Unfortunately, Hongisto had the papers confiscated. The top cop's officers Gary Delagnes and Tom Yuen rounded up about 2,000 copies (out of a print run of 40,000) from news racks around town in the wee hours of the morning. A week later, Hongisto was fired. He appeared on television demanding that he be reinstated. "I don't wanna be supervisor. I don't want to be assessor. I want to be the chief of police!" Hongisto declared, referring to two positions he'd previously held in City government. Hongisto denied responsibility and said he did not order the seizure of the papers. He claimed he told one of the officers only that he didn't want other cops to see the article. The mayor, the police commission, and eventually a court of law saw things differently. In September, 1994 the jury in a case brought by Bay Times publisher Kim Corsaro ruled that Hongisto had indeed violated the constitutional rights of the newspaper. The ruling upheld free speech and freedom of the press, and affirmed that the press must be able to report on the police without fear of police reprisal.

A separate court decision stemming from the series of events upheld the public's right to demonstrate without fear of arrest. In Collins v. Jordan et al., Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals authored an opinion that stated Hongisto was not entitled to qualified immunity when he banned all protests.