San Francisco police opened an investigation into surveillance camera video that shows an undercover officer taking a duffel bag from a drug suspect’s room that was never booked into evidence, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The suspect, Fernando Santana, said the bag contained an iPod, a bottle of Tequila, 2 pounds of coffee, and caps and T-shirts he had received for Christmas.
Santana’s cocaine-dealing case was dismissed by a judge last week, but he hasn’t gotten the items back and police say they don’t know what became of the bag. It’s the fourth instance since March in which surveillance video released by the public defender’s office has raised embarrassing questions for the Police Department and its plainclothes operations. Earlier revelations led to the dismissal of almost 100 criminal cases and prompted the FBI to open an investigation that is still under way.