‘The San Francisco district attorney’s office on Friday dropped all charges against three San Francisco sheriff’s deputies accused of forcing inmates to fight for their entertainment.
The San Francisco district attorney, George Gascón, filed charges against deputies Scott Neu, Eugene Jones, and Clifford Chiba in March 2016, a year after the city’s public defender brought forth allegations of an inmate “fight club”.
But prosecutors claim they were forced to dismiss the charges this week because the same sheriff’s department that employed the accused mishandled the investigation and destroyed evidence, including by smashing a lead investigator’s laptop with a hammer because it had gotten a virus.
The dismissal of charges against the deputies once again raised questions over the effectiveness of investigations when law enforcement agencies investigate their own.
“This case illustrates why agencies shouldn’t be tasked with investigating themselves,” said Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the district attorney.’
