More than two dozen cases involving San Francisco police performing drug busts are being dismissed this afternoon after another video recently surfaced showing alleged misconduct among the officers, according to District Attorney George Gascon.
The footage is the latest in a string of videos released by Public Defender Jeff Adachi since March that he claims show misconduct by officers during drug busts at residential hotels around the city.
Gascon said that at 2 p.m. he will dismiss 26 cases involving plainclothes officers from the Police Department’s Mission Station performing drug busts in 2010 and earlier this year.
One of the cases dismissed took place in April last year, when police were checking the home of a boy on probation and allegedly stole property, Gascon said.
The boy’s parents, Javier and Mariette Tenorio, saw the wave of cases being dismissed and then approached Adachi, telling him that property had been stolen, according to Gascon and Tamara Barak Aparton, a spokeswoman for the public defender.
“If we have officers that are in fact stealing property, that obviously questions the credibility of everything else that they do,” Gascon said.
A total of 119 cases involving alleged misconduct by San Francisco police will have been dismissed as of this afternoon, according to the district attorney.
“The officers in these videos have the same rights as any other citizen,” the Police Department said in a statement.
“If it is determined through the investigation that any officer is proven to be dishonest, in any way, they will be disciplined,” the statement said. “This discipline will be swift and severe up to and including termination.”
Adachi will hold a news conference at 1:15 p.m. about the most recently released video, which Gascon said he received on Thursday.
Saul Sugarman, Bay City News
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