Two San Francisco police officers were charged after being accused of flushing drugs down a hotel toilet as it allegedly would ‘take too long’ to file a report.
Officer Kevin Lyons and Officer Kevin Sien were charged with the destruction of evidence at the city’s Marriott Marquis hotel last July.
Prosecutors say that the police were called when hotel workers reported they were looking for missing property in the luggage of a guest who had failed to pay.
In doing so, the hotel workers found credit cards, IDs and suspected methamphetamine.
When the officers arrived they are accused of telling the staff that the process to file the evidence would take too long.
Prosecutors say that the officers put the credit cards and IDs in a bin to be shredded and Officer Lyons flushed the drugs down a toilet.
He was cited and released on two misdemeanor charges of evidence destruction, while Officer Sien faces one charge of evidence destruction.
A lawyer for Officer Sien, Christopher Shea, told NBC Bay Area that the alleged conduct was “less than perfect police work, but it wasn’t criminal – there’s a huge difference.”
“San Francisco residents trust the police to conduct the investigative work so my office can bring cases that keep the city safe,” said District Attorney Chesa Boudin in a statement.
“These officers undermined their own colleagues, my office, and our criminal justice system as a whole by destroying and concealing the evidence of a crime, simply because they didn’t want to take the time to do their jobs.”
The officers are set to be arraigned on 19 May.
