http:/www.sfist.com A "conservative singing group was heckled,taunted and assaulted 5-1 after singing the national anthem... Members of a renowned choral group from Yale University were attacked outside a New Year's Eve party in San Francisco, sending several of them to the hospital. Now the police department is coming under fire for its handling of the case. Related Links PHOTOS: Injuries To Yale Choir BLOG: Outrage Over Attack ABC7 Video On Demand Get Alerts In Your E-Mail Get Alerts On Your Desktop This does not look good for the city. Yale sends its popular singing group, The Baker's Dozen, on a holiday concert tour. And San Francisco sends the young men away bloody, bruised, and several of them seriously injured. Laura Aziz sent her son, Sharyar, off on a concert tour with one of Yale University's singing groups -- he came to San Francisco over New Year's. This is how the 18-year-old returned to New York last week. Sharyar Aziz, Yale University Student: "Besides any bruising or scrapes to the face, the main injury that I suffered was I broke my jaw in two places." Laura Aziz, Sharyar's Mother: "It was shocking. It didn't make any sense. It still doesn't make any sense." The Baker's Dozen are a 58-year tradition at Yale. They've put out two dozen albums and toured the country, with appearances at the White House and Los Angeles Lakers games. When their winter tour brought them to San Francisco, retired police officer and department lawyer, Reno Rapagnani, arranged a New Year's Eve party at his home in the group's honor. Reno Rapagnani, Retired SFPD Lawyer: "I had given strict orders to my daughter that if anything got out of hand that the party would be over." The trouble started at midnight after The Baker's Dozen sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Witnesses say a few local young men didn't appreciate the attention the Yale students were getting, made fun of their conservative dress and began taunting them and making threats. Leanna Dawydiak, Hosted Party: "They had something here special that these other fellas obviously didn't have and that irritated them." Witnesses say 19-year-old Richard Aicardi was the most aggressive. Sharyar Aziz: "'You're not welcome here,' he called a few members of the group, whether it was fag or homo, very, I would say, juvenile taunting." Aicardi took out his cell phone and called in reinforcements. Reno Rapagnani: "He said, 'I'm 20 deep, my boys are coming.'" One of the vehicles that brought the attackers was captured by surveillance camera at a church across the street. As The Baker's Dozen left the house, they were ambushed -- five, six, seven assailants attacking each member. Their injuries ranged from scrapes, black eyes, a badly sprained ankle to concussions. The most seriously injured was Sharyar Aziz. He was rushed back to New York for reconstructive surgery -- his jaws wired shut for eight weeks. He'll forever have two titanium plates in his face. The varsity squash player will miss the season, now underway. He's trying to remain positive. Sharyar Aziz: "I can't just look back at that incident and be depressed for the next two months. I have to learn to deal with what's been given to me." What especially concerns the Aziz family -- when police arrived, they detained four of the attackers who were identified by members of The Baker's Dozen, but officers did not make an arrest. And a full week later, they still haven't made an arrest. Whitney Leigh, Gonzalez & Leigh Law Firm: "That doesn't seem to comport with traditional police practices and as a result, at least at this point, there's several violent youths or young men, actually, who are out on the street and shouldn't be." Police investigators didn't even bother to photograph the injuries to The Baker's Dozen. The couple who held the party that night took pictures. Leanna Dawydiak: "Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems as a citizen in San Francisco that something should be done a little more than has been." Police spokesman Neville Gittens defends the handling of the case. Neville Gittens, SFPD Spokesman: "What you want to do is you want to have a complete, thorough investigation. So the officers responded, the fight was abated and now an investigation is ongoing." The couple who hosted the party wonder whether the authorities are moving slowly because of the family involved. Rich Aicardi and two of his brothers who were involved in the incident are the sons of prominent San Francisco pediatrician Eileen Aicardi. The I-Team met with Eileen Aicardi and her sons last night. They invited us into their home in the shadow of Coit Tower, but later declined to be interviewed. Rich Aicardi did not want to have his picture taken. The incident threatens to be another black eye for the City of San Francisco. Mayor Gavin Newsom wouldn't address it when we caught up with him late this afternoon. There has been movement since we began investigating this story Friday night. Police interviewed Richard Aicardi on Sunday. Officials at Yale, by the way, issued a statement this afternoon saying they hope the "perpetrators will be apprehended and prosecuted." We'll keep on top of this and report back to you if something happens. Update 1/9/07: Our investigation into the attack on The Baker's Dozen has sparked outrage in San Francisco and across the country. For details on that and to read viewer comments on our report, read our I-Team Blog. The Choir Story, Again There's two interesting components to this story that's getting a bit of play. One of them is the failure to arrest anyone and weird things about how it was handled. The other one is the people involved. This being a small city, there's not anything that doesn't happen in the city without someone of note being involved. First up, the cops. After the fracas, they detained four of the assailants but let them go. As of right now, nobody has been arrested as police are saying they're still collecting evidence. They also didn't take pictures, although people at the party did. None of this is standard police practice which is why people are thinking they might be protecting the assailant Rich Aicardi's family. Meanwhile, the deal is big enough that the President of Yale weighed in to say he was "shocked" by all of this and members of the choir's families have hired the lawfirm of Gonzalez & Leigh. Matier & Ross also go on to say that even though the kids have to come back and deal with it, most of them are really scared of coming back. Now the people involved, mainly the people hosting the party. This wasn't your standard couple, they're people both with connections to the SFPD. The couple were Reno Rapagnani, a retired SFPD lawyer, and his wife, Leanna Dawydiak. Dawydiak is a decorated San Francisco Police officer and was Commissioner on the San Francisco Delinquency Prevention Commission amongst other things. In other words, she's a slightly big fish. She also ran for the Board of Supervisors in 2004. As for Rapagnani, he at various times worked on the bomb squad and was one of Art Agnos' bodyguards. He was awarded seven medals of valor. Their big claim to fame, however, was during FaijitaGate. During the investigation, the two of them went public accusing the police department of withholding certain things to investigators. At the same time, a memo was leaked to the press that made the SFPD look bad and the SFPD tried to crack down on whoever was leaking the memos, in somewhat questionable ways and accused Dawydiak and Rapagnini of leaking the memos in something someone called as a “witch hunt.” Both sued to try and clear their names, which they were. Still, what happened to them is reverberating around as the police were caught doing all sorts of things they shouldn't have done and nobody seems to care. Now all of this could mean something. All of this could mean nothing-- sometimes a coincidence is a coincidence. As we said, it's a small city. Still, we don't think this story is going to die down anytime soon
I told you the liberals are scarey. Rich kid, wannabe offspring run around like this all the time. In little groups and are more often than not, as violent as any ghetto gang. Though there is hardly anything ever done about it. A little slap on the wrist and they are free to do it again. The cops here are a joke. Selective harrassment, selective arrests and lazy good for nothings. That's the way they want it though. After all it's a liberal lovefest going on in this town where if you have money, you can do whatever you want. They would rather harrass some homeless person than arrest a bunch of privileged kids for premeditated assault on people. That's just how it is. I too want to see this place slide into the ocean. Not slow so they can get away though. Something fast so it gets them all. That's just my 'I can't wait till I'm away from here' thoughts.
"havaheart " needs to build a gigantic box live trap: put a walmart sign on the front or nieman marcus for richkids...Once its full drag it out to sea with an ocean going tug.( leave the windows open)...
Sounds like a plan to me. Might not be a good place to live if you discount the earthquakes and if the idiots were all gone.
