Adachi releases new video of alleged theft by cops

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi has released another video allegedly showing plainclothes police officers confiscating property that apparently was not logged as evidence, this time at a residential hotel in the Mission District.

"That is theft, that is a crime," Adachi said.

Adachi minced no words when he released the security video showing a group of plainclothes officers entering the Julian Hotel in late February with suspected drug dealer Jesus Reyes. Adachi says the video shows two officers, Ricardo Guerrero and Reynaldo Vargas, leaving with Reyes' laptop and camera bag, property which the public defender says was never turned in as evidence.

"Just because you're a police officer, you don't have the right to go into some person's room and remove someone's personal property and keep it," Adachi said.

Reyes says he never gave officers permission to search his room.

"I asked them if they got a search warrant and they just ignored me," he said.

Adachi says they are the same officers who barged into another suspect's room at the Jefferson Hotel in December. He says there they stole a duffel bag filled with an iPod, DVDs and new clothes.

On Friday, Adachi gave the latest tape to Police Chief Greg Suhr, who says both cases are under investigation.

"All of the officers involved in this have been taken out of the plainclothes assignment and some of the officers have been put on administrative duties,' Suhr said.

"Jeff has become a complete, obviously a media whore," San Francisco Police Officers Association President Gary Delagnes said.

Delagnes says he used to supervise the same officers when he was in narcotics.

"We confiscated thousands and thousands of narcotics, heroin, methamphetamine, there was never one allegation, there was never one instance where these officers were accused of taking one dollar," he said.

This is the latest in a series of videos Adachi has released showing possible police misconduct. Adachi says officers in the videos released in March show them entering suspects' rooms without search warrants. The BFI is now investigating those prior cases.

In the latest case, police say they found meth, packaging materials and scales in Reyes' room. The suspect who was arrested in the video released last week has a long rap sheet, including a dozen burglaries, assaults and kidnapping.

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SFPD, Jeff Adachi, caught on tape, crime, san francisco news, vic lee

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