Five San Francisco police officers and a former officer are under federal indictment for civil rights and other corruption violations, with two charged with stealing money and drugs seized as part of investigations.
The U.S. Attorney's Office announced the indictments on Thursday.
The charges are tied to a series of raids on hotels back in 2011, where the officers are accused of threatening hotel guests without legal justification.
Two of the current officers and a former officer are charged with distributing controlled substances along with stealing money, drugs, computers, electronic devices and gift cards from suspects.
The officers, based out of the department’s Mission Station, were identified as Sergeant Ian Furminger, 47, of Pleasant Hill; Officer Edmond Robles, 46, of Danville; and Reynaldo Vargas, 45, of Palm Desert, California.
The indictment [PDF] accuses the Mission Station officers of engaging “in multiple criminal conspiracies, namely, to distribute controlled substances; to steal money and other valuable items, such as computers, electronic devices, and gift cards, from suspects; and to steal money, drugs and other valuable items that were seized on behalf of the City of San Francisco.”
Separately, three of the officers are charged with civil rights violations for allegedly entering single occupancy hotel rooms and intimidating their occupants.
Those officers, based out of the department’s Southern Station, have been identified as Officer Arshad Razzak, 41, of San Francisco; Officer Richard Yick, 37, of San Francisco; and Officer Raul Eric Elias, 44, of San Mateo. According to the indictment [PDF], they allegedly “conspired to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate occupants of single room occupancy hotel rooms by entering hotel rooms without legal justification.”
Prosecutors say those allegations are based on surveillance footage released by the city's public defender, Jeff Adachi, in 2011.
All six face prison time if convicted.
San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr will address the federal indictments that were handed out today at a press conference scheduled for 11:45 a.m
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
