Cop in SF corruption trial describes big haul and purchases

Indicted SF Police Officer Edmond Robles leaves the Federal Courthouse following their arraignment, in San Francisco, CA Friday, February 28, 2014. Indicted SF Police Officer Edmond Robles leaves the Federal Courthouse following their arraignment, in San Francisco, CA Friday, February 28, 2014. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Cop in SF corruption trial describes big haul and purchases 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

The key prosecution witness in the San Francisco police corruption case, a fired officer who has admitted stealing money and drugs from suspects, testified Tuesday that two now-suspended officers joined him in a succession of thefts — one of them in an operation that also netted them Police Commission commendations.

Former Officer Reynaldo Vargas described a May 2009 incident in which he, Officer Edmond Robles and Sgt. Ian Furminger drove to Newark to assist in a federal investigation of a suspected drug dealer. After searching the home, Vargas said, he went in the backyard, saw a shovel, found a soft spot of ground and dug up more than an ounce of heroin and a bag containing $30,000 in cash.

It was the kind of haul that he, Robles and Furminger, already complicit in a series of thefts, had been hoping for, Vargas told the U.S. District Court jury in his second and final day of testimony. “Hey, you guys, I found it,” he said he told his two colleagues in the car before splitting up the money. He said he and Robles used much of theirs to buy fancy bicycles — one of which he later purchased from Robles and was displayed in court Tuesday, minus the wheels — while Furminger bought solar skylights for his home.

Later, Vargas said, Furminger, their supervisor, submitted all three officers’ names for official commendations by the Police Commission for their roles in the federal investigation. Vargas said the awards included official proclamations and ribbons for each officer’s jacket.

Falsified time sheets

Vargas worked for the Police Department from 1999 until he was fired in May 2012 for falsifying time sheets. Originally indicted along with Robles and Furminger, he pleaded guilty Oct. 21 to stealing money and property, including the gift cards, and keeping them for personal use. He also admitted stealing drugs from crime scenes and giving them to two people the officers had been trying to recruit as informants.

He agreed to cooperate in the prosecution, he said, because he was told that “based on my level of cooperation, there may be leniency” in sentencing.

Witness called a liar

Robles and Furminger have pleaded not guilty to similar charges and have been suspended without pay. Their lawyers said Vargas was a liar who was framing the two defendants in order to shorten his own sentence.

During cross-examination, defense lawyers questioned Vargas about his numerous admitted falsehoods — in police reports that omitted the thefts and sometimes misrepresented the facts, and in a 2002 investigation into his alleged use of excessive force. Furminger’s lawyer, Brian Getz, pointed out that Vargas had told the FBI last month that he committed between 10 and 20 thefts, but put the number at 30 to 50 in Tuesday’s testimony.

“You’re performing right now,” Getz, told the witness, drawing an objection from the prosecutor and an admonition from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer.

Getz also said Vargas had an incentive to tailor his testimony to the prosecution’s version of events. “My incentive is to be as truthful as possible,” Vargas replied.

The three officers worked together in the plainclothes unit at Mission Station, where Robles was Vargas’ partner for a year before transferring to a motorcycle squad in 2010. Vargas said Furminger often accompanied them on searches.

He described an atmosphere in which the three officers, while doing their jobs, rewrote the rules to suit themselves. On one occasion, Vargas said, they arrested a suspect and found some large firecrackers, and amused themselves by setting them off on the streets soon after arriving at work at 6 a.m.

“We would just light one, open the car door, drive off and hear a huge explosion” which would tear a small hole in the asphalt, Vargas said.

Sold the stolen items

He said he and Robles often took items they found during searches and sold them for cash to a well-known local “fence” who also acted as an informant.

Robles once swiped a license-plate cover from a suspect’s car, Vargas said, because it was a special plate from a California Highway Patrol charity, and the officer figured installing it on his car would get him a break on the road from the CHP. On another occasion, Vargas said, Robles found about $6,000 in cash during a drug search and handed his two colleagues their shares under the table at a nearby cafe. “We were trying to be discreet about it,” Vargas said.

The trial is in recess until √Monday.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: begelko@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @egelko