A San Francisco police officer who was taken off field duty four years ago after a flurry of complaints and brutality lawsuits that have cost the city more than $400,000 has been fired over charges of abusive conduct stemming from a 2007 incident, The Chronicle has learned.

Jesse Serna, 45, who was on the force for 16 years, was put on desk duty in 2007 by then-Police Chief Heather Fong after a string of incidents involving use of force, including one in 2006 that led to a $385,000 civil settlement.

Chief Greg Suhr declined to comment on Serna's July 13 dismissal by the Police Commission, saying he could not talk about a confidential personnel matter. Serna could not be reached for comment.

A Chronicle analysis of records from 1996 to 2004 showed that Serna accounted for more use of force incidents than any other San Francisco officer. He has been named in seven lawsuits, and the allegations that triggered his ouster stem from a Feb. 24, 2007, incident involving two couples whose suits are still pending.

His lawyer, Tony Brass, said the incident occurred while Serna was seeking an attempted murder suspect, with the officer making "some spur-of-the-moment decisions in a really stressful situation." Brass described his client as a decorated and "gutsy cop" and said that excessive force charges were not upheld.

Serna's story

Police reports indicate the incident began when Serna and a partner were on the Embarcadero, arresting a man who had been involved in a fight with a motorist. In his police report, Serna said he got a handcuff onto the left hand of Jamal Jackson, then 18, of San Francisco, but the suspect pulled his right hand away.

Serna reported that he punched Jackson in the back, fearing the man may have been reaching for a weapon. Jackson called out, asking if anyone had seen what Serna did. Shawn Myers, who was waiting for his car at a nearby parking lot with his wife, Sarah, responded that he had.

Myers' wife wrote in a statement that day that Serna came over and told her husband to put his hands behind his back. As her husband was forced to the ground, Sarah Myers said, "I stood there asking why were they doing this," and at that point, "I was pepper-sprayed in the face by Officer Serna."

In his report, Serna said Myers had approached in an aggressive posture with his hands in his jacket pockets, telling Serna, "F- you, shoot me, mother-." Serna reported that he had to pepper-spray Sarah Myers after she had "run toward us with her arms out as if she were going to push us or possibly attempt to free Myers."

The couple's lawsuit said Serna disparaged Shawn Myers, who is African American, after placing him in a police van, calling him a "monkey." Myers also quoted Serna as saying: "That sure is an ugly white bitch you're married to."

Attorney John Burris, whose office handled four of the suits against Serna, said his dismissal was overdue. He said two of the suits settled for a total of $55,000, while the city won one of the suits and another ended in dismissal after a hung jury.

'Vicious officer'

"I think the system worked too slowly to remove him," Burris said. "He lied in all these cases to justify his conduct. He was probably the most consistently vicious officer I have dealt with. He did not use any level of verbal skill. If a person raised any question, he was going to be physically assaulted."

The largest civil settlement involving Serna's alleged conduct was paid to Mehrdad Alemozaffar, who sued after he was allegedly roughed up, told to "stop acting like such a girl" and zapped with a stun gun during a 2006 North Beach sweep.

Alemozaffar, who was then 26 and preparing for a medical residency at Harvard, accused Serna of tackling him to the ground near Broadway and Montgomery Street, after officers sought to get Alemozaffar and two friends to leave the area and pushed them in the back.