By Police1 Staff
SAN FRANCISCO — An officer in San Francisco potentially delayed a rape investigation due to contact with the suspect — another officer, SFGate reported.
Former Officer Curtis Liu said he contacted Officer Jason Lai as a joke after thinking the name reported by a sexual assault victim was a coincidence. However, investigators discovered Liu went on to lie to superiors about the contact and that he had made the proper notifications to start an investigation.
According to the affidavit obtained by SFGate, Lui’s actions not only delayed the investigation, but “could have assisted [Lai] in destroying and disposing of crucial evidence in this investigation.”
Lai was taken into custody after a month-long investigation into a report of a woman claiming he raped her twice in one night after drinking heavily. He was released on a $18,000 bond.
During an internal investigation, the department could not find sufficient evidence to support the rape charge, but were able to uncover other criminal evidence in Lai’s records.
Lai was later charged with two misdemeanor counts of unlawful possession of criminal history information and four misdemeanor counts of misuse of confidential Department of Motor Vehicles information.
Lui no longer works for the department. Lai was placed on unpaid administrative leave during the investigation and remains on leave after his arrest. He is scheduled to appear in court in May, according to the report.