Colleen Valles, Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Police Chief Earl Sanders and nine other policemen have been indicted in connection with a fight outside a bar involving off-duty officers.
Those indicted Thursday also included an assistant chief and his police officer son, and a deputy chief. It was not immediately clear whether Sanders and the others would turn themselves in, or be arrested.
The indictments stem from a November incident in which three officers allegedly beat two men in front of a bar just after closing time, and from the alleged cover-up that followed.
Sanders and six others each face one count of conspiracy in the alleged cover-up. The three officers allegedly involved in the brawl face assault and battery charges.
Adam Snyder, a bartender at the Blue Light bar, has said he and a friend, Jade Santoro, were walking to their cars when they were accosted by the officers, who demanded Snyder’s bag of steak fajitas. When he refused, Snyder said, he and Santoro were attacked.
Snyder’s lawyer, Eric Safire, refused to comment Friday on the indictments. Sanders was named to his post as chief by Mayor Willie Brown in July, four months before the incident. The 37-year veteran and former homicide detective took over a department that had come under harsh criticism for failing to solve enough of the city’s violent crimes.
“I do not believe that there is any conduct that merits felonious attention,” Brown told KRON-TV on Friday. “You can get anything you wish out of a grand jury, but you ought to be extraordinarily careful when you use that power, because that power can come back to bite you.”
Among those also indicted are Assistant Chief Alex Fagan and Deputy Chief David Robinson. Fagan’s son, Alex Fagan Jr., is one of the three officers accused of taking part in the assault.
The indictments follow months of reports in the San Francisco Chronicle detailing the scuffle and subsequent investigation. The newspaper reported, among other things, that Lt. Joe Dutto, who had led the investigation, was transferred Jan. 14 to the vice squad. Dutto’s reaction: “You can read between the lines.”
“A lot of people up to and including the mayor have expressed opinions that this is much ado about nothing,” Chronicle Executive Editor Phil Bronstein said Friday. “The incident itself was what it was, but the activities afterward seem to have become a bigger story.”