Several California criminal cases dropped in police scandal

 Posted on March 09, 2011 in Dealing with the Police

In the cases that have already been dropped, individuals were charged with a variety of California crimes. The dropped charges range from grand theft to felony California drug charges.

Four videos have been released that appear to contradict details that officers wrote in police reports in a number of criminal cases. Officers reportedly also testified in court inconsistently with what appears in the videos. Two of the videos show plainclothes officers making illegal entries into rooms at a San Francisco residential hotel. A third video depicts plainclothes officers kicking in a hotel door. The hotel room reportedly was occupied by a disabled man.

A fourth video, released Monday, apparently obtained from security video recorded at the Henry Hotel shows a man wearing a black coat entering the hotel. Police reported they had seen the man enter the hotel wearing a white and tan jacket. Police seized a white and tan jacket in the hotel room. Police had claimed they discovered crack cocaine and marijuana in the light colored jacket. Later, police arrested the man.

The depiction of the man in a black jacket in the security video contradicts the reports that the police saw the man in a white and tan jacket. Police had dismissed the drug charges related to the fourth video last December.

The FBI is investigating whether the eight San Francisco Police officers that were involved in the videos engaged in misconduct.

Source: KTVU San Francisco, "Eight New Cases Dropped In Wake Of Police Misconduct Scandal," 9 Mar 2011