Two San Francisco cops and a retired officer had been charged this week in two legal circumstances involving medication that had been flushed down a lodge bathroom as an alternative of being collected as proof and a submachine gun that went lacking from police custody.
Officer Kevin Lyons was charged with two misdemeanor counts of destroying proof, and Officer Kevin Sien was charged with one depend. Retired Officer Mark Williams was charged with three felonies: illegal possession of a machine gun, possession of a silencer and embezzlement, San Francisco Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin stated Tuesday. The officers surrendered to authorities later that day.
In July, Lyons and Sien responded to a name on the San Francisco Marriott Marquis after staffers discovered what they thought was methamphetamine, a number of bank cards and identification playing cards within the baggage of a visitor who was locked out of their room for nonpayment, prosecutors stated.
When Lyons and Sien arrived on the lodge, they informed the employees it will take too lengthy to catalog all of the proof.
The officers then shredded the bank cards and ID playing cards, whereas Lyons flushed the suspected medication down a lodge bathroom, authorities stated. They had been reported to inside affairs the following day.
Lyons, a 21-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Division, and Sien, a five-year veteran, had been each transferred to assignments with out public contact, based on the division.
“The actions of those SFPD members violate the legislation and regrettably fall far wanting our division’s shared values,” Police Chief Invoice Scott stated in a press release. “As sworn cops, we now have no larger obligation than to earn and keep public belief, and we’re disenchanted that these incidents detract from the excellent work executed by our officers and non-sworn members daily.”
Sien’s legal professional, Christopher Shea, stated “there’s lots of daylight between sloppy police work and legal conduct.”
He accused Boudin of submitting a legal cost that he stated may have been rectified as an administrative matter inside the Police Division.
San Francisco Police Commissioner and protection legal professional John Hamasaki, who is usually vital of the Police Division, stated that officers have a tendency to chop corners or don’t reply to calls, and that the division resists implementing reforms and progressive insurance policies.
“A part of my lengthy concern with the division is that we’ve been going by means of years of reforms, we had the Division of Justice are available in [2016]. I believe we’ve made some progress so far as updating our insurance policies, our coaching, however there’s this old-fashioned, previous guard tradition that exists in SFPD,” Hamasaki stated.
In a press release, the San Francisco Police Officers Assn., the union that represents the division’s rank and file, stated Lyons and Sien are “presumed harmless till confirmed in any other case past an affordable doubt.”
“We’re accustomed to the alleged incidents and imagine that after the entire proof is disclosed, the details will present that these fees weren’t warranted,” union President Tracy McCray stated in a press release.
Each males had been cited and launched.
Within the different case, police in August had been taking inventory of MP5 submachine weapons that had been set to be destroyed once they seen one lacking. Inside affairs was notified and an investigation was launched, Scott stated, and 4 days later, Williams contacted a lieutenant within the property management division and admitted he had the gun at his residence in Napa.
Williams had retired and was working part-time with the division in August; he was fired from that place after the firearm was recovered, authorities stated. An arrest warrant was issued this month.
“We take the possession of unlawful weapons very severely in San Francisco and people who have weapons unlawfully shall be held accountable,” Boudin stated in a press release. “Holding these harmful firearms off the streets is vital to the safety of our neighborhood. Officer Williams breached the belief and security of our neighborhood when he eliminated the machine gun from SFPD’s custody.”
Williams’ legal professional, Anthony Brass, stated the firearm that Williams took from the property room was a part of a seizure and was in that room for a few years.
“The weapons had been additionally inoperable in that they lacked components which had been wanted with a view to make them able to firing,” Brass stated in an e mail. “Mr. Williams was an officer educated in particular weapons by his division and his curiosity about this method led him to make poor choices.”
Brass added that Williams returned the weapon as quickly because it was reported lacking.
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