Two San Francisco police officers are facing misdemeanor charges of destroying evidence.
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The San Francisco Police Department on Tuesday arrested officers Kevin Lyons and Kevin Sien, officials said in a press release that same day. Lyons was cited and released from San Francisco County Jail on two charges of destroying or concealing evidence, while Sien was cited and released on one.
Lyons and Sien allegedly told staff at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis last July 2 that it would take to long to catalog the multiple credit cards, IDs and suspect methamphetamine discovered in the luggage of a hotel guest locked out of his room for non-payment, according to the police announcement and court records cited by the San Francisco District Attorney's Office in a release on Tuesday.
The District Attorney's Office said the pair then "disposed of the credit cards and IDs in a shred bin" while Lyons flushed the suspected drugs down a hotel toilet.
Lyons and Sien were assigned to the Tenderloin Police Station a half-mile away, and police on Tuesday said the officers were "immediately" reassigned to non-public-facing roles "at the time of the incident." A San Francisco Superior Court judge issued arrest warrants for the men on Friday, and they voluntarily surrendered on Tuesday.
"The actions of these SFPD members violate the law and regrettably fall far short of our department’s shared values," San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said Tuesday in a release. "As sworn police officers, we have no higher obligation than to earn and maintain public trust, and we are disappointed that these incidents detract from the outstanding work done by our officers and non-sworn members every day."
Lyons and Sien will be arraigned on May 19, according to prosecutors. Boudin said in a statement that the pair "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."
Police and prosecutors also announced the arrest of Mark Williams, a retired officer who was working for the department in a part-time role when he allegedly stole a machine gun last August.
Williams was fired at the conclusion of an internal affairs investigation that determined he stole what was thought to be a missing firearm, and he turned himself in Tuesday on felony charges of unlawful possession of a machine gun, possession of a silencer and embezzlement. District attorney's officials, citing court records, said Williams confessed to having the gun and a silencer in his Napa home four days after it was reported missing.
Boudin alleged that Williams, who will also be arraigned on May 19, "breached the trust and safety of our community."
"We take the possession of illegal weapons very seriously in San Francisco and those who have weapons unlawfully will be held accountable," Boudin said in Tuesday's release. “Keeping these dangerous firearms off the streets is critical to the security of our community."
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