The Medical Examiner's report following the autopsy of late SF Public Defender Jeff Adachi found that his cause of death was acute mixed drug toxicity.
Adachi was 59 when he died on February 22 in an apartment at 46 Telegraph Place, following dinner with a friend. According to the Medical Examiner's report, published Friday via NBC Bay Area, Adachi was exhibiting some odd behavior and grinding his teeth when he collapsed in the apartment's bedroom.
The woman whom he was with at the time, identified by ABC 7 as a woman named Caterina, called 911. (She would later tell a friend that Adachi had been complaining of stomach pains during dinner that night.) Paramedics who arrived at the scene administered both Narcan and epinephrine, but were unable to revive Adachi.
The Medical Examiner concluded that the cause of death was acute toxicity from a combination of cocaine and ethanol, adding the existence of a heart condition — hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Details about where and how Adachi was found — with a woman who was not his wife — were leaked early by members of the SFPD in a manner that the Board of Supervisors said was "without precedent."
Given the many times Adachi's office sat at odds with the police in criminal cases, the publicizing of those details appeared vengeful on the part of the SFPD.
Adachi was memorialized two weeks ago in a ceremony at City Hall.
Previously: City Hall Up in Arms Over Police Leaks in Adachi Investigation [SFist]