San Francisco’s fire chief issued an extraordinary bulletin to firefighters this week, urging them to “fully” cooperate with two ongoing probes into an “alleged incident” in a North Beach restaurant last year that led to criminal charges against an off-duty firefighter. “The City Atto rney’s Office and other independent law enforcement agencies are conducting investigations into the alleged incident,” Chief Dean Crispen wrote in the March 17 bulletin. “The Department is fully cooperating with those investigations, and I encourage all of you to do so as well.” The incident the chief is referring to is summarized in a lawsuit against two firefighters and a separate $500,000 notice of legal claim against the city filed by a Marin county man in February. David Gallegioni, a part-time Marin sheriff’s deputy and ordained minister, alleges in the filings that he was attacked from behind by an off-duty city firefighter in the bar at Original Joe’s on Union Street after the Italian Heritage parade on Oct. 12. Gallegioni’s legal filings assert that he was summoned to the bar that afternoon by his daughter and found himself confronting off-duty firefighters over something she said had happened to her at the bar. Gallegioni said in both the suit and the notice of claim that members of the group wore T-shirts with SFFD logos. Among them, he said, was the second-in-command of the fire department, Patrick Rabbitt. The legal claim says that after Gallegioni demanded answers about the allegations, one firefighter talking to his family pointed to others in his group and warned: “Don’t mess with us.” The claim alleges “the statement and gesture conveyed,” that city firefighters “were invoking their affiliation” with the department “as a show of authority and intimidation.” The civil lawsuit Gallegioni filed, as well as the claim, names the alleged attacker as Eigil Qwist, a two-decade veteran who was assigned to the department’s elite rescue squad at the time. Qwist, who departmental records show has been reassigned to non-field duties this month, is now facing misdemeanor assault charges in the October incident and is due back in court in May. He has denied the allegations. The civil suit names Rabbitt as being part of the attack. But the police statement of probable cause accompanying the criminal charges designates Rabbitt as a witness. Rabbitt acknowledged to investigators being in the bar that day to watch the 49ers game, but told them he didn’t see anyone being attacked. As for Qwist, he told investigators that was “a mutual thing,” according to the probable cause statement. The attorney representing Qwist in the assault case has not responded to requests for comment. In the bulletin to the department, Crispen ended by thanking members for “what you do every day to help people and save lives. I am proud of the work you do as San Francisco’s bravest.” ...read more read less