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Jason Lai pleaded
not guilty to six misdemeanor counts of unlawful access and use
of criminal and Department of Motor Vehicle information, said
Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the San Francisco District
Attorney's Office.
The charges of unlawfully accessing the database grew out of an
investigation of a sexual assault allegation - ultimately
unproven - against Lai.
Also found during the investigation were multiple text messages
full of slurs and expletives referring to black, Indian, Latino,
Muslim, gay and transgender people, in the second scandal in a
year over slur-filled messages linked to local police.
Lai was one of several officers caught up in the latest texting
scandal, which was disclosed last month by the District
Attorney's Office. Three officers, including Lai, are no longer
with the department, and a fourth is facing possible discipline
from the Police Commission.
Prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to charge Lai
in connection with the sexual assault allegation. But former San
Francisco police Lieutenant Curtis Liu, who worked at the same
station as Lai, was charged with making a false statement in a
police report and obstructing a peace officer in connection with
that investigation, said Matt Szabo, also a spokesman for the
San Francisco District Attorney's office.
Anthony Brass, an attorney for Liu, said in a voice message that
his client, a 26-year veteran of the department, was free on
bail of $21,000.
Last year, 14 officers were caught up in a similar texting
scandal, prompting the review of thousands of cases as
prosecutors sought to make sure evidence would not be tainted by
the scandal.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Sharon
Bernstein and Peter Cooney)
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