4:10 PM: Forty-two more drug and robbery cases were dropped in San Francisco today, bringing the total to 57 that have been dismissed in light of a scandal involving allegations of police misconduct, prosecutors said.
The cases, about two dozen of which were formally dismissed at the same hearing in San Francisco Superior Court this afternoon, mark the continued fallout from surveillance video released by Public Defender Jeff Adachi that he said show corruption among some officers.
The four videos released since last week appear to contradict what some officers wrote in their police reports and said in court testimony about drug busts in December and January at residential hotels in the city.
Eight officers have been named in the investigation into the alleged misconduct. Because those officers were involved in numerous other drug and robbery cases, prosecutors decided to dismiss many of those cases, District Attorney George Gascon said at a news conference today.
“If we believe we don’t have the evidence to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, given the circumstances in what is going on with the officers at this point, then we’re dismissing the case,” Gascon said.
The majority of the cases involve drug possession or sales, but 11 are robbery abatement cases in which undercover officers posed as would-be victims and were approached by suspects trying to rob them, prosecutors said.
Gascon said a newly formed trial integrity unit within the district attorney’s office is continuing to review all open cases and acknowledged that more cases may be dismissed as the investigation moves forward.
After the hearing this afternoon in which many of the cases were dropped, Adachi said he expects that many more dismissals will follow.
“These officers made two or three arrests a day,” he said. “We’re talking about thousands of cases.”
On Tuesday, Adachi asked the district attorney’s office to provide a list of every arrest or incident involving the dismissed officers for the past seven years.
He also requested copies of all the police reports from drug-related crimes at the Henry Hotel and Hotel Royan, residential hotels in the city’s South of Market and Mission neighborhoods where the videos captured the alleged police misconduct.
In three of the videos, officers apparently entered residences without a warrant or consent, contradicting what was written in their police reports.
A fourth video released Monday involved a man who was arrested after officers claimed they recognized him by the white and tan jacket he was wearing as he entered the Henry Hotel. The officers said they later found the jacket with crack cocaine and marijuana inside.
However, surveillance video showed that the man was wearing a black jacket when he entered the hotel just before his arrest, and the case was dismissed on Dec. 22.
The officers named in the report are Richard Yick, Arshad Razzak, Arthur Madrid, Robert Forneris, Raul Elias, Raymond Kane, Samuel Christ and Gregory Buhagiar.
All came from the plainclothes unit at the Police Department’s Southern Station and have been reassigned to administrative duties during the investigation.
Police Chief Jeff Godown said today that his department is continuing to conduct its own internal investigation into the matter, which has prompted the indefinite suspension of plainclothes operations at the Southern Station.
Police will also be retraining about 100 plainclothes officers from the department’s other nine stations next week on search-and-seizure and undercover procedures, Godown said.
Along with the police and district attorney’s investigations, the FBI is also conducting its own investigation into the case, spokeswoman Julianne Sohn said last week.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
2:05 PM: Fifty-seven drug and robbery cases have been dropped in San Francisco in light of a scandal involving allegations of police misconduct, District Attorney George Gascon said today.
The cases, some of which will be formally dismissed in court later today, mark the continued fallout from surveillance videos released by Public Defender Jeff Adachi that he said show corruption among some officers.
The four videos released since last week appear to contradict what officers wrote in their police reports and said in court testimony about drug busts in December and January at residential hotels in the city.
Eight officers have been named in the investigation into the alleged misconduct. Because those officers were involved in numerous other drug and robbery cases, the district attorney’s office decided to dismiss many of those cases, Gascon said.
“If we believe we don’t have the evidence to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, given the circumstances in what is going on with the officers at this point, then we’re dismissing the case,” he said at a morning news conference at the Hall of Justice.
The majority of the cases involve drug possession or sales, but 11 are robbery abatement cases in which undercover officers posed as would-be victims and were approached by suspects trying to rob them, prosecutors said.
Gascon said a newly formed “trial integrity unit” within the district attorney’s office is continuing to review all open cases and acknowledged that more cases may be dismissed as the investigation moves forward.
On Tuesday, Adachi asked the district attorney’s office to provide a list of every arrest or incident involving the dismissed officers for the past seven years.
He also requested copies of all the police reports from drug-related crimes at the Henry Hotel and Hotel Royan, residential hotels in the city’s South of Market and Mission neighborhoods where the videos captured the alleged police misconduct.
In three of the videos, officers apparently entered residences without a warrant or consent, contradicting what was written in their police reports.
A fourth video released Monday involved a man who was arrested after officers claimed they recognized him by the white-and-tan jacket he was wearing as he entered the Henry Hotel. The officers said they later found the jacket with crack cocaine and marijuana inside.
However, surveillance video showed that the man was wearing a black jacket when he entered the hotel just before his arrest, and the case was dismissed on Dec. 22.
The officers named in the investigation are Gregory Buhagiar, Samuel Christ, Raymond Kane, Raul Elias, Robert Forneris, Arthur Madrid, Arshad Razzak and Richard Yick.
All came from the plainclothes unit at the Police Department’s Southern Station and have been reassigned to administrative duties during the investigation.
Gascon, who was police chief when the alleged misconduct occurred, defended the Police Department from Adachi’s accusation that the cases show a culture of corruption within the department.
“The majority of the men and women in the San Francisco Police Department are ethical, hardworking people, and they work under very difficult conditions and try to do the best they can,” he said. “I think it would be an injustice to paint a broad brush.”
Police Chief Jeff Godown said his department is continuing to conduct its own internal investigation into the matter, which has prompted the indefinite suspension of plainclothes operations at the Southern Station.
Police will also be retraining about 100 plainclothes officers from the department’s other nine stations next week on search-and-seizure and undercover procedures, Godown said.
“If I find out that there’s policies and procedures that have been broken, people will be held accountable,” he said. “The public should feel confident that we are aware of the issues at hand … and we’re working to correct that so this doesn’t happen again.”
Along with the police and district attorney’s investigations, the FBI is also conducting its own investigation into the case, spokeswoman Julianne Sohn said last week.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
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