San Francisco’s police chief, Bill Scott, sought to justify a controversial raid of a journalist’s home by saying police were investigating reporter Bryan Carmody as an “active participant” in a crime for leaking a police report about the death of Public Defender Jeff Adachi earlier this year.

“We do believe that Mr. Carmody committed a crime and that’s what we are investigating,” Scott said in a news conference Tuesday.

Earlier this month, San Francisco police raided Carmody’s home after the freelance video reporter gave local television stations a copy of a police report into Adachi’s sudden death. The raid came after police asked Carmody for his source on the police report and he declined to provide it.

Local media andfreedom of the press groups condemned the raid, with city District Attorney George Gascón joining the chorus of concerned voices Monday, saying he “can’t imagine a situation in which a search warrant would be appropriate.”

In justifying the search Tuesday, Scott said that “while we fully respect the First Amendment rights of journalists” the police had “probable cause” and that crimes “did occur.”

The police chief said investigators believe Carmody was “a suspect in a criminal conspiracy to steal the confidential report,” and their probe into Carmody and police department employees is ongoing. Scott said investigators view Carmody as a “possible co-conspirator in this theft rather than a passive recipient of a stolen document.”

“I’m speechless,” Carmody told the San Francisco Chronicle of the new allegation Tuesday. “I received a copy of the thing,” he added, noting he did not conspire to steal or pay for the report.

The criminal investigation into Carmody is “an outrageous abuse of police power,” said Press Freedom Defense Fund Director James Risen.

“It is dangerous to make [news] reporting a crime, and journalists criminals,” Risen told HuffPost Tuesday. “All American journalists should stand with Bryan Carmody.”