Pubdate: Fri, 28 Feb 2014
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Authors: Henry K. Lee and Jaxon Van Derbeken
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Page: A1

CORRUPTION CHARGES FOR 6 S.F. OFFICERS

Grand Jury Alleges Theft of Property From Occupants in Residential
Hotel

Five veteran San Francisco police officers and a former officer faced
federal corruption charges Thursday after a threeyear investigation
that began when the city's public defender released surveillance
videos purporting to show officers abusing and stealing from
residential hotel dwellers.

The grand jury indictments allege that after the FBI and San Francisco
police launched a probe in March 2011, they learned three of the
officers had stolen a batch of seized marijuana two years earlier. One
of those officers, Reynaldo Vargas, delivered the pot to a couple of
street informants, told them to sell it and then took a split of the
proceeds, federal prosecutors said.

The indictments were unsealed Thursday. They represent one of the
biggest scandals to hit the police force since the Fajitagate case,
which stemmed from a 2002 fight between three off-duty officers and
two men over a bag of fajitas and led to allegations of a cover-up -
but no criminal convictions.

Three of the officers charged this week face accusations directly
related to the residential hotel searches that were brought to light
by city Public Defender Jeff Adachi.

Officers Arshad Razzak, 41, Richard Yick, 36, and Raul Eric Elias, 44,
all formerly assigned to the Southern Police Station, are accused of
conspiring to threaten and intimidate residents of single-room
occupancy hotels by entering units without legal justification by
using a master key.

Razzak and Yick also are accused of falsifying police incident
reports, federal prosecutors said.

'Criminal conspiracies'

Sgt. Ian Furminger, 47, Officer Edmond Robles, 46, and Vargas, 45, of
Palm Desert, engaged in "multiple criminal conspiracies," including
dealing marijuana, stealing a $500 Apple gift card and other valuables
from suspects, and stealing money, drugs and other items that were
seized on behalf of the city, their indictment said.

Vargas, who had served 13 years on the force when he was fired in May
2012, used the Apple gift card to buy an iPhone and an iPod Nano at an
Apple Store in San Francisco in March 2009, authorities said. They
said that transaction happened three weeks before the marijuana deal
with the informants.

Elias has been with the department for 12 years, Robles for 22 years,
Yick for 13 years and Razzak for 19 years. Furminger, also a 19-year
veteran, was charged with extorting property from an individual, but
the indictment didn't provide details underlying the charge.

Suspended without pay

Vargas, who turned himself in after the indictment was unsealed,
pleaded not guilty before a federal magistrate Thursday afternoon and
was released on a $50,000 bond.

The five other defendants are expected to appear in court
Friday.

Robles and an attorney for Elias declined to comment. Lawyers for the
other three officers did not return messages. Each of the five
officers has been suspended without pay.

Vargas' lawyer, Harry Stern, said he will examine the charges closely.
He said Vargas still has an appeal of his firing pending in the courts
and is taking science courses in hopes of becoming a medical technician.

"The government gets to indict by dragging selected witnesses in front
of a secret grand jury and asking them leading questions," Stern said.

At a Hall of Justice news conference, a visibly shaken Police Chief
Greg Suhr said, "I don't know that it gets any worse than this, other
than an officer-involved serious injury or death, when the public
trust is betrayed by a sitting San Francisco or any police officer.

"This is not only a betrayal of the public's trust," he said, "but
also a betrayal of all the men and women of the San Francisco Police
Department who work hard every day to do what they can to keep San
Francisco safe."

Suhr said he would seek the "immediate termination" of any officer
found guilty of any of the charges.

At his own news conference, Adachi said more than 100 criminal cases,
most of them felonies, were dismissed after the officers' conduct
during searches came to light. He said complaints about such abuses
had streamed in for years but that "the justice system turned a blind
eye."

"It's important for San Franciscans to understand that this is not a
situation where these officers were committing mere technicalities,
but instead they were actively engaged in criminal conduct," Adachi
said. "Violating the constitutional rights, even of someone suspected
of a crime, is still a crime."

The investigation began after San Francisco District Attorney George
Gascon, who had been police chief until January 2011, referred the
matter to federal authorities due to a conflict of interest. In March
2011, Adachi had released surveillance videos from the Henry Hotel in
the South of Market neighborhood, asserting that several officers
entered rooms without legal cause.

Some of the officers who were indicted have been accused of wrongdoing
in the past, including in connection with drug searches.

Vargas was among a team of officers based at the Mission District
Station whose conduct in a February 2011 drug-related search of a
residential hotel on Julian Street brought FBI scrutiny.

Leaving room with bags

Surveillance video of the officers taken inside the Julian House Hotel
appeared to show Vargas walking out of the search target's room with a
bag of the person's possessions, which Vargas never checked into
evidence. Another officer was filmed walking out with a bag that
authorities believe contained the person's laptop computer, which
police also never submitted as evidence.

Vargas was also among several officers involved at a drugrelated
search in December 2010 at another residential hotel, the Jefferson on
Eddy Street in the Tenderloin. One of Vargas' colleagues was filmed by
a surveillance camera there taking away a bag of undisclosed
possessions, which the officers never accounted for.

In 2012, two men and a woman sued Razzak, Elias and Yick in a federal
civil rights case, alleging that the officers wrongfully arrested them
at the Henry Hotel at 106 Sixth St. The suit was settled in November
for $125,000.

This week's indictment accuses Yick of falsifying an official pay slip
that purportedly documented a payment to an informant for providing
information that led to the arrest of one of the two men.

The men's attorney, John Burris, said Thursday that while the hotel
residents were struggling financially, they deserved protection
because "their houses are sacred to them." Instead, he said, officers
treated them in a way that was "scandalous, outrageous and
disrespectful."
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