bar court recommended Ganz receive a stayed one-year suspension and be placed on two years' probation with 90 days of actual suspension after finding him culpable in four of six counts against him. Those counts included suppression of evidence and misrepresentation to defense counsel.