SF officer accused of false testimony had previous reprimand

A San Francisco police officer, whose testimony last week about a search and arrest in December was undermined by video evidence, had been reprimanded by Chief Greg Suhr in October for wrongfully arresting a woman after refusing to provide her with a Spanish-speaking interpreter. Buckley testified in federal court May 12 about an incident in which he and other officers saw a man named Brandon Simpson walking quickly away from them, his hands tucked into his waistband, after police broke up an illegal dice game on a Tenderloin street corner Dec. 1. The video prompted federal prosecutors to dismiss the charges, and led to a warning from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer that courts “must not allow a conviction based on perjured testimony.” The Police Department has two officers named Nicholas Buckley, but a badge number provided by the city attorney’s office confirmed that the same officer was involved in both incidents. In a report in September, the city’s Office of Citizen Complaints found that the officers had arrested Mejia “without cause” and had also violated department policies requiring them to provide interpretive services that are needed by people they question. San Francisco Police Commission guidelines for officer misconduct recommend that officers who arrest someone without probable cause should be fined, suspended or fired.